Click HERE to sign up for an annual subscription to BlueAndGold.com and get your FREE gift code for $99 in Irish apparel and gear!

Notre Dame defensive coordinator Clark Lea spoke with the media prior to today's Cotton Bowl practice.

Q: Coach, before you started watching film of Clemson, had you seen any of Trevor Lawrence?

DC CLARK LEA: In season, I consume enough football from Sunday to Saturday that I don't tend to watch just for fun. So I had not seen much of him. I remembered him out of high school. Honestly, that hair stuck out, being a guy that's challenged that way. (laughter) But I hadn't watched him much. Obviously, in preparation for the game, I've been incredibly impressed with him, and I've been able to watch him for a month.

And so, in doing that, you see the first thing that stands out to you is the talent, the arm talent, and the athleticism, too. But just the way he gets the ball out and how hard he throws it, it's incredible the length of field he covers and in an instant with the ball.

But then, when you study him further, what almost is more imposing is his decision-making. He must be a really, really sharp player for the coaches. He can identify coverages. He gets the ball out. He makes decisions in the RPO game, off quick reads. When he has a matchup he likes, he puts the ball up and positions together. It's incredible. So I don't know that there will be a snap where we won't be concerned with their ability to go the length of the field on Saturday.

Q: Have you seen him progress from game five when he took over to game 13?

LEA: Absolutely. There's a comfort level you see, a confidence you see. He has evolved and grown and has been just so steady for a young player. It's really impressive. I think he's really well-coached. They, obviously, have a great program for development.

Then for a young guy that knows when he makes a mistake, he may be missing a read and handing the ball off to Number 9 [Travis Etienne], that's not a bad snap for Clemson either. He's going to throw the ball out to a receiver who can go get it for him. It's a really well-run operation.

Q: Clark, how much have you looked at what Brent Venables has done as you progressed in your career, not in preparation for this game but just as a defensive coordinator trying to gain a little knowledge?

LEA: Well, you know, we have had the luxury of kind of watching them against the opponent we were playing this year.

I've been really impressed how he calls a game, how hard his defense plays. I think more than that, when I think about him, I just think about the consistency. I admire his run there. I admire the level of defense they played for so long. He's a guy that in so many ways you hope you can model what you're doing after what he's done because what that consistently speaks to is a level-headed approach. He's a guy that concerns himself with player relationships and then, obviously, recruits really well, too. So what he's done to sustain the level of defensive performance there has absolutely impressed me and is something that I hope I can attain in my own career.

Q: Which leads me into the next question. This seems like a difficult time to be a defensive coordinator. The offenses are crazy. People don't have to have a lot of patience. One team is here in the playoff and firing its defensive coordinator. It's a very big picture question. But when you step into this job that you love, do you sort of think to yourself, man, like, I'm giving up 28 points on a good day. How am I doing this job?

LEA: You know, we joke a lot that we definitely chose the wrong side to do it. Obviously, it's a lot more fun to be an offensive coach these days.

But I think defense is a mentality. And, you know, I love defensive football. The challenge is inherent. And defending modern offense requires some ability to process and think and be creative. And I think that's a fun part of what we do. It's just a -- it's a game of strategy.

And there's, obviously situations where a team can line up with 11 better players and it's tough sledding. But we have a lot of fun and trying to put our guys in the best possible position they can.

I think within that, one of the biggest fallacies in defending offenses -- and the only reason I know this is because I've experienced when it's gone wrong is, the moment you come in and say, "Let's try this." Or, "Hey, we got them on this." It's just not about being schematically cuter than the team you're playing. It's about getting your players in positions where they're confident and playing with great fundamentals and playing really fast and covering spaces. Defense is still about your guy getting off a block and making a tackle. And you can't deviate from that.

Even as it becomes basketball on grass, you have to find the answers schematically. But I think more importantly you can't deviate from the fundamentals of the role that will allow your player to have success.

Last thing I'll say on that is I always think about this, too. You want your defense or your unit to take on your personality. You want to put on the film and be proud of what you're seeing from a standpoint of effort and fundamental execution and physical play. Guys making tough decisions. And that's something that you have to spend time on in practice.

So those are things that have been helpful to us this year and in years past. And I think coming up under the coaches that I did and the situations that I have, I've been in a lot of situations where we've been outmanned. And you can't just throw your hands up and say, "We relinquish." We have to find an answer. And I think that's helped along my career.

----

• Talk about it inside Rockne’s Roundtable

• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes

• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.

• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @BGI_LouSomogyi, @BGI_CoachD, @BGI_DMcKinney and @BGI_CoreyBodden.

• Like us on Facebook.