"I can assure you that he helped us at Mississippi State as much as we helped him, and I'm sure everybody's going to say that you've got to have a bigger résumé than what he's got to get the Clemson defensive coordinator job. "He was just way ahead of us on using computers and technology and was a tremendous asset," said Johnson, who also coordinated defenses at Alabama, Auburn, Clemson and South Carolina. He couldn't believe how quickly Goodwin picked up on things and the way he communicated what he saw to coaches, players, everybody. Johnson, who has been a defensive coordinator at five Power 5 schools, was running Mississippi State's defense at the time. He was just a kid looking to learn," said McCorvey, who remains one of Swinney's closest confidants as Clemson's associate athletic director of football administration. "He came over and talked, and Sylvester found a spot for him to help, no money or anything. He noticed that Woody McCorvey, who was then Croom's offensive coordinator at Mississippi State, also was born in Grove Hill and reached out to McCorvey about moving over to football. That experience with Polk only further whet Goodwin's appetite to get into coaching, and he turned his focus to helping with football. Goodwin's youth minister's brother, Russ McNickle, was the pitching coach at Mississippi State and helped get Goodwin connected with Polk. Goodwin attended Mississippi State, where he initially worked as a student assistant under legendary baseball coach Ron Polk. He grew up in tiny Grove Hill, Alabama, in the southwestern part of the state and played on the offensive line in a wing-T offense at Clarke Preparatory School, which won two state championships while he was there in 20. Goodwin's journey to one of college football's top defensive jobs is a fascinating one. He's as sharp as a tack and is going to do a hell of a job." I think some of the guys on our staff were shocked how much he added to our game plans. "He knew the adjustments to each blitz and added so much to our game plans. "He used to sit there and had a book and would draw every blitz run in the NFL that week, and he would compile all these blitzes and could formationally change it," Arians recalled. In fact, had Swinney not promoted Goodwin, Venables was planning to take Goodwin with him to Oklahoma, sources said. That goes for Arians, Swinney, Venables, former Mississippi State coach Sylvester Croom and former longtime defensive coordinators Kevin Steele and Ellis Johnson. As Clemson's senior defensive assistant, Goodwin already had been pegged by Swinney to be Venables' replacement.Īnd while it's not every day that an off-field analyst in his mid-30s vaults to primary defensive playcaller at one of college football's powerhouse programs, Goodwin isn't just any behind-the-scenes assistant.Īsk any coach he has worked for, and they will tell you that Goodwin was invaluable to their success. Goodwin, 36, has never even been a full-time position coach, and now, he's taking over for one of the most accomplished defensive coordinators in college football, with Brent Venables moving to Oklahoma as the Sooners' head coach.Īrians, who won a Super Bowl last season as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' head coach, didn't need to vouch for Goodwin to Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney. He's going to be aggressive, and people who don't already know are going to know soon enough what kind of football coach he is." "I'm sure a lot of people might wonder who he is, but he's one of the brightest people I've been around in coaching," Arians told ESPN. It's the kind of anecdote you hear repeatedly from some of the most respected minds in football when they recount the first time they crossed paths with Goodwin, who was named Clemson's new defensive coordinator on Tuesday. It didn't take long for then-Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians to realize what a gem he had in Wes Goodwin.Īrians was so impressed, as legend has it, that he moved his administrative assistant down the hall so Goodwin could be right next to his office. Inside Wes Goodwin's meteoric rise to become Clemson football's defensive coordinator You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browser
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