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The Clemson Tigers have gone to extreme lengths to find a way to avoid having any holding calls in practice. They simply eliminated their ability to grab anything at all.
In a social media video, a Tigers defensive back can be seen wearing boxing gloves during coverage drills.
The solution came after HC Dabo Swinney was influenced by Patriots coach Bill Belichick, whose New England support staff members use it with their defensive backs. ESPN’s Andrea Adelson reported on the peculiar Clemson practice technique back in 2017.
Unfortunately, some players were seen boxing with the gloves at practice instead of using them for their designed purpose and prompted this response from Swinney:
“It was brought to my attention and obviously it was something we won’t tolerate. We’re not 10 years old. We’re not eight. We’re grown men. It’s not a frat house. It’s not a romper room. And so that’s kind of what I told them.”
Why Clemson defensive backs practice with boxing gloves
The idea of getting guys into the habit of not grabbing jerseys is a good one in theory, being that it's one of the easiest ways to hand over pristine field position to the other team.
Dabo Swinney implemented the technique as a way for his corners to win with their feet and not their hands. He would later say that its execution has been successful:
"That's what we started doing in camp in our 1-on-1 periods to challenge them and stress them to win with their feet, play great technique, not grab. We've been much improved, hope it continues in the second half."
Until Clemson falls from their perch atop the ACC, it's going to be difficult to call out the head coach's methods. As a team that has dominated defensively throughout the College Football Playoff era, the Tigers have become one of the standards in the modern game.
They had yet another stellar campaign last season, finishing 10-3 and ranking 14th in the final AP poll. The team bagged a 6-2 record within their conference and also scored a season total of 342 points.
