Ohio State's defensive checklist: Contain Lawrence, Etienne and more Clemson big plays

Etienne scores a touchdown against Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Wed Dec 30 12:01:03 GMT-04:00 2020

Ohio State defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs told the media earlier this week that while he knows Clemson has a plethora of weapons on offense, he also knows the offense runs through quarterback Trevor Lawrence and running back Travis Etienne.

No. 3 Ohio State takes on No. 2 Clemson Friday night in the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s College Football Playoff at the Superdome, and Coombs knows that priority one will be stopping the Tigers’ dynamic duo.

Former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer said earlier this week that people don’t understand the running speed that Lawrence brings to the table, and Coombs concurred.

“To Urban's point, he's deceptively fast. You will see when players have angles on him and he outruns the angle. I think that the thing that he does so many things very, very well,” Coombs said. “So I would say he's arguably one of the great college football quarterbacks of all time based on his production and winning games.

“He is a play extender, and he does a great job of avoiding rush, sidestepping rush, getting outside the pocket, running the ball or extending the play and throwing the ball. And he makes very, very, very few poor decisions. I think he does a great job with his pre-snap recognition. He's got a plan in mind when he catches the snap. But when the plan is altered, he does a great job of adapting to that.”

Coombs then went on to say that his goal is to try and contain the Clemson offense.

“I don't think anybody stops them. I think you want to try to slow them down,” Coombs said. “You want to try to contain them. You want to try to eliminate those big plays. They do it to everybody. Their explosive tape is the longest tape you have ever seen. I think the running back is a fantastic player in every phase of the game. He runs the ball inside. He runs the ball outside. He catches the ball out of the backfield. He catches the ball on the perimeter. I think he's dynamic. Obviously, the quarterback run, which shows up at this time of year, is important to their success. And that's what winning teams do.

“They have a formula. They've got talent across the board from the numbers to the numbers. And so if you went into a game and said, we're going to take this one thing away, they have plenty to beat you somewhere else. And so you have to prepare for all of it, and you have to play a great game for four quarters in order to have a chance at the end.”

Coombs will try and match Clemson’s speed on offense with the speed on his defense.

“I think when you're going to play teams like this, you've got to have speed on the field. And you've got to figure out a way to get fast guys out there playing in the right areas,” Coombs said. “And for us, you know, moving Pete [Werner], getting Baron [Browning] on the field in a different capacity, having a kid like Justin Hilliard who can play all the spots, and then that anchor in the middle, Tuf Borland. I think that versatility gives us it certainly gave us a great chance when guys were out because of COVID. But it gives us flexibility.

“When you're going to play teams like this, you're going to need those kind of flexible players that can move around and do different things during the course of the game to help you try to win.”