Ex-Pitt defensive coordinator Josh Conklin ready for return trip to Death Valley
When Wofford coach Josh Conklin walks into Death Valley on Saturday, faced with the daunting task of confronting No. 4 Clemson with his FCS Terriers, he might look around and declare, “This looks familiar.”
And, then, he could smile.
It was three seasons ago, when Conklin was Pitt’s defensive coordinator, that he helped the Panthers engineer a shocking upset of eventual national champion Clemson, 43-42.
It was a big victory for Pitt, but Conklin also is a realist.
“If you’ll notice,” Conklin modestly told goupstate.com, “(Clemson quarterback) Deshaun Watson set a record that night.”
Watson threw for an ACC record 580 yards, but Conklin’s defense intercepted him three times, kept the Tigers scoreless in the fourth quarter and forced Clemson to give up the ball on downs before Chris Blewitt’s game-winning field goal.
Conklin is in his second season as Wofford’s coach, and he has led the Terriers (5-2, 4-1) into first place in the Southern Conference. A year ago, Wofford reached the second round of the FCS playoffs and finished 9-4.
The game Saturday will be only the 16th between the two South Carolina schools, but the series dates all the way back to the 19th century. Clemson won that first game, 16-0, on Nov. 21, 1896.
How will Conklin try to avenge that defeat? First, he must find a way to slow down a Clemson offense that is averaging 526 yards per game, fourth in FBS.
“They’re going to gain yards,” he said. “They’re going to move the football. They’re going to score points. What we’ve got to do is find places to get stops.
”Can you get a couple of turnovers? Can you get them to throw you one or fumble one away? Can you get off the field on third down?
“That was the thing about that night. We got some stops. We got some picks. We got some turnovers. That last stop of the game on fourth down was huge.”
In the bigger picture, that 2016 Pitt season gave Conklin a chance to send a message to his Wofford players on the first day of practice two years ago. He showed them his Pinstripe Bowl ring.
“My point to them was that it really didn’t mean that much to me,” Conklin said. “Why would you want a ring for going to a bowl game? Right?
“You get rings for winning championships. If you get six wins, you go to a bowl game. Yeah, we knocked off Clemson. But they won the national championship. They got the big rings.”
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Jerry DiPaola is a TribLive reporter covering Pitt athletics since 2011. A Pittsburgh native, he joined the Trib in 1993, first as a copy editor and page designer in the sports department and later as the Pittsburgh Steelers reporter from 1994-2004. He can be reached at jdipaola@triblive.com.
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