Bowden Talks About Tiger Football

Oct. 12, 1999

Clemson Coach Tommy Bowden’s comments on…

The performance of the Clemson defense against NC State “We gave up a couple of big plays defensively and we have not done that yet this year. We also had a couple of very foolish penalties at the end of the first half which led to a score. The eight minute drive they had at the beginning of the second half was also very discouraging. We gave up 35 points to a team that was averaging about 17. Jamie Barnette has been a very productive four-year starter and we knew that it was only a matter of time before he broke out of his slump. Unfortunately, it came against us.”

Clemson’s decision to go away from the running game against NC State “As long as I am a head coach, I will never abandon the run if I do not have to. NC State has good coaches and they simply took the running game away from us. They put seven or eight guys on the line and I did not think it made sense for us to try to keep trying to run the ball. When teams blitz like they did, we are going to have to throw the ball.”

Woodrow Dantzler’s performance against NC State “For the first time starting in this offense, I thought he did a pretty good job. I promise you if you watch him in two more years you will see an even more productive player. We scored 31 points, so it is not like we were not moving the ball on offense. Once he becomes a little more experienced with what we are trying to do then he will be able to make quicker decisions and the blitzes will not bother him.”

Maryland Head Coach Ron Vanderlinden “I think that his past success gave him a lot of confidence when he took over at Maryland. He has been there three years, and statistically they have made improvements every year. He has gone into Maryland knowing exactly what he wanted to do and he has done that with great confidence. He has every reason to be confident. Maryland has not been 4-1 since 1995.”

Maryland’s kick return team “If we do chose to use the sky kick then we do not want to give them too good of field position. This week we will have to evaluate whether or not it makes sense for us to kick it deep to them or not. We will have to look at the film and decide whether or not there have been breakdowns in their opponents kick coverage or if their return men having been making great plays. If we do sky kick, we want them to down the ball around the 25 yard line.”

The reasons for Maryland’s success this season “I think the biggest key to Maryland’s success this season has been a positive turnover margin. They are second in the nation in that category. Most of the teams that are highly ranked have good turnover margins. Going back to the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, Maryland has an excellent tradition in football. With their 4-1 record this year, we are going to be facing a very good Maryland team this weekend.”