Trotter making plans for an even better second half of the season

Jeremiah Trotter Jr. is looking for more in the season's second half.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Thu Oct 12 12:30:13 GMT-04:00 2023

CLEMSON – Jeremiah Trotter has fashioned a solid first half of the season, and now he wants to use the open date to prepare for an even better second half.

Trotter, the Tigers’ middle linebacker, leads a Clemson defense that sits seventh nationally in total defense, giving up just 261 yards per game. Trotter has 37 total tackles to lead the defense, seven ahead of fellow linebacker Barrett Carter.

Clemson defeated Wake Forest 17-12 last week on Homecoming, is off this week, and travels to Miami next weekend. Trotter recapped the first half of the season during a media session earlier this week.

“It definitely feels really good to just be able to go out there and know you see the stuff that you’re watching on film and that you’ve been practicing all week,” Trotter said. “Just being able to know it’s time to do my job, make sure 11 guys are doing our jobs. I feel like it happened out there, which resulted in a lot of success.

“I’m really happy with our team and where we’re at right now. You know it didn’t go as planned with some of the losses we had earlier. But we just kept playing. It’s still a one game season for us, and it doesn’t matter where we’re at record-wise. We always still have the same mindset of trying to win every single game, playing hard, and having the same preparation we would have even if we were undefeated.”

Trotter then detailed his plans for the open date.

“Just make sure I take care of my body, resting, getting a lot more treatment,” he said. “We should have a lot more time. And then also make sure I get in the film room because with the extra time and having a bye week, we got a lot more time to be able to study our opponent. We got to make sure to stay on top of that and hopefully be even more prepared coming in.”

Trotter was called for roughing the passer during the win over Wake – replays showed it was likely a bad call – and he said he didn’t say anything to the officials because the fans had his back.

“I’m just a player. The ref said it was roughing the passer, so I got to keep playing. Move on. Either way, I let the fans have their own opinion on that,” Trotter said. “I just kept playing and tried to keep him out of the end zone. We ended up holding him to a field goal. Just making sure that we just keep going no matter what happens.”

Saturday was also Breast Cancer Awareness Day, a day that is special to Trotter, whose mother passed away from breast cancer last February.

“With the way breast cancer affected my family, you know there’s a different mentality,” he said. “I just try to make sure I go out there and play hard. At the same time, I just try to make sure I focus on the game and make sure I am in the right mentality and in the right state of mind because of the way that breast cancer has affected my life personally.”