Clemson Holds First Music City Bowl Practice

Dec. 26, 2006

Nashville, TN – Clemson Head coach Tommy Bowden worked his team for a solid two hours at the stadium field at Goodpasture High School in Nashville on Tuesday afternoon. The Tigers are preparing to face the University of Kentucky in the Gaylord Hotels Music Bowl presented by Brigestone. It will be the first meeting between the two schools since a 14-13 Clemson win in the 1993 Peach Bowl.

Due to the December 29th date, Clemson will practice just Tuesday and Wednesday before holding a walk-through on Thursday. Kentucky has the same practice schedule in Nashville, as the Wildcats are working out at Vanderbilt’s practice facilities.

“We had a good day of practice,” said Bowden, who is coaching the Tigers in a bowl game for the seventh time in his eight years with the program. “All the players arrived safely today and we then practiced for two solid hours. It was a bit cold (35 degrees), but we got some good work in.

“I thought we needed to have a hard practice because we hadn’t practiced in three days (Dec. 23-25) as the players went home for Christmas. But, we practiced well today.

“This will be very competitive game. Kentucky has had an outstanding season, especially at the end of the year when they have won four of their last five games. Their only loss in that stretch was at Tennessee by five points.”

One of the areas of concern for the Tigers will be in the secondary. Kentucky quarterback Andre Woodson was a second-team All-SEC quarterback who ranked second in the conference in passing efficiency and first in total offense. He completed over 62 percent of his passes, many to All-SEC receiver Keenan Burton, who had over 1000 receiving yards this year. Bowden is faced with matching up against the Wildcats passing game without Duane Coleman, a starting cornerback in all 12 regular season games who had 81 tackles and four takeaways on defense. Coleman has been suspended for the Music City Bowl.

“We will miss Duane because he is a player who has been a leader all year. He brought a certain toughness to the position and someone in the secondary is going to have to step up and take over that role.”

Defensive Coordinator Vic Koenning said after practice that he had not decided who would start in Coleman’s place. C.J. Gaddis, who has started 10 games at cornerback, will obviously be one of the cornerbacks, but the other spot will be held by either Chris Chancellor, Haydrian Lewis, Sergio Gilliam or Crezdon Butler. Chancellor has started three games this year and has 35 tackles, most among the four candidates for Coleman’s position. Butler is a talented first-year freshman who has three interceptions and a caused fumble to Coleman for the team lead in takeaways. Gilliam started nine games in 2005 at the position and Lewis started the season opener.

Bowden said all his players had reported on Tuesday, but the car driven by wide receiver Rendrick Taylor had some tire problems. He arrived about an hour late, but he had called Bowden early this morning to make him aware of the car problems. Taylor had a camcorder with him to document the bowl experience and he actually had video of the damaged tire.

“It was a long day for Rendrick Taylor, but we are glad he arrived safely.”