Bowden: No Worries About Being Too Jacked Up For Saturday

by Dan Scott - Correspondent - Wed Nov 07 19:54:42 GMT-04:00 2007

CLEMSON - Another day, another spirited practice for Clemson. So it goes as Saturday's Noon showdown with Wake Forest draws ever closer.

There have been times when such emotion would render a caution from head coach Tommy Bowden, the coach warning that you play the game on Saturday - not Monday or Tuesday. He prefers to build to a fever pitch as the week moves forward.

This week, however, he doesn't see his team peaking too early from an emotional standpoint. The importance of the game stands as one reason. The time of the year another.

"There's too much at stake and I don't think there's any chance of that," said Bowden following Wednesday's workout. "If we had full pads on and were maybe doing some live goal line (drills), something like that...But it's too late in the season to practice like that.

"I think early in the year, with all the excitement building up to the first couple of games, you can do that."

Enthusiasm and emotion will be important Saturday, but so will execution.

Wake Forest has nine non-offensive touchdowns so far this season - two kick returns and seven fumble or interception returns for scores. So while statistically the Demon Deacons don't wow opponents, they get results.

And they do it in a way Bowden admires.

"I told our team it's not illegal to score (on defense)," he said. "We had three or four last year. We have none this year. I'd like to get a few."

Meanwhile, while the focus is definitely on the Deacs across the board, a number of students are camping out in front of the IPTAY offices in an attempt to get first crack at the leftover tickets for next week's Boston College game.

Bowden said it isn't the first time he's seen it this season.

"When we eat on Wednesday's there's been a crowd over there about every home game," he said. "Our players have to walk right through it, so we've seen it every home game we've played. The first time I took them a bunch of food. It was toward the end of training table; I took them a bunch of steak and shrimp, bottled water. We took a bunch of food out there.

"It was summer and a lot warmer. They'll have to pay a little price now because it's gotten cold."