X's & O's: Venables hired to bring new twists, fresh teaching to a familiar theme

Dabo Swinney was never looking to re-invent the wheel.

Whatever proved to be the tipping point in Swinney’s decision to replace Kevin Steele, it clearly was not a desire for a wholesale, comprehensive scheme change.

Clemson’s new defense, as it was described both by Swinney and new defensive coordinator Brent Venables on Friday, will carry on the base principles from the Tigers’ defense of the past three seasons.

“I think we have a great foundation,” said Swinney. “I wanted to find a guy who could come in here and mesh easily and blend that, and build upon the success that we’ve had.

“I wanted to be a 4-3, attacking-type defense, which is what we’ve been. I certainly didn’t want to deviate from that. I think we’ve got a great foundation in place. We’ve played really good defense here for the past four years. We were inconsistent this year, but the change that was made really wasn’t about that, and we’ve discussed that.”

So what will a Venables-coached Clemson defense look like?

“We’ll base out of a 4-3,” Venables said. “Our foundation will have gap integrity, stop the run, put pressure on the quarterback, and be unpredictable. We’ll give them different looks. We’re going to put a lot of pressure. We’re an aggressive defense.

“We won’t be passive, but at the same time, you can’t blitz to stop people. You’ve got to have a foundation – a foundation of fundamentals, playing with technique and great effort and being tough-minded, playing with intelligence.”

Swinney suggested that as important as what Venables will teach will be how he goes about teaching it.

“More important was how he will teach it, and his personality to go along with it, and the type of chemistry that we’re going to have,” Swinney said. “And then his development of players has been impressive. You’ve got to have good players, and he’s had good players. But you’ve got to coach ‘em up, too.”

As he got to know Venables through a series of phone conversations and then during his in-person visit last weekend, Swinney described a meeting of minds similar to what he experienced a year ago with offensive coordinator Chad Morris.

“I knew the direction that I wanted to go, and the people that I was talking to, that’s what their background was,” Swinney said. “I feel like our personnel is built to base out of the 4-3. That’s where it starts. And that’s what’s already in place here.

“That’s one of the things we talked about when we met, and as we went though a lot of the football stuff on the board, I got more and more excited…He really brought everything to the table that I was looking for from a football knowledge standpoint, and schematically.”

Venables said that one of his objectives will be to “create an atmosphere and culture of being physically tougher than your opponent.”

“That’s not just the inside guys on the defensive line,” he explained. “Corners have to be physical, and safeties, and you backers have to be physical. It has to be a shared philosophy, creating that toughness – mental toughness and physical toughness, and playing with incredible effort.”

Swinney said another consideration was Venables’ experience both in defending high-powered, highly-skilled spread offenses led by mobile quarterbacks and in defending options attacks like Georgia Tech’s.

“He has some unique experience defending spread teams with really athletic quarterbacks,” Swinney said. “Obviously, in the league that he’s coming from, it’s a little different animal in college football right now, with some of the quarterbacks that they’ve had to defend, and some of the skilled receivers and backs they’ve had to defend. That’s exciting to me

“Brent also has a little bit of a background in playing against the option. That’s something important, and is something that we discussed. Because obviously we have that element in this league.”

Swinney said he also expects Venables to employ some defensive wrinkles unfamiliar to teams in the ACC.

“I do think that he’s going to bring some really unique things,” said Swinney. “Hopefully we’ll have some different things within our defensive system, just like we have in our offensive system, that will be a little fresh and unique to this league. That part of it really excites me.”