Clemson vs. Maryland Post-Game Quotes

Sept. 27, 2008

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Clemson Head Coach Tommy Bowden “We self-imploded today. We had critical points in the game where we made mistakes, especially with penalties and fumbles. We didn’t play sharp today and that was the reason we lost.”

“They made plays when they needed to in the second half, and we didn’t. They came out of the locker room with defensive adjustments and they capitalized on that.”

“C.J. and James played extremely well today; however, our mistakes outweighed the positives in today’s game.”

Maryland Head Coach Ralph Friedgen “It was a credit to our players that they could hang in with them. We weren’t playing well and Clemson was playing very well. We were 11 points down at half and I told them at halftime `we were fortunate to be in the situation we are in.’ We took advantage of it and maintained our composure. We started focusing in. We were able to put some drives together and I thought our defense made some good adjustments at halftime. Coach (Chris) Kosh and his staff did a good job. It was really the two keys to the game.”

On stopping C.J. Spiller and James Davis “In the first half we were slanting a lot. We were playing more of a shade. We came back after halftime and played more of straight up defense. We tried to disguise our coverages because they were doing a good job of reading them. We took blocks one-on-one. Davis and Spiller are really good backs. All they need is a crease and they gain yardage.”

On Darrius Heyward-Bey’s 76-yard rush “Coach (James) Franklin wanted to call that play earlier. It was one of those days. We should have had 14 points. Edwin (Williams) was having trouble with the snaps. We screwed that up a few times. They were bringing the backside linebackers and their defensive end. So, then we started running reverses.”

Running Back James Davis “We had a lot of penalties this game and they held us at the end. We still have some things to work on. We’ve got a bye week right now and we’ve got to regain momentum any kind of way. I’m disappointed in the loss, but we’ve got to move on to Wake Forest. We’ve got to be two-dimensional; we just couldn’t get our offense together in the second half.”

Quarterback Cullen Harper “We moved the ball well, but when we moved the ball, we had penalties, and that killed us. I felt like the offensive line made a good push all day. Coming into the bye week with a loss is always tough, but we’ve got to use it as motivation. We’ve got to get better this next week in practice and prepare for a good Wake Forest team.”

Running Back C.J. Spiller “They started bringing guys down that we couldn’t block. We had a bust on one of our reverses that could have been a touchdown. We just have to correct our mistakes and get ready for Wake Forest. We had a bump in the road that we’ve got to get corrected before we go up to Wake Forest.”

Defensive End Ricky Sapp “The biggest thing we did was we self-destructed. We played well in the first two quarters, but we couldn’t finish the job. We knew they had some trick plays coming into the game; they just converted. We’re going to come back together on Monday and just rebuild and refocus and get ready for our next game.”

Defensive End Da’Quan Bowers “I’m upset that we lost, upset that we couldn’t get ourselves off the field and put ourselves in a better situation. I feel like I’m getting better every game, but there’s still a lot of improvement to go. I’m still learning the system bit by bit.”