It does not matter if he is playing cornerback, nickel back or strong safety, Clemson’s Ryan Carter just wants to be on the field.
During Clemson’s run to the National Championship Game last season, Carter played mostly the nickel position for the Tigers, playing in 14 games, while logging 233 snaps. He had 20 tackles with one sack and two passes broken up.
“I will work wherever I can fit in,” the redshirt junior said.
This coming season, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney and defensive coordinator Brent Venables think he will fit in fine at strong safety. The 5-foot-9, 175-pound defensive back has already spent most of his time at safety this spring, though he did work a lot at cornerback in Monday’s practice.
“Playing corner helps me with my footwork and working my technique,” he said.
Carter moved to safety to help out with the depth at those positions. Venables says Carter is a guy they like and think is versatile enough to play very well at safety.
“He can cover anybody. The neat thing about him is he has good versatility,” Venables said. “He has played safety. He looks very natural and he looks like he has done it forever. A lot of it is technique and it is patience. It’s positioning, it is speed and it is transitional movement. He has not had to tackle anybody yet, but the thing that we have always liked about Ryan is that he is physical. He plays big. He likes to mix it up. That will not be unnatural for him.
“It is very pleasing to see that. He does not look like a fish out of water.”
The reason for that, says Carter, is because he played a lot at safety in high school.
“The transition has been easy because playing nickel, when I’m playing strong (safety), I know what the nickel is doing and that helps me because I know what other guys are doing around me.”
Carter says he doesn’t mind floating around from cornerback to safety to nickel because he understands the coaches have a lot of young players to look at this spring, and they have to figure out who belongs where and how can they help the team win.
The secondary lost three starters—Mackensie Alexander, Jayron Kearse and T.J. Green—to the NFL, while Travis Blanks, the nickel back, has moved on too.
“We do have a lot of young guys that need to step up, but I feel like if we can get our chemistry down, our focus can be all there,” Carter said. “We have to find a way not to have any kind of drop off. We need to come out every day and be focused.
“I feel like we have all the tools, and necessary talent, to be right back where we were.”
It helps to go up against an offense in practice that returns eight starters, including the nation’s best quarterback in Deshaun Watson.
“Going against that offense every day makes us way better,” he said. “They challenge us all the time. Hearing we might be the forgotten group, but knowing what we have on defense, and how good we can be, it’s all good.”
“I’m ready to try and step up and try and make plays for this defense the best way that I can,” he continued.
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