Clemson rising third-year defensive ends Xavier Thomas, a junior, and K.J. Henry, a redshirt sophomore, recently met the media. Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables and Dabo Swinney also recently spoke on Thomas and Henry.

Some of the primary takeaways are below.

Thomas

— On what he's working on the most this spring:

"Mostly my body. I got a little heavy last year. My main thing this year is lowering my body weight and rocking everything up."

Said he's around 265/270 right now and he wants to get down to 255.

"I want to get that speed and burst back that I had my freshman year."

— On if he underachieved as a sophomore:

"Definitely didn't achieve all that I wanted to. But you have to keep a level head and come back to work.

"I definitely got that edge back that I had my freshman year. Personally, I didn't really put this out in the public, but I kind of got like a big head I would say, an entitled mindset last year coming off the freshman year I had. Just got-- like I said a big head. So just humbled myself and went back to work."

Said the entitlement was a self-realization.

"It was definitely internal. Only I knew how my mindset was last year and what it was this year."

— Said he's working on being more physical and watching more film.

Henry

— On what he's working on this spring:

"Coming into my third year, I've realized that it really starts with your mindset. And that's what I've really been trying to focus on."

— On where he grew the most last year:

"I would say confidence-wise. That goes back to the mindset thing. My confidence grew and my teammates had more confidence in me too, and I think that helped me a lot too. I was able to play faster."

— On being prideful about continuing Clemson's tradition of producing top five defenses:

"One thing we started doing this spring was going each day back through the decade of each team and how they helped build the culture here, and I think that's been awesome. Because all we know is winning and championships and things like that, and obviously that's not how it started here for coach Swinney. It's been a really humbling experience to see where it all started and it's kind of put it in perspective, like (a collapse) can happen in a second, so we have to come with a number mindset and attach each day. I think that's where it comes from, just knowing where we come from as a culture and defense, and just taking it from there with an attack mindset, humble mindset, underdog mindset."

— Swinney spoke on both players last week. He was asked specifically what he's looking for out of Thomas this spring and moving forward.