Gaddis Is Fighting Back |
To say CJ Gaddis has bounced around in his Clemson career would be putting it lightly. In his first year, he was a scout team quarterback and played for the Clemson baseball team. In his second year, he was moved to cornerback and gave up baseball. This season Gaddis appeared to find his home at cat safety.
Gaddis was named the starter at the beginning of the year. Gaddis struggled with assignments, and everything culminated in the loss to Wake Forest. Gaddis was demoted to second team behind redshirt freshman Michael Hamlin. “I have to be a grown man about it. I got benched. I wasn’t producing. They said they expected a lot more out of me, and I expect a lot more out of myself. It was not a first year thing or anything, I just have to go make plays,” said Gaddis. One area where Gaddis has been spending more time is in the film room. On Tuesday, defensive coordinator Vic Koenning said as he was leaving Monday he told Gaddis to cut the light off when he left. “You have to study film at this level. Especially, when you don’t know a position like that. You have to spend time, that is what good players do, that is what great players do, and I want to be great.” After bouncing around, Gaddis appears to be settling in at cat safety. “Yeah, actually I do like safety. I like corner or wherever. Safety is my home right now, and I love playing it.” Gaddis will likely be the nickel back on Saturday, when the Tigers use a nickel formation. The task of stopping 6-6 Greg Carr could fall to Gaddis. Wednesday evening Gaddis shared his thoughts on how to slow down the talented freshman. “Sort of like what we did with Calvin Johnson. You keep somebody over the top of him. You have to deplete his strength as much as you can, and keep the deep ball from him as much as you can. Great athletes like him are gonna make plays,” said Gaddis.
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