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Nine months ago, Clemson defensive coordinator Wes Goodwin received a raise of more than half-a-million dollars.

Part of that $550,000 bump to $1.4 million was a response to Nick Eason's raise to $1.1 million; you can't have a position coach making more than his boss, or so the logic went.

Of course there were problems beyond the defense last night. But defense is front and center, because no longer is the head coach rationalizing poor statistical trends as the product of numbers skewed by garbage time.

We'll just put it this way: Privately, it has not been a fun season at all for those defensive coaches.

And that was true before Clemson allowed an opposing team to walk into its house and average almost 8 yards a carry.

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