Out on top

ATLANTA - Malliciah Goodman had one whopper of a performance in his finale as a Clemson Tiger.

In the first 2,059 snaps of his career, Goodman had nine sacks, never recording more than one in a game.

Saving his best for last, the senior from Florence recorded two sacks and was a serious headache for the LSU offensive line during Clemson’s 25-24 Chick-fil-A Bowl win on Monday night.

“Games like this, you’ve got to perform. You’ve got to sell-out, put everything on the line,” Goodman said. “It was just something about it. I was just in a zone. I don’t know what it was. It was a lot of fun to execute, maximize on the opportunities that I had to rush.”

Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables offered a big thumb’s up for Goodman’s play on New Year’s Eve.

“What a neat thing, for him to go out that way,” Venables said. “There’s not a better young man in our program, of character and faith.

“To see him go out there and have the kind of game that he did, make such a big difference in the game, it was huge.”

As Venables noted, there were moments on Monday night when LSU left multiple blockers between Goodman and quarterback Zach Mettenberger.

“A lot of times, he’s getting his pressure -- they’ve got seven and eight man protections, so those are designed to be an impenetrable wall, so to speak,” Venables said. “He’s just winning the 1-on-1 matchups, did a great job.”

Goodman thinks he could have done better.

“I had a couple of missed opportunities that I could have executed on. Overall, I think my play was solid, pretty good,” he said.

Most watching would say it was more than “pretty good.”

Regardless, Goodman and his fellow seniors went out on top with a big win over a big-time opponent on an even bigger stage.

“This moment, I’m going to remember it the rest of my life. It’s one of the greatest moments of my career,” Goodman said.