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Rex Brown

Clemson football defensive coordinator Kevin Steele, left, and head coach Dabo Swinney chat during the Tigers’ basketball game against Alabama earlier this season at Littlejohn Coliseum in Clemson.

CLEMSON — The way Kevin Steele sees it, spring practice, which will begin Monday for Clemson, will be a period in which he wants to maintain the level of success he has inherited.

When the Tigers start practice at 3 p.m. on Monday, he will have nine starters back from a defense that was nationally ranked in total, pass and scoring defense last fall.

“Before I do anything here I want to make sure that everyone clearly understands that this thing is not broke,” Steele said Thursday. “They were pretty good here on defense. They had a good coach, they were well coached, and they had a good scheme. But obviously there has been a change.”

That change will basically come in the form of some formations and the way personnel will be used. For instance, DeAndre McDaniel will move back to his natural position at safety in Steele’s 4-3 base defense. Under Vic Koenning’s scheme, McDaniel was the strongside linebacker last fall. He will only fall into a strongside position under Steele when offenses show three- or four-receiver sets. That will be his nickel package.

Also the way the Tigers line up under Steele scheme will be different as well. Under Koenning, Clemson lined up based on what the boundary and field sides of the field were showing. Steele will have his defense line up based on formations and will be predicated in terms of the defense’s alignment, primarily the number of down linemen used on a given call.

Steele would also like to have bigger linebackers that can run fast.

“You never stay the same and you never have enough,” he said. “Coaches are very greedy people. They always want bigger, stronger, faster players constantly. We have what we have and get them as good as you can get them ready and make sure the scheme is to where you take advantage of their strengths and don’t expose their weaknesses.

“That’s the biggest key.”

The key is also to put enough pressure on the quarterback, which is what Steele loves to do more than anything else.

“I like to blitz because that is my personality, but you will not coach defense long if you blitz Payton Manning just because you like to blitz,” he said. “He will get it to that guy right now and to that guy right now, and then your owner will be saying, ‘Come here.’

“It is not a matter of what you like and what you don’t like. I’m like a lot of people who watch football. I like a lot of pressure. It is fun and it creates a lot of things and sometime it is not so good. Particularly if you have a team that understands protection and is good across the board protection-wise.”

Steele says the biggest thing for him is to see what his personnel can first learn to do, and then he can adjust to what they do well.

“We just kind of put it in a bucket and throw it on the wall and what sticks will stick,” he said. “What doesn’t stick will hit the floor and we will pick it up, put it back in the bucket and throw it back up there again and see what else sticks.

“When the bucket gets a little low, we put some more in there and throw it up against the wall. It is just a process.”

Practice open. Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney announced football practice would be open to the public on Tuesday at 7 p.m. – that’s following the baseball game. Wednesday’s practice, which starts at 2 p.m., will also be open.

Quote of the day. “There are answers built in every package pretty much for everything. I did not invent it. I just copied it,” — Clemson defensive coordinator Kevin Steele.