Clemson's defense continues to shine

Xavier Thomas with the early sack.

by Nikki Hood - Staff Writer - Sun Sep 19 08:00:05 GMT-04:00 2021

CLEMSON – Super senior or Superman?

Senior James Skalski is in his sixth year in the Clemson program, and he epitomizes everything that the Tigers’ defense stands for.

Skalski made two plays to stop Georgia Tech on the goal line and seal the 14-8 victory Saturday night in Memorial Stadium. Defensive coordinator Brent Venables said Skalski is everything you want in a linebacker and a player.

“What can you say? It's funny. He was on the sideline like, 'I haven't made a play all night.' I just told him to keep playing hard,” Venables said of Skalski. “I thought he played an amazing game. The game is slow for him because of all the preparation that he puts into it week in and week out. He takes nothing for granted, embraces and seeks out the competitiveness of every play, and wanting to be on the right side of it. It's incredible will, heart, toughness. It just makes you so proud. He's an incredible young guy. He really epitomizes what that whole group displayed tonight. It was fun to watch them keep swinging, keep fighting, keep competing and finding a way.”

Sophomore defensive lineman Bryan Bresee said Skalski is successful because he’s always watching film and preparing for the next opponent.

“Skalski is an old man, so I don't know how many classes he has left, so he's always able to be in the facility watching film,” Bresee said of his teammate. “He takes a lot of pride in that. He brings the young backers up with him, watching film. He just stays on top of everything. Whenever you're in the facility, you can find him in the film room. He's a great leader to everyone on the field. He knows what everyone is doing. He just commands the film. It's so much fun playing with him because of that. He's a great leader on defense.”

The Yellow Jackets made two trips to the red zone in the final three minutes of the game, but Bresee said at no point did he and his teammates think Georgia Tech was going to score.

“That's just the heart of the defense,” Bresee said. “That's just kind of what we do. We don't expect them to score even if they're in the red zone. We bow our necks and do whatever we can to keep them out. Skalski made a couple of really good plays. That's just what he does. He's such a good leader and so good at preparing himself for big moments like that that he almost knows what's going to come and what's going to happen. He did a great job.”

Keeping Georgia Tech out of the endzone means that Clemson hasn’t allowed an offensive touchdown in the first three games of the season, something that hasn’t been done since 1950.

“He gave us some props for it tonight, and Coach Swinney did as well because it's been since 1950 that it's happened,” Bresee said. “They'll give us our little congratulations tonight, and then tomorrow it's on to the next game - NC State. They were stoked about how we played tonight. Like I said, there's always room for improvement. Just a really good effort by the defense.”