Clemson Football Monday Practice Report

Nov. 9, 2009

CLEMSON, SC – The 24th ranked (AP) Clemson Tigers worked for 90 minutes on the practice fields behind the Jervey Athletic Center on Monday night. The Tigers, who have won four in a row and are 15th in the Sagarin computer rankings, are preparing to face NC State in an important Atlantic Division game on Saturday at noon in Raleigh.

A victory will put Clemson even closer to an Atlantic Division title. Saturday’s game is big for the Pack if they want to go to a bowl game this year.

“This is a big game for both teams,” said Dabo Swinney on Monday. “We need it to win to continue our goal of winning the Atlantic Division and they need it go to a bowl game. NC State played well in defeating Maryland last weekend, and they made a good run last November to get to a bowl.”

With it being the 10th week of the season, the Tigers have some injured players. But, Coach Swinney is optimistic he will get just about everyone back for Saturday. “Everyone who plays college football is sore this time of the year. It is the 10th game and we have been going at it since August 3. We are coming off a hard fought game with Florida State. We need to grind it out and stay focused on the prize.”

DaQuan Bowers was held out of practice, but did some conditioning work on the side throughout the practice. He is questionable for this game with a sprained knee, an injury that forced him to miss the Florida State game.

Chris Chancellor was in a yellow jersey after suffering a sprained ankle against Florida State. He did some running on the side and is expected to play this weekend. Michael Palmer missed the practice with a pulled hamstring, but is expected to play this Saturday. CJ Spiller sat out the Monday practice, which has been the norm all year as he deals with a toe injury. But he should be ready to go on Saturday. Jamie Harper, who missed some of the Florida State game with a thigh bruise, was back at practice full go on Monday.

Swinney said he was pleased with the performance of the offensive line in Saturday’s win over Florida State. “Everything is keyed off what the offensive line does, and they did a great job, especially in the fourth quarter. We had very few missed assignments across the front line against Florida State. We have scored at least 38 points in four straight games, the first time that has been done in school history. It all starts up front.”

Graduate wide receiver Kyle Johnson will not make the trip this weekend with the team due to a death in his family.