KJ Henry sees a lot of new at Clemson, but says everything is in place to be successful

KJ Henry says Clemson has all it needs to reach the goals in mind this season.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Sun Sep 04 07:00:05 GMT-04:00 2022

CLEMSON – There is a whole lot of new at Clemson heading into the 2022 season, but defensive end KJ Henry says that the Tigers have all they need to be successful.

Wes Goodwin and Brandon Streeter have new roles as the defensive and offensive coordinators, respectively, Kyle Richardson has moved into an on-field role as tight ends coach, Mike Reed is now the special teams coach and assistant head coach, Mickey Conn is the co-defensive coordinator, and Nick Eason is the new defensive tackles coach.

That’s a lot of change around the program in a short amount of time.

“A whole lot of new. New coordinators. New roles for different guys, who are growing and developing,” Henry said Wednesday. “It’s been fun. It’s been fun to navigate that space. Being a fifth-year guy, it is very easy for a lot of people in my situation to say this year’s about me. Now it’s just time to get mine and get out of here. But that’s so far from what it’s been. It’s been so fun to navigate this leadership role and just hone in on this defense.”

Henry said that both Goodwin and Conn are doing what’s necessary to win.

“Wes (Goodwin) and Coach (Mickey) Conn have been awesome,” Henry said. “They’re listening to us. More than anything, they want to win. They want to win and dominate and that’s what we want to do as players. We’ve been like-minded in that regard and it’s been fun to attack each day, especially practice.”

Many wondered why head coach Dabo Swinney didn’t look outside the program for new coordinators, but Henry understands why his head coach stayed in-house for all the hires except for bringing Eason from Auburn.

“Everything we need we already have here,” Henry said. “Everyone he has brought in, Coach Swinney, he has done a great job. He sees it before we ever could. Alluding to new coordinators, people who might need to come in here, as players we might say this guy has the best name, this guy has the best pedigree, but Coach Swinney does a great job of understanding the culture he’s built and what’s the best fit for us as players. The hires he’s had have been a home run.”

Henry spoke at length about how last season was successful in many ways – the Tigers once again won 10 games – but wasn’t what everyone is used to seeing. He said that things have changed, in a good way, since last season’s dysfunction.

“We are going to get back to doing what we do,” he said. “It’s that simple. There were a lot of times, especially for myself, we knew what we were capable of, but we were in our own way. There were a lot of good teams we play every year that fed off of that. As a league, we aren’t given the respect we deserve and finally, Clemson has a hiccup year and everyone is surprised that they’re close games. We’ve been telling y’all we have been playing good teams every year. At the same time, we knew what we are capable of and we’re ready to get back to that.”

Of course, if the Tigers are to improve on last season’s 10 wins, it will take major improvement from an offense that struggled from start to finish in 2021. Henry said he thinks everyone on that side of the ball is better.

“There’s not one person on the offensive side of the ball who didn’t get better this year, who hasn’t grown in some capacity over the spring or over the summer,” Henry said. “As a team, we all have gotten so much better, so much closer.”