Clemson Tigers Standout LB Looking For Defense to 'Do Our Job'

The Clemson Tigers are looking to get back on track this weekend in ACC play, and the team’s defense will look to get back to the basics. 

When speaking to the media on Wednesday afternoon, linebacker Sammy Brown knows that the unit can be better; it was the inability to get off the field during key plays that saw the defense’s demise.  

In the team’s loss to Georgia Tech this past weekend, Clemson gave up a 14-play, 90-yard touchdown drive to begin the fourth quarter that defensive coordinator Tom Allen and the defense were frustrated with. 

“It's tough when you're out there for, I don't know how many plays that drive was, but it is really frustrating,” Brown said, “and in the middle of it you’re like ‘we got to get a stop’, we just got to keep playing.”

Like many other players have said on the team, it’s the small, minute details that the team needs to focus on to get the necessary stops. Brown agrees. 

“We just gotta be technically sound on defense,” the linebacker said. “We gotta figure gaps right. Just do our job.”

While a lot of the outside noise is on Clemson, the Commerce, Georgia, native won’t let the media affect him or the team. He knows that the team needs to get better, leaving the room for mistakes very slim. If the Tigers want to go to the ACC Championship, they will most likely need to win out to secure their only chance of making the College Football Playoff. 

Brown says that stacking days of success will be the team’s way into stringing together wins. 

“There's no pressure from that,” he said. “We at the end of the day, we have to get better. And it starts in practice. It starts today, on Wednesday practice, and we had a good practice yesterday. But how can we build off of yesterday? How can you stack days to keep getting better and just trying to live our lives from the inside out, not worry about what everybody on the outside is saying about us, just, you know, living, living inside out, and just being able to, you know, build a relationship with my brothers and just have great practices, great games.”

It will begin with Syracuse, who add Notre Dame transfer quarterback Steve Angeli to replace standout Kyle McCord at the position. The Orange’s only loss is to the Tennessee Volunteers in the opening week of the season, and Brown knows the team has its hands full with its opponent’s signal-caller. 

“He's good now,” he said. “He's a ball player. He's going to throw a ball around, and he makes the right throws. I'm really excited to play against him.”

A team with a high-powered offense, Syracuse’s attack makes it deadly. The Orange scored 66 points last week against Colgate in the team’s win. The team averaged 34.1 points a game last season as well. 

Brown is excited for the challenge, facing an offense that is designed like a professional one. 

“They’re a good team,” he said. “That’s an NFL-style offense. They're gonna throw the ball around, misdirection, motion, shift. We've got to be really on our stuff this week and make sure that we're practicing at a high level.”

Kickoff between the two ACC foes is set for noon from Memorial Stadium.