Clemson Sunday Football Notes

Sept. 22, 2002

Nick Eason had an MRI on Saturday night and the results showedthat he did not have torn ligaments, but does have a sprained knee.He is questionable for Florida State. His status will be updatedthis coming week. The Clemson team will not practice on Monday, sothe next update will be after practice on Tuesday. The Clemson vs.Ball State game took 2 hours and 32 minutes to play. It was thefastest Clemson football game since the Furman game that opened the1994 season, Tommy West’s first game as head coach. That contesttook 2:28 to play. The record for the fastest Clemson game is the1977 contest at Georgia, a 7-6 Tiger victory that took two hoursand five minutes to play. Georgia and Clemson combined to throwjust 23 passes in that game. According to the latest NCAA statrankings Clemson is now 12th in the nation in total defense and14th in rushing defense. Clemson leads the ACC in both categories.Last year Clemson was 71st in the nation in total defense and 69thin rushing defense. Clemson was seventh in the conference in bothareas in 2001. Clemson’s defense will have quite a challenge in itsnext game when it plays at Florida State on October 3. FloridaState is fourth in the nation in total offense, 15th in rushing.They average 40.75 points per game, 15th best in the nation.Individually, Justin Miller are both tied for 30th in the nation ininterceptions with a 0.50 per game figure. Derrick Hamilton is 28thin all-purpose running, averaging 148.5 yards per game. KevinYoungblood is 28th in receptions per game. Aaron Hunt has thehighest individual ranking as the junior kicker is 20th in fieldgoals per game with 1.50. Kick coverage was a problem for Clemsonin the opening game against Georgia as the Tigers gave up a kickoffreturn for a touchdown, the first time that has happened to aClemson team in 12 years. But, Rodney Allison’s coverage unit hasmade a strong comeback and now leads the ACC allowing just 17.0yards per return. Clemson is 27th in poll points in the USA TodayCoach’s poll. Clemson is 24th in the Sagarin computer rankings. TheAssociated Press Poll had not been released as of this writing.Leading the way defensively for Clemson in terms of tackles off thecoaches film were John Leake (14) and Eric Meekins (11).