When asked about this Saturday’s game between Tennessee & South Carolina Coach Derek Dooley talked about the Gamecocks All World defensive end Jadeveon Clowney, ” He plays with his shirt tucked in. I love his work ethic. He’s a well-coached youngster. He wants to please, wants to do right, and God made him fast. You can teach them a lot of things, but you can’t teach them to run real fast. He can run real fast, and he doesn’t mind running fast.”
But don’t think for one minute that Dooley and O-Coordinator Jim Chaney don’t have a 10 point plan for Clowney & the Gamecock Defense. “We’ve got to unsnap his chinstrap in the piles,” running back Marlin Lane said.
Unsnap his chinstrap you ask? That’s right; the NCAA has a new rule that requires any player whose helmet comes off on a play to leave the field for the next play.
Tennessee plans on taking advantage of this rule and exploit Clowney’s backup after Clowney leaves the field. Also Clowney’s haircut, better known as “Ninja Dreds”, makes the helmet pop off of his head so much easier and it looks like Dooley plans to take advantage. When interviewing James Stone on Tennessee’s O-Line he responded “It’s a basic football fundamental to block. You’ve got to hold his helmet steady and unsnap then rip”.
With a week’s worth of preparation Clowney might think of wearing duct tape on his chinstrap this Saturday.
On the offensive side of the ball the plan is also in place. A week after coach Derek Dooley opened up the Vols high powered offense against the Alabama Red Elephants it seems as if he has a brilliant plan to catch South Carolina by surprise. Dooley and O-Coordinator Jim Chaney will quickly capitalize on the plan of having Clowney off the field every other play.
“We probably will put more of a premium running right at Clowney and maybe just chipping him, letting him make the tackle and then we can have the ball carrier unsnap his helmet,” Dooley said. Jim Chaney echoed Dooley’s comments in an interview on Monday adding, “It’s like playing Russian roulette. It only takes one of them bullets to kill you. You don’t have to get shot eight times to die”.
As good as Tyler Bray looked against Bama last week, when we won 2 quarters of the game, I expect that we’ll see him air it out on the plays that Clowney is on the sideline getting his helmet repaired.
- GatorNation links: The Clowney question (espn.go.com)
- 2012 Heisman Trophy: Should Jadeveon Clowney or Manti Te’o Be a Finalist? (bleacherreport.com)
- Marcus Lattimore, Jadeveon Clowney on flu-riddled South Carolina injury list (sbnation.com)
Jai Eugene
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