Defending Unbalanced Counter: A lesson from the Clemson Tigers
Florida State chose to attack Clemson's defense with an unbalanced Counter scheme, which Wes Goodwin and the Tigers' defense were ready for. Plus a look at feed and force movement in line stunts.
Dabo Sweeny does things his way at Clemson, which is why the Tigers have become entrenched at the top of the ACC and are constantly in play for the College Football Playoffs. There is consistency within the program. The offense has stagnated, but hiring Garrett Riley (Lincoln’s brother) should shift the needle in the right direction.
Defensively, Clemson has been at the forefront of college football. Now, back in Oklahoma as the head coach, Brent Venables had been rooted as the defensive coordinator for a decade. He had turned down plenty of overtures to be a head coach at other programs. He was well-paid at Clemson, making north of $2.5 million. The opportunity to take over Oklahoma after the departure of Lincoln Riley to USC was too much to pass up.
Dabo stayed within the program and tabbed the unknown (at the time) Wes Goodwin as the DC. Outside of the program, Goodwin was an unfamiliar commodity who had never been a full-time assistant until the move to coordinator. At 36, Goodwin was handed the reigns to one of the best defensive programs in the country.
This looked like a very odd hire on paper and to the outside world, but Goodwin was not novel to anyone at Clemson. He had risen through the off-field ranks since joining the program as a graduate assistant (GA) in 2009. After the 2014 campaign, Sweeny brought his name up to Bruce Arians, who had just taken over the Arizona Cardinals. Goodwin became Arians' right-hand man and worked closely with the secondary,
“He had a great rapport with our secondary. What all players want to know is how they can get better and if you can make them better. Wes knows how to make them better, and he can talk the language.” - via ESPN
Arians would leave his post due to health concerns, and Goodwin would find himself back in Clemson working alongside Venables. For most of his career, he had been the guy behind the guy, and Dabo, along with everyone else, knew he was ready to lead the whole unit.
Many pundits thought the Tigers would take a step back defensively. Like Sweeny, who had only been a WR coach before leading Clemson, Goodwin was a non-traditional hire with tremendous success.
In his first year leading the entire defensive unit, Clemson finished 10-3 and settled into the top 10 in DFEI. There will always be an adjustment period when a celebrated coach creates a large vacuum. Goodwin navigated that seamlessly, found his barring, and got Clemson to finish as a top-10 defense.
In ‘23, the unit was even better, finishing 4th in DFEI. More impressively, the Tigers finished both years with Goodwin at the helm in the top five in Busted Drives, the percentage of opponent drives that gained zero or negative yards (BCFToys). Not bad for someone who hadn’t called a play.
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