Luke Has 'Vivid' Picture of What Clemson OL Can Look Like

CLEMSON- Matt Luke is creating a standard at Clemson.

With Clemson expected to field one of the better defenses in the country, Luke believes that if his line can have success against that group in practice, they can have success against anyone.

One of the Tigers’ newest assistants, Luke spent the spring trying to instill that confidence into Clemson’s offensive line.

“I was using the spring to try to mold and create and really create confidence and a little bit of a swagger and an edge that you have to have at this level,” Luke said at Clemson’s Media Day on Tuesday. “That was my biggest thing, was to instill confidence in these guys and say look, ‘You’re going against a defense that’s really good. And if you can do this against them, you can do this against anybody.’ So that was really my main mindset. Creating a standard of effort and toughness, and then creating that confidence to say okay, “Hey, we can do this. Let’s go do this.'”

As the Tigers now get set to enter fall camp, Luke has a very clear picture of how he wants his group of offensive linemen to play, and over the next few weeks, the plan is to continue getting his players to buy into his vision.

“To me it’s a very vivid picture of what it’s supposed to look like,” Luke said. “I want to have an offensive line, when they walk out and everybody watches us play, that they’re finishing the way they’re supposed to finish. That they’re playing a certain way. This game is meant to be played a certain way. And I want to see our guys doing that.”

Luke has had success with most every offensive line he has coached. His track record of development speaks for itself and the plan is to have this Clemson offensive line playing up to that standard.

“To finish a play requires zero effort. To go out there and play as hard as you can say, ‘Man, that Clemson O-Line plays hard.’ That requires zero effort. I want our guys to play that way. Because I think you can ignite the whole sideline, you can ignite the whole stadium. When the pile kind of stops all the whole line comes and pushes the pile and then everybody starts cheering, that to me is what is what it’s all about. That’s what playing offensive line is all about.”

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