The Terrell File
- One Second-Team All-Pro selection, 2021
- One College Football Playoff national championship, 2018
- One First-Team All-ACC selection, 2019
- One Third-Team All-ACC selection, 2018
31 Questions With A.J. Terrell
You don't become an elite NFL cornerback on accident. In a league with athletic freaks at every position, being able to dominate week-in and week-out demands intangibles others aren't willing to add to their game.
For A.J. Terrell, that means 31 questions were the key to his ascension.
Back at Clemson, a position coach named Mike Reed handed Terrell a checklist during his freshman year. It provided a template for notes during film study and facilitated Terrell's ability to study opposing receivers. What to they do on early downs? Does the quarterback tap the ball before he throws? Such a long list of questions can be daunting, but when it is the difference between winning and losing on game day, it's paramount to study up.
This habit has driven Terrell to be the smartest defender on the field, and so far, it's been a worthwhile task.
"It's almost like an open-book test," said Reed, in an interview with ESPN. "So it has questions written so now when you're watching the film, you're watching it with purpose. You're not just watching film to watch film."