When James Skalski started getting serious and decided he wanted to play college football, he looked at Clemson as the place he wanted to be.
At the time, the Tigers had the No. 1 team in the country as future pros like Grady Jarrett, Vic Beasley, Mackensie Alexander, Jayron Kearse, Carlos Watkins, Stephone Anthony and D.J. Reader made life difficult for opposing offenses.
The program was also in its early stages of becoming one of the elite programs in college football.
[Defense is] the reason I came here, not only because of the kind of coach and man Coach [Dabo] Swinney is and has created, but the kind of coach [Brent] Venables is,” Skalski said.