Brent Venables Clemson/Oklahoma Defense-1st and 2nd Down Schemes and Coverages

Brent Venables is one of the best defensive minds in football. He was at Clemson and you will see his Oklahoma defense do the same in 2023.

He did a great job at Clemson and is very recognized for his outstanding defenses over the years. Truly, one of the best defensive minds in college football and should have Oklahoma playing at an even higher level next year.

 He likes to bring pressure defensively and is one of the best on 3rd down with their pressure package. They are great at preparing vs your protections and getting into the matchups they want. They have finished top 10 in sack rate, 6/7 times during his tenure,many years without an elite rusher. They do it with scheme and design. If you were going to beat Clemson under Venables, you had to handle his pressure. In 2020, they blitzed 40% of the time and on 3rd down 50% of the time they were bringing some type of blitz pressure. Lastly, he was top 10 on 3rd down in 2017,2018 and 2019, another area I expect Oklahoma to improve upon in 2023.

By the Years

2021 #2 in the country allowing 15 points per game.  8th in rushing defense allowing 97 yards per game. 

2020  They were ranked 3rd overall and #2 in points allowed at 15 per game.  5th in sack rate at 3.8 sacks per game.

2019 #1 defense in the country and  ranked second nationally in scoring defense (15.0 ppg), red zone defense (62.1 conversion percentage), fourth in sacks (3.4 per game), eighth in rushing defense (98.8 ypg) and ninth in total defense (308.4 ypg)

In 2018, Clemson led the country in scoring defense (13.1 points per game) for the first time in school history in 2018. Ranked fourth in rushing defense (96.3 yards per game), fifth in total defense (285.9 yards per game). Unit set a school record with 54 sacks in 2018, the third-most by any FBS team in a season since 2000. They were also 5th in 3rd down defense!

You can see all his accomplishments here! Venable's Resume  

Clemson's Defense

They played a 4-2-5 at time but then bounced into an odd 3-4 tight look at times. This is evident on base downs.  You will see is 2 fronts. If he thinks he can defend the run with a light box against primarily passing teams, he will play his 3-2 front. If he thinks he needs to be a little bigger against better run teams you will see his 4-2 box look. He usually has both packages in for each game. 

  They do this on base downs which makes preparing for them difficult. He will use both splits safety and single high concepts, and you will often see him pressing on the outside. They run some press quarters, cover 1, cover 3 roll to the press corner(some people call it 6 and 8, cover 2 variations among others.

Some people would say they are a hybrid as Venables will change his approach each game and move people around to fit the scheme. Isaiah Simmons was a perfect example. #11 lined up all over the field at times and the game plan always had him in some unique situations. Venables was great at utilizing his strengths and getting a great pass rush by scheme. 

Here's how some fronts look:

4-2 below with press quarters coverage

If you see one corner on and one off it could mean he's rolling to the side of the pressed cb. 

The other front they used was the tite front. They would play this as well as part of their base package.

Here's their Tite front vs NC State. 

10 personnel

    11 personnel Tite front

4-2, 4-3 run defense

Clemson was always been a top defense against the run.  They like to play press quarters so it gives them the run support on the perimeter.  That's where the run game defense starts.  They will press on the outside and when the safeties read run they fill accordingly. They do a nice job with it in their press quarters system. They sometimes play it to one side or at times both depending on the call.
Below it's press quarters to the boundary. 

you can see both safeties trigger on the run action in their quarters reads. Press to the bottom of the screen and true quarters to the field. 

 The Clemson run defense is predicated on the ball being spilled or scrape exchanging often. That means on inside runs, the objective is to get spilled to the perimeter where they have a numbers advantage. They have been solid over the years vs the run. They know where their safeties are and do a great job spilling runs to them. They are very sound gap wise defensively.

Here, they get zone read and are in a scrape exchange, The DE is closing hard and is responsible for the RB and is playing the run. The LB stays square and is there to play the qb on the pull read.

The DE takes the RB but look at the discipline of the LB playing QB.

Clip below

In the next clip. they try to get a + 1 in the run game.

1st, they play their DE in a 6i and he has c gap. LB to the playside will scrape and spill it if he gets a guard or full back block him. Sam is force with the Safety playing the alley to the run and cutback away from it.