A few of the important themes from today's chats with coaches and players:
-- Brent Venables stopped by to meet with us for a few minutes before heading to his eighth-grade son's football game. He was in good spirits. Even with D.J. Reader's leave of absence, he seems more concerned about inside linebacker than defensive tackle. He said there are a lot of guys fired up to get playing time now on the interior defensive line.
"We want everybody to feel like they have a real chance to be the starter," he said.
-- Kendall Joseph was out there today moving around well, but still didn't take part in any contact. Venables is hopeful he'll be full speed tomorrow.
-- Continued rave reviews on Ryan Carter and Adrian Baker. Venables said they had excellent camps and have been very consistent.
-- I asked Venables for his big-picture appraisal of Albert Huggins' progress.
"I would say in the last week we've seen some real noticeable improvement. Getting a little bit more comfortable, playing a little bit faster, making a few more plays. So that's been very encouraging. Albert's going to do just fine. Albert's going to be a good player."
-- Visited with Jeff Scott, and like the rest of the staff he's encouraged about this offensive line. Loves the cohesion of the starting five. Loves the fact that they have five backups who they believe can play right now. He said you'd have to go back a long way at Clemson to recall the last time they had 10 guys they could count on up front.
-- The staff is making a very prominent reminder of the 2011 survival of Wofford. The crowd was booing at halftime with the score tied at 21, the Tigers were up just a point after three quarters, and the team that went on to win the ACC was fortunate to get out of Death Valley alive with a 35-27 victory. Scott said he's reminded his players that eight of the 11 guys on offense who started that day made an NFL roster.
I asked Scott if he remembered the booing. He said he did, and in fact he and Chad Morris talked about it the other night during a phone conversation.
-- Scott was asked about Kelly Bryant's role in the opener. His response: "That's a good question for Coach Swinney."
They'd love to be able to get some work for both Nick Schuessler and Bryant, but as he pointed out they had to ride Tajh Boyd the whole way in 2011 against the Terriers.
-- Scott said the shift to more specific game-planning has helped Deon Cain, who had some struggles during camp as the entire playbook was thrown at him.
"Now that we're kind of starting over with our install for this game, I think that's helping him. I've seen this week he's able to play a little bit faster because he knows what he's doing."
Scott had some interesting insights about how he and the offensive staff handle decorated freshmen such as Cain and Ray-Ray McCloud.
"With those talented guys, you know where they're going to be in a year or two. So it's really important right now that you coach them extremely hard and put them through that pressure cooker. So when those guys get a little bit older, it's a little bit easier for them. There's kind of a break-in process that has to go on. And typically a freshman doesn't know how intense and how serious a college game day is. So we've got to kind of put them in that situation in practice and make them feel a little bit of pressure in practice. But at the same time, they are just learning. They're freshmen. You don't want to lose their confidence and all that.
"So there is a fine line. You kind of pick and choose your spots. But you're challenging them one minute, and then another minute you're really praising them and helping them whenever they do something right. But it's definitely back and forth. It's a struggle for those guys. They're getting put through it right now. And then you put school on top of it, and they're trying to figure out how to get over here for weights in the morning, how to get to class, how to get back over here in time for the meetings. Before they even get to the practice field, they've got a lot of other things they're trying to figure out because it's the first time they've ever done it."
-- Scott said Jordan Leggett has had a really good August. Said he's come a long way. You get the sense that the cautious optimism about this guy is turning into just optimism.
-- Cris asked Carlos Watkins if he thinks Reader will return. He said, with conviction: "Most definitely." Watkins said he has no idea when Reader will return.
-- T.J. Green told us he has pulled almost exclusive first-team reps at free safety since spring. He says he ran a 4.39 this summer.
Hope everyone out there is doing well. This was the last media availability until Monday of game week, but we have plenty of good stuff coming over the next three days.
-- Brent Venables stopped by to meet with us for a few minutes before heading to his eighth-grade son's football game. He was in good spirits. Even with D.J. Reader's leave of absence, he seems more concerned about inside linebacker than defensive tackle. He said there are a lot of guys fired up to get playing time now on the interior defensive line.
"We want everybody to feel like they have a real chance to be the starter," he said.
-- Kendall Joseph was out there today moving around well, but still didn't take part in any contact. Venables is hopeful he'll be full speed tomorrow.
-- Continued rave reviews on Ryan Carter and Adrian Baker. Venables said they had excellent camps and have been very consistent.
-- I asked Venables for his big-picture appraisal of Albert Huggins' progress.
"I would say in the last week we've seen some real noticeable improvement. Getting a little bit more comfortable, playing a little bit faster, making a few more plays. So that's been very encouraging. Albert's going to do just fine. Albert's going to be a good player."
-- Visited with Jeff Scott, and like the rest of the staff he's encouraged about this offensive line. Loves the cohesion of the starting five. Loves the fact that they have five backups who they believe can play right now. He said you'd have to go back a long way at Clemson to recall the last time they had 10 guys they could count on up front.
-- The staff is making a very prominent reminder of the 2011 survival of Wofford. The crowd was booing at halftime with the score tied at 21, the Tigers were up just a point after three quarters, and the team that went on to win the ACC was fortunate to get out of Death Valley alive with a 35-27 victory. Scott said he's reminded his players that eight of the 11 guys on offense who started that day made an NFL roster.
I asked Scott if he remembered the booing. He said he did, and in fact he and Chad Morris talked about it the other night during a phone conversation.
-- Scott was asked about Kelly Bryant's role in the opener. His response: "That's a good question for Coach Swinney."
They'd love to be able to get some work for both Nick Schuessler and Bryant, but as he pointed out they had to ride Tajh Boyd the whole way in 2011 against the Terriers.
-- Scott said the shift to more specific game-planning has helped Deon Cain, who had some struggles during camp as the entire playbook was thrown at him.
"Now that we're kind of starting over with our install for this game, I think that's helping him. I've seen this week he's able to play a little bit faster because he knows what he's doing."
Scott had some interesting insights about how he and the offensive staff handle decorated freshmen such as Cain and Ray-Ray McCloud.
"With those talented guys, you know where they're going to be in a year or two. So it's really important right now that you coach them extremely hard and put them through that pressure cooker. So when those guys get a little bit older, it's a little bit easier for them. There's kind of a break-in process that has to go on. And typically a freshman doesn't know how intense and how serious a college game day is. So we've got to kind of put them in that situation in practice and make them feel a little bit of pressure in practice. But at the same time, they are just learning. They're freshmen. You don't want to lose their confidence and all that.
"So there is a fine line. You kind of pick and choose your spots. But you're challenging them one minute, and then another minute you're really praising them and helping them whenever they do something right. But it's definitely back and forth. It's a struggle for those guys. They're getting put through it right now. And then you put school on top of it, and they're trying to figure out how to get over here for weights in the morning, how to get to class, how to get back over here in time for the meetings. Before they even get to the practice field, they've got a lot of other things they're trying to figure out because it's the first time they've ever done it."
-- Scott said Jordan Leggett has had a really good August. Said he's come a long way. You get the sense that the cautious optimism about this guy is turning into just optimism.
-- Cris asked Carlos Watkins if he thinks Reader will return. He said, with conviction: "Most definitely." Watkins said he has no idea when Reader will return.
-- T.J. Green told us he has pulled almost exclusive first-team reps at free safety since spring. He says he ran a 4.39 this summer.
Hope everyone out there is doing well. This was the last media availability until Monday of game week, but we have plenty of good stuff coming over the next three days.
