Cold Twizzlers No More: Healthy Venables relishes the chance to play again

Tyler Venables is healthy again (Photo by Merrell Mann).

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Mon Mar 04 07:00:03 GMT-04:00 2024

CLEMSON – Tyler Venables has been patient, but now he understands there is an urgency to his game and to the playing time he has left.

Venables collected 98 tackles (5.5 for loss), a sack, an interception and seven pass breakups in 716 defensive snaps over 36 games (two starts) during the first three seasons of his Clemson career. However, an injury forced Venables to redshirt last season, and he spent the majority of the season on the sidelines acting as a player-coach, even donning the defensive headsets.

He did play in two games – seeing action on special teams against North Carolina and South Carolina – but he is finally ready to put on the helmet and pads and play the game he loves.

He returned to practice Wednesday and was all smiles, from start to finish.

“It felt like it was a new experience. I haven’t really put pads on since the Orange Bowl, and I haven’t tackled anybody since the Orange Bowl because we weren’t in full pads or anything,” Venables said. “That’s going to be a weird experience for me too, but just really cherishing the moment and understanding I don’t have a lot of time left with this game. I’m just really thankful that I've been able to get back healthy. It's been a long time, but I love this game, and I love being a part of a team and having success and also failing, too, on the field. I don't take that moment for granted at all.”

Venables said he’s finally healthy but admitted the injuries have been strange. He even compared his hamstrings to “cold Twizzlers.”

“This is the healthiest that I'll be, I think, and that I have been in a long time. What's weird is I didn't really have any injuries in high school, but all of a sudden, I get a hip (injury), and then all of a sudden, I get two pecs and another hip (injury), and then my hamstrings are made out of cold Twizzlers,” Venables said. “But I feel really good now. This is the most I've paid attention to my body and try to eat right and consistently stretch and stuff. I feel really healthy right now.”

Being on the headsets gave Venables a different perspective of the game.

“I think Coach (Mike) Dooley approached me on the field before maybe the Notre Dame game, and he was like, ‘You're going to be on the headset.’ I was like, What do you mean? What are you talking about? They just threw me in a headset,” he said. “For most of the games, I didn't put a helmet on, but I wasn't healthy enough. I was wearing that. It was a really cool experience. I'd never done that before. I felt like I was inside of a video game.

“Also listening to somebody play chess, listening to Coach (Wes) Goodwin talk, and here's why he's thinking this, and here's what's going on here, and what set they're in, and what call are we going to do, and here's why, and just stuff like that. Just a really cool experience to hear what all goes on behind the scenes. I'd never had that experience before, ever. Being as close to the game as I have been in my life was just a whole other experience that I've never had. It was addicting, so it was pretty cool.”

He smiled when asked if more headsets might be in his future.

“Yeah, I think so. I got a political science degree, but I'm not going to law school,” he said with a smile. “That's my desire whenever I'm done, to go be a GA or an analyst or whatever, somewhere, a part of a team.”

When he was asked if he knew of a head coach or two who might want his services, the son of former Clemson defensive coordinator and current Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables broke into yet another smile before answering, “Maybe. But we will see. I still have some time left. I'm here now, but I'm also excited for that opportunity if that comes to be.”