Venables very open about how, why his defense got beat by LSU

For the first time since Clemson’s loss to LSU in the national championship game, defensive coordinator Brent Venables spoke to media as the Tigers wrapped up Day 5 of spring practice on Wednesday.

Like he was after the game, Venables was very complementary to LSU, an offense which racked up 628 yards and scored 42 points against his proud defense.

“When you make mistakes against real good explosive people, they will make you pay,” Venables said. “Mistakes as a play caller, mistakes in a leverage, mistakes situationally, third-and-19 … We played great in the red zone all year and had our worst game. We made too many critical errors and, again, they made us pay for some critical red zone…