Swinney Discusses Silver Lining of Woods Being Out

During his Zoom conference call with the media Sunday evening, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney discussed a silver lining of Peter Woods being sidelined right now, if there is anything positive about his absence.

The star defensive lineman missed Saturday’s game vs. NC State with an injury suffered on a chop block against him in the Sept. 7 game vs. App State. Swinney called Woods day-to-day throughout last week, and after the NC State game, Swinney said “there’s a good chance” Woods could be available to play in this Saturday’s game vs. Stanford.

Of course, the Tigers would prefer to have Woods and his disruptive, impact presence on the field. But with him out of the lineup vs. NC State, it allowed the backup defensive ends behind Woods to get more snaps and valuable playing time.

Swinney said he was “pleased” with what he saw on film from those reserve defensive ends — namely redshirt junior Cade Denhoff, sophomore A.J. Hoffler, redshirt sophomore Jahiem Lawson and redshirt junior Armon Mason.

“It’s a good group, and that’s kind of a positive of Peter being out,” Swinney said. “If there is one positive, it’s kind of forced the issue with some of these other guys, and that’s going to hopefully pay off for us as we go through a long season.”

Denhoff, Hoffler, Lawson and Mason all contributed in the Tigers’ 59-35 victory over the Wolfpack at Death Valley.

Denhoff made his first career start and recorded his first career fumble recovery. Lawson tallied two tackles (0.5 for loss), while Hoffler and Mason each chipped in one tackle.

Swinney likes what the Tigers have in those players behind Woods and fellow starting defensive end T.J. Parker.

“Denhoff is very steady for us. Just does his job. He’s going to grade well. I think he had about 20 snaps,” Swinney said. “But just a guy that we trust, and really proud of Hoffler and Lawson. Hoffler is really starting to play fast, and you can really see his confidence growing. He’s got a little bit of violence to him, he’s got a lot of twitch, and he’s one of those guys that just needs reps. But as it’s slowing down, you see that speed that he has starting to flash.

“And then Jahiem, I’m really proud of him because he really can do everything we need him to do. He’s got himself in a position where he can be really physical. He doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. I think he had maybe one mental error. But he’s a high-energy, high-motor guy. So, we’ve got a nice little group coming together, and then Armon Mason, he’s been around here a couple years but he really hasn’t played. Because he was going to play a lot last year, and he got hurt and tore his ACL in camp. So, this is really his first time to really play, and he brings some things to the table, too, that we like.”