Playing center field

Sporting News, The, Oct 16, 2000 by Michael Bradley

Anyone who makes 129 tackles in a season can't truly be called a team's last line of defense, but Clemson free safety Robert Carswell often is the final man between an opposing receiver and a big play.

The quarterback of the secondary, the free safety must mix restraint with greed, the better to make smart decisions and limit his team's exposure to disaster. "You have to be the deepest of the deepest," Carswell says. "If anybody is behind you, it's a touchdown."

The 6-0, 215-pound Car? swell, a senior, was a first-team All-ACC choice in 1999 and should repeat this season. His job description, for the most part, is based on reading and reacting.

The attitude: Because Carswell must line up deep and be that one-man Maginot line, he has to be cautious in his approach. Too many risks lead to problems, so he leaves the aggressive behavior to the strong safety. "You have to make the right reads," he says.

Carswell also must make the right calls. Should a team use motion to change a formation before the snap, he must make sure everyone in the secondary is playing the same coverage, or there could be disaster. That doesn't mean Carswell is timid. No one in today's attacking defensive climate can afford to be a human rubber band. "When the time comes to step up, you have to be fearless," he says.

Against the run: During the week before Clemson's September 30 game against Duke, Carswell's film study revealed that the Blue Devils' zone-blocking schemes betrayed where the play would go--and whether it was a run or pass.

"If the whole line was moving in one direction, I knew it was a run that way," Carswell says. So, he attacked.

But Carswell shouldn't be the one stopping the majority of running plays. When the Tigers line up with eight men crowding the line of scrimmage, he is one of the three playing off. If he tackles a runner, that usually means his teammates in front of him have failed to do their jobs.

"It sounds weird, but I don't have as many tackles as I did last year, and that's a good thing for the defense," he says. "Any time I'm not making plays, that's a good sign."

Against the pass: When Carswell reads pass, he usually heads for the middle zone of the field and starts dropping deep. "I'm in man-to-man coverage only about 20 percent of the time," he says. As he drops, Carswell looks at the passer's eyes. Young quarterbacks will usually stay with a single receiver, allowing Carswell to cheat in that direction. Veterans start by watching Carswell and then making their reads.

Last year in Clemson's season opener, Marshall quarterback Chad Pennington worked his read progression rather than locking in on a receiver. That froze Carswell because any move to one side or another would give Pennington a chance to find single coverage. "It's rare to see a quarterback who can go through his reads like that," Carswell says.

When the pass is thrown, Carswell abandons his deep. guard post and heads for the ball. Last season, he led the Tigers with six interceptions. "Once the ball's in the air, you've got to be greedy," he says. "You have to say, `It's my ball.' It's just as much mine as it is the receiver's."