Bowden Discusses Duke Game

Nov. 2, 1999

Duke’s offense as compared to Clemson’s offense

“They like to have a few more blockers near the line than we do but we probably do a little more checking at the line. Our passing game seems to be a little more horizontal while theirs is probably a little more vertical. Also, the formations are a little different. They use two tight ends while we only use one. There are probably more differences in our two offenses than there are similarities.”

The projected playing time of Brandon Streeter and Woodrow Dantzler in this week’s game

“The objective is to win. I am not going to say at this point who will start on Saturday. Often times having two quarterbacks battling for the starting position can create divisions within the team. That is simply not the case here. You can tell by watching their reactions on the sidelines when the other one is on the field. Their support for each other has carried over to all the other players on the team and that has been a real plus for us. Based my own personal experience I believe that two quarterbacks can play and still be effective. Rotating both of them is something that we might or might not choose to do, but I do think it can work.”

Toughness of Brandon Streeter and his influence on the team

“I think Brandon being able to come back this soon from his injury says a lot about him. If you watched the way he got hit in the Virginia Tech game then you know he is a tough guy. It really helps to have a tough guy at quarterback in our offense because we often have five receivers and no blockers in the backfield. I think his toughness has been a real positive influence on the team.”

Duke’s defense

“What scares you about Duke’s defense is that they are very similar to Wake Forest in terms of their experience. Duke has more returning starters on defense than we have on our whole team. They are playing extremely well on defense. They play hard and they present many problems scheme wise. They zone blitz quite a bit and they do not just sit there and wait for you to beat them. They have older guys that are playing and they are the same guys beat Clemson last year. As a group they are playing with a great deal of confidence.”

If the Clemson defense will benefit from facing an offense that is similar to Duke’s everyday in practice

“I think that it will help our defense prepare, but it will also benefit their defense as well. What they run on offense is completely opposite of what Wake Forest runs. Florida State ran a great deal of I-formation and that too was hard for us to simulate in practice. Because their offense is somewhat similar to ours I think it will help us though.”

His evaluation of the Clemson defense through eight games

“We have played eight games and I feel like our defense has played well in six of those games. In the last two games and in the first four games this season we did what we had to defensively. We could not outscore NC State, but we were fortunate to be able to outscore Maryland. In the NC State game, if we would have played defense like we did in those other six then we would have had a chance to win the game.”