Players return to their teams for one main reason: to improve from the previous season. The Clemson Tigers were no exception during this offseason.
The Tigers returned 80% of last season’s production, which was the most in the FBS last season. It’s almost an anomaly of a number, and doesn’t happen often in college football with NIL and the transfer portal.
Safety Tyler Venables, who enters his sixth season with the team, believes it’s special.
“I think what we have here is rare,” Venables said on Monday. “The retention that we have, Coach Swinney talks about it a lot, and just by looking at it, look at most Power 4 teams and whatnot, look at the turnover rates, look at the retention, and then look at ours. I think that says something about this place. I think it says something about these guys and these players here and these coaches here.”
The program’s retention comes from many different things, with a factor being Clemson reaching the College Football Playoff for the first time since the 2020-21 season. Though the team lost in the first round to the Texas Longhorns, the team saw its potential and is now trying to prevent the feeling of disappointment from happening again.
“I think it’s more of an awareness of, especially where we got last year, just getting to the playoffs and getting to that stage and then losing that opportunity was disappointing for a lot of guys, to be honest with you, and they just don’t want that feeling again,” Venables said.
The defensive line, who, through the leadership of Peter Woods, DeMonte Capehart and T.J. Parker began showing up to the weight room earlier than their call time. The line would show up 45 minutes earlier to lift, chasing extra reps that would then influence the rest of the defense.
“And then that trickled into everything else, into the linebackers, into the safeties and the corners and the nickels,” Venables said. “We’ve all done a really good job, I believe, of gelling together and straining to do more because when you look at it, and you’re chasing perfection, you’re never going to get there (and) it’s never enough.”
For younger players, a big loss could tend to eat them up internally. However, with an experienced team with veteran returners, Venables believes that the idea of chasing perfection is approached differently.
“A lot of young guys can be overwhelmed in that process,” he said. “Once you get older, you realize ‘that’s what keeps me going. That’s what drives me to wake up everyday to prove myself.’ So, we have a lot of good guys who are committed to chasing perfection.”
The player’s loyalty to the program says a lot about the quality of players in the room. It comes to the credit of head coach Dabo Swinney, who has had a tendency to stick close to his beliefs and believe in a year-by-year progression.
“A lot of guys could have left, whether that was the league or they could’ve transferred, quite frankly,” Venables said, “but guys have really seen what could be here, from last year to now, and they’ve bought into it and they believe in it and they’re committed to it. That’s brought an incredible amount of energy, of belief and appreciation for that commitment by older guys who decided to come back, and everybody appreciates that.”
Add in the addition of newly-hired defensive coordinator Tom Allen, who has brought an extra level of effort to the group, the defense, especially, looks to make a statement in Clemson’s first game of the season, where it will face No. 9 LSU at Memorial Stadium.
For Venables, however, the experience and the agony give the group a deeper hunger to chase the glory.
“The longer you play it, the more reps you get at it [and] the better off that you’re going to be,” Venables said. “So I believe we have an older, more experienced defense who was pretty scarred up last season, to be honest with you, in a multitude of games.”
“There’s an edge, there’s a hunger to redeem themselves, so it’s going to be exciting to watch.”
