Bowden Pleased With Progress Of The Defense |
Ever since he was introduced as the head coach at Clemson, Tommy Bowden has placed an emphasis on scoring defense. He mentioned to become a national power, you need to be in the top ten in the country in scoring defense.
“Scoring defense is the key. Once we get close to the top ten, we are close. We have a lot of players coming back on defe, a lot of young players coming back.” This season Clemson finished 16th nationally in scoring defense. The Tigers would be 10th nationally, if you take away the two overtime games. The last two games the defense held two top twenty opponents without a touchdown. “Very pleased with their progress, how things ended playing two good offensive teams. Florida State is a top the ACC, and Coach Spurrier speaks for himself, as for his offense. A lot of young guys playing on the two-deep, just very pleased with their progress. Us and Virginia Tech are the only teams in the ACC to force a turnover in every game. This was the first time in 23 years here that a team did not lose a game by seven points or more. The Tigers’ defense has made progress each week during the season. The Tigers played nine freshmen on defense this season, and the players began to mature late in the season, especially up front. “That is where we are the youngest. Jacques McKissic, Rashaad Jackson, and Dorrell Scott are all freshman. Defensive line is where we are the youngest.” On Saturday, the defense had some issues when South Carolina performed some quick snaps. Coach Bowden was asked on Monday, why the official was not standing over the ball as he had done earlier in the year. “It is amazing they did the stand over the ball earlier. It was just a good job on South Carolina’s part. You can do it as long you don’t make a personnel change. If you don’t make any personnel changes, that is fair game. We had put that in, but we did not run it against them.”
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