CLEMSON FOOTBALL

Rain Wreaks Havoc With Clemson Practice


by - Correspondent -

CLEMSON - Tommy Bowden gambled with Mother Nature Tuesday and lost. Afterward, he vowed that it wouldn't happen again.

Clemson's only practice Tuesday, schedule for late afternoon, was wiped out because of the thunderstorms that blew through the area. The Tigers were reduced to working out inside Jervey gym (offense) and the team meeting room (defense), with minimal results.

"We've completed our installation, so today it was just working on assignments," Bowden said. "We couldn't really work on alignment because of the lack of space. Had we been able to get to the (indoor track facility) where there's room and turf, we could have spread out some.

"But with all the lightning we couldn't load up 15 trucks and get the team over there."

The team is scheduled for two-a-day workouts on Wednesday, then Thursday Bowden said he will adjust his schedule.

"The optimum use of our time is two meetings in the morning, practice in the afternoon and maybe another meeting at night," he said. "But I've already gambled with the weather once now and lost. So I won't do that again. We'll practice in the morning Thursday, then if it rains we have some flexibility where the afternoon is concerned."

In other news from Tuesday:

- Bowden said for the first time that if the season started today, Jimmy Maners would be the starting punter over Cole Chason.

"He's been more consistent, and has really worked hard on improving his get-off time," said Bowden.

Freshman Richard Jackson continues to nurse a bad back, and is falling out of the punting competition. However Bowden said he will still be in the mix for kickoff duty.

- Bowden said he has been pleased with his team's work in the punt protection area, where he has gone away from the spread alignment to a more traditional set. But he cautioned that the work to shore up what was a glaring weakness for his team a year ago is just beginning.

"We didn't get any punts blocked in practice last year," Bowden said. "That wasn't where the problem was. It was all the kicks blocked in games that caused the problems."

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