Clemson’s perception has undoubtedly changed. One side of the ball has noticed and is ready to set the record straight.
That’s precisely the approach the Clemson defense took at Thursday’s ACC Media Kickoff session. The unit ranked in the top ten in total defense to end the 2023 season.
Despite this, the team failed to win ten games for the first time in over a decade. Nationally, the program’s status as a title contender has slowly fallen off.
Barrett Carter is fed up with the gossip. He informed the media in attendance that he was prepared to shift the narrative. “We can see everything. “We keep receipts,” Carter explained. “We’re tired of the disrespect. We know we’ve had males in the past several years, and we’ve fallen short of expectations, so we’re weary of being disrespected. So it’s time for us to show what Clemson is all about and put the Tigers back to the top.”
How does a defense that was ultimately successful on its side of the ball continue to grow?
If you ask Carter, it is all about cleaning up the little things that will make the most significant difference
We were good last year,” Carter said. “There was a lot of meat on the bone. With all the mental errors and communication mistakes, we should have been higher than that. That’s the thing we all know. We have to earn it every day, and I’m excited to see what we do this year.”
Carter isn’t the only one who shares high emotions about what this defense will be able to accomplish.
RJ Mickens also elected to return to Clemson for his senior year. Last week, Wes Goodwin stated that Clemson needs to return to dynasty mode, and Mickens told TigerNet that the Tigers needed to resume playing gritty football. “I don’t know if hungry is the right word,” Mickens told TigerNet. “We’re starving. I’m excited to see how much work is being done. We need to regain our grit. We need to rediscover the guts that allowed us to win with just a field goal. We were in the top ten in the country for defense, but it wasn’t good enough.”
