Jeremy Brevard-US PRESSWIRE
Jadeveon Clowney admits he didn’t really know what he was doing at times last year.
“I was just running around out there,” he said.
Still, the South Carolina defensive end and former top recruit in the nation did pretty well for himself in his freshman season.
Clowney finished with eight sacks, 12 tackles for a loss and five forced fumbles, which ranked sixth nationally.
And all that was without having much time to grasp the system.
Clowney came to South Carolina mid-summer, and when fall practice began, he was thrown into the fire. That’s what happens when you come in with so much talent.
Clowney was ranked as the No. 1 recruit nationally by every service. His high school coach, with a straight face, even said he could play in the NFL as an 18-year-old. There’s no doubt Clowney came to the Gamecocks with more hype than any player in school history.
Still, the learning curve was steep at times.
“I didn’t know that much last season. I was tip-toeing out there and not really knowing what I was going to do,” Clowney said. “I still need some improvement on the other stuff, but I know more than I did last year already.”
Clowney’s now had plenty of time to learn the defense and get bigger and stronger. He’s even ruined some of coach Steve Spurrier’s practices. Following one spring session, Spurrier had to tell Clowney to quit beating his man off the line of scrimmage so the quarterbacks could get some work.
“His ceiling is high,” defensive line coach Brad Lawing said. “He can be as good as he wants to be. He has made tremendous improvement.”
Defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward is looking into ways of utilizing Clowney more than just a bookend pass rusher. Last year, Melvin Ingram, who’s now in the NFL, lined up inside at times — and it paid dividends for him and the entire defense.
With All-SEC pass rusher Devin Taylor still lining up on one side, Ward hopes Clowney can become an even bigger force in 2012.
“We’ll try to create as many opportunities as we can to get Jadeveon one-on-one, because if he’s outside, people are going to chip him,” Ward said.
“If you put him inside, there’s a chance for one-on-one. But there’s also a chance they could always turn the center to him and double-team him inside. We’ll have to figure out what’s the best way to use him.”
