Clemson Football Practice Report

Aug. 12, 1999

CLEMSON, S.C. — The Clemson football team has now completed six practices in three days. But, Tommy Bowden’s Tigers will bring the intensity of practice to a new level Friday afternoon when the Tigers put on the full uniform. That means full contact football for the first time in preseason practice.

“I know the coaches are anxious, I don’t know about the players,” said Bowden with a smile. “No, the leadership, effort and enthusiasm and attitude have been outstanding and I know they are ready to start hitting on Friday. We had a couple of fights today, that is a positive sign, it shows enthusiasm.

“Tomorrow it will be interesting to see which freshmen will standout when we start hitting. Who is going to jump out?”

The Tigers worked for a little under six hours for the two practices combined on Thursday. It was the third straight day in over 90 degree heat, but for the first time, no one was carted off the field during or at the end of practice due to heat exhaustion. “They ran better today than they did the first day, it does show some progress, but it also shows that conditioning is mental. After six straight practices you usually see fatigue, but Joey Batson has done a good job in terms of conditioning.

Bowden made one position move on Thursday. All-America track star Shawn Crawford, trying out for the Tiger football team for the first time, was moved from wide receiver to running back. “He is tougher than I thought,” said Bowden. “He wanted to play running back when he first came to see me about trying out, but I thought he should start at wide receiver. But, he has shown me in some drills that he is tough enough to play running back, so we moved him there.”

Five players missed practice due to injury. Brandon Rouse missed the day with a knee injury, as did Jermyn Chester, a freshman offensive lineman who was out for the second straight day. He has injured the same knee he injured in high school. He had risen to second team on the depth chart.

David Haselden, an offensive lineman recuperating from a knee injury suffered last spring, also missed the day’s work. Akil Smith suffered a sprained ankle at the end of practice. Freshman running back Chad Jasmin missed the day with a pulled hamstring that is not believed to be serious.

Notes: Clemson will hold its annual fan appreciation day on Sunday from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM at air conditioned Littlejohn Coliseum….as has been the routine at the end of each day, the workouts closed with 350-yard runs, jaunts around the perifery of a practice field….a consistent winner among the offensive linemen was red-shirt freshman Brady Washburn, who does the runs in bare feet….the team did five of these runs with a minute break in between each, one of the conditioning methods used by Bowden to have his team ready for an uptempo offense and defense.