Mickens says “boom or bust” Clemson defense needs to be more consistent

RJ Mickens has been in on a number of plays made by the Clemson defense, but he says the group has to get more consistent down the stretch.

Ariana Pensy - Correspondent - Thursday, October 31 2024

CLEMSON - So many funky things can happen in the transfer portal era. One of those is playing a quarterback in his seventh season and on his third college team.

That will be the case for graduate safety R.J. Mickens and Clemson when they face Louisville this coming Saturday (7:30 p.m. / ESPN).

Mickens and the Tigers will be facing Cardinals redshirt senior quarterback Tyler Shough. Shough spent his first three seasons with the Oregon Ducks before transferring to Texas Tech for another three seasons. Now, he is in his first year with Louisville. Clemson has never played against Shough, but Mickens does have one previous encounter with him.

“They got a really experienced quarterback. It’s his seventh year. He actually hosted me on a visit back in high school. Whenever I was in high school, he was at Oregon and I think he was Class of 2018 coming out of high school,” Mickens said. “So, he’s pretty old, has a lot of experience, really good player, makes good decisions with the football and they got really good receivers too, so it’s going to be really challenging.”

Shough is second in the ACC and fourth in the NCAA in passing touchdowns with 20, and in the top 10 in the NCAA in passing yards with 2,348 yards. He does make some ill-advised throws, as he is tied for No. 6 in the NCAA in interceptions with five. All of those have come in the past five games, including two in Louisville's narrow win against Boston College.

So, he provides a lot of opportunities for the Clemson defense. At the same time, he can create big plays, especially when throwing to redshirt senior receiver Ja’Corey Brooks. Brooks leads the ACC in receiving yards (799) and receiving touchdowns (eight). The Tiger defense has a tendency to give up big plays, and that is something that could cost them going against the Cardinals.

“We just got to be more consistent. I feel like we’re kind of boom or bust … We’re really good sometimes, and there’ll be a big play we give up, just stupid stuff. So, really, everyone taking ownership and accountability and being locked in every play. There’s still so much room for us to go, and if we really want to win this whole thing, we got to be more detailed and more precise (because) things like that can cost us on the highest level against good offenses,” Mickens said. “Whenever you go against elite offenses, you really got to be on point and there’s just some things that will cost us that we got to clean up.

“But, I still think we are a very elite defense. We still got some room to grow and some depth to develop and from the first group, we got to clean up that boom or bust thing. But, I think we’re still an elite defense.”