Brown Enjoying his Role on Clemson's Defense

CLEMSON — The Clemson Tigers have grown substantially in the past month on all sides of the ball.

After a tough loss to No. 2 Georgia to start the year, the Tigers have found their stride and are stepping into being the Clemson team that everybody knows.

With so many areas of growth comes the development of who this year’s Tigers are, how they mesh together to perform the best and how they continue to work harder to be better. That mentality is shared all across the board, and there are so many examples of it.

One such example comes from freshman Sammy Brown, who has stepped into his role at linebacker for Clemson. Last week, the true freshman led the Tigers in tackles for a second straight week, while also leading the team in tackles for loss (3.5).

In conjunction with his growth on game day, Brown also has learned his role on the team.

“That’s just a part of being a linebacker,” Brown said. “You’re the quarterback of the defense, so you’ve got to have people in there that are smart and can do the job. So, I take full advantage of it.”

As a skilled linebacker, Brown has certainly began to step into the role of a quarterback of the defense. His growth and learning from his first-year experience has definitely played a part in learning his role.

“Coach [Dabo] Sweeney said it after the State game, but they said, ‘I was a running back playing linebacker,'” Brown said. “So, I’ve got a lot to work on, as far as reading my keys and fitting in the right gap. One thing that I am proud of myself in is going one hundred and ten percent effort and running to the ball every play.”

While Brown has definitely made an impact early in his college career, he has even more ways to improve and help learn to be a better quarterback of the defense for the Tigers.

Clemson hosts Stanford Saturday (7 p.m., ESPN) at Memorial Stadium.