Tigers Prep for Opener against Marshall

Aug. 24, 1999

CLEMSON, SC — Clemson worked for two and a half hours on the practice fields behind the Jervey Athletic Center on Tuesday. The Tigers continue to prepare for the Marshall opener on September 4th at 6:00 PM.

The best news was that no one suffered any major injury on Tuesday. The Tigers will scrimmage on Wednesday, so it is important to have as many healthy players as possible. Wide receiver Rod Gardner showed improvement and was in a yellow jersey. He could scrimmage on Wednesday. T.J. Watkins is still out due to a high ankle sprain, but should return next week.

The Tigers will hold a similar practice to Tuesday’s on Thursday, then have a run-through practice on Friday in which the staff and players will work on game mechanics, pregame routines, special situations, etc.

“We needed some wet ball work, so it was good that it rained some today,” said Bowden after practice. Clemson started practice about 45 minutes earlier than usual to avoid a possible late thunderstorm.

“We have had plenty of hot weather, now we need to work on throwing it in the wet weather, so this is good. If it is wet tomorrow we will work in it, we need the practice. You have a check list of things to work on in preseason and that is one area we need some work.

“In tomorrow’s scrimmage consistency is the most important factor. We need to be fired up on defense and show some improvement from the last scrimmage. But, I am confident they will. We have a strong defensive tradition at Clemson.

“We are into working on Marshall totally, we really started that three or four days ago. I respect Bob Pruett, he is a fine coach who I have known for many years. I respect his opinion and he says that Chad Pennington is a better quarterback than Danny Wuerffel He was at Florida when Wuerffel was there, so I respect his opinion.”

Wednesday’s scrimmage is closed to the public and the media. The media may attend the first 30 minutes of stretching and pregame kicking drills.