The past few weeks have been anything but normal for No. 4 Clemson. It has had to deal with the transfer of quarterback Kelly Bryant and the passing of former Clemson running back C.J. Fuller.

However, linebacker Tre Lamar has shown no sign of distraction as he led the defense in tackles with eight, including six solo tackles, two sacks, two tackles-for-loss and a quarterback hurry in Saturday’s win over Wake Forest.

Lamar on the defense’s performance so far

“I feel good about our performance so far. I feel like we’ve left some stuff on the table that we could’ve taken. But I feel like overall, our defense is just getting better. I feel like we’re on an upward trend and we’re just going to get better from here.”

Lamar on C.J. Fuller’s impact on the team

“I think the whole team kind of rallied around C.J. and his family. I would say the running backs, in particular, really felt that loss. We ran for so many yards that game, and I felt like they were really playing for C.J., and you could see that on the field.”

Lamar on Kyler McMichael and Mario Goodrich

“I think they’ve come in and really stepped up. I think Coach always preaches that the other team is not going to take out their good players just because we put a couple people who might be backups in. I feel like they’ve really stepped up as freshmen, and they’ve been playing well for us.”

Lamar on freshman Xavier Thomas

“That boy’s a monster. Off the edge, he’s got so much speed, a lot of good bend to him. So, he really gets after that quarterback. That’s something this defense is definitely loving to have.”

Lamar on the challenges of the past few weeks

“It’s been a tough couple of weeks for sure. Just emotionally for this team. I feel like we’ve stayed strong through the whole thing but it’s definitely nice to have this week off right now. It just gives us some time to kind of decompress and really refocus for the rest of the season.”