Clemson Football Practice Report: Monday, August 31

Aug. 31, 2009

Clemson, SC – Clemson practiced for less than 90 minutes on Monday evening on the practice fields behind the Jervey Athletic Center. Dabo Swinney’s team is preparing for its season opener against Middle Tennessee and former Clemson assistant coach Rick Stockstill.

The Tigers were in good shape physically as just two players were limited by injury. Wide receiver Xavier Dye was in a green jersey due to a pulled hamstring and backup center Dalton Freeman was in a yellow jersey with the same injury.

Everyone else was in their respective orange (offense) or white (defense) jersey, including preseason All-ACC receiver Jacoby Ford, the only ACC receiver on the preseason watch list for the Biletnikoff Award.

“Jacoby looked good tonight,” said Swinney. “He moved well, made his cuts.”

The players were greeted at the entrance to the practice fields with a sign in white paint on the green grass that said “Football Focus”. “We put that out there to emphasize that we want efficient practices. When you come on this field it is all concentration on football. We want them to hit it (the field) and get it.

“We got better tonight. There was great intensity and attention to detail. You have to have that to be successful. I saw great spirit and energy on both sides of the ball.

“Monday’s will be a day of correction throughout the season. We had that some tonight even though we didn’t have a real game on Saturday, but we did correct some mistakes made in the “Beanie Bowl.”

Swinney told his team Tuesday’s practice would the last “physical” day of practice prior to the opener. He also talked about the importance of turnovers in the game. “Tuesday’s practice I want to see takeaways on defense and no giveaways on offense,” Swinney told his team in his post practice talk. “I want to see the offense treat the ball like it is 12 ounces of pure gold.”