Bowden discusses Morris and new offense |
PINEHURST, N.C. – Former Clemson head coach Tommy Bowden will be busy this season, working for the ACC Network and Raycom Sports as well as doing a college football show for FoxSports.
Bowden was in attendance at the ACC Football Kickoff at the Pinehurst Resort in Pinehurst, N.C. on Sunday, and he told TigerNet that he was anxious to further his television career. “Raycom handles the ACC Game of the Week, and this year they are starting a new pregame show that will start at noon,” Bowden said. “The game used to start at noon, but now the game will start at 12:30. I will be the host, and we give analysis before the game and halftime analysis. With FoxSports, we are starting a new show that will be focus on the ACC, the SEC and Conference USA. It will be shot on Thursdays, and played Thursday nights, Fridays and up until noon on Saturdays,” Bowden admitted that he has been keeping tabs on current head coach Dabo Swinney and his hire of new offensive coordinator Chad Morris, and said that the way Morris runs an offense reminds him of his early seasons with Rich Rodriguez at Clemson. “It is kind of cutting edge, something that defensive coordinators are not used to seeing,” Bowden said. “It is something similar to what we did with Woody Dantzler at Clemson when we came over from Tulane. We were on the cutting edge of something different, and it takes defenses a little while to get used to it. “With Chad, he is taking the shotgun and the zone read and moving it now to the zone read option. Some of the play action is lateral, where the quarterback is taking it east and west with a little fake. That freezes the linebacker and the secondary. That makes a different set of problems, and it is cutting edge in that regard.” Bowden said that what Morris does offensively will give Clemson an advantage over the rest of the ACC, simply because no other school in the conference runs a similar offense. “There is no doubt that we had an advantage when we came to Clemson,” he said. “Was it the great Sun Tzu who said that surprise is a great element in warfare? Chad is going to be attacking the perimeter. He is saying that he is going to be throwing the ball down the field six or seven times a game, but he also wants to run over 80 plays per game. “His offense is about deception, misdirection and trickery with a strong emphasis on the running game. That is going to be a definite advantage, along with the great offensive line that Clemson has. They also have all the great skill players, including
Andre Ellington Running Back #23 5-10, 190 Moncks Corner, SC View Full Profile
, who might be the best running back in the conference. They also have
Tajh Boyd Quarterback #10 6-1, 230 Hampton, VA View Full Profile
, who was highly-recruited and very talented. I look for them to have a lot of success based on what they are doing offensively.” He said that another thing he noticed about Clemson in the off-season was the type of receivers brought in with the last recruiting class, and he said he believes they can contribute this season. “With a freshman wide receiver, most of the time the defenders are seven and eight yards off the ball,” he said. “With an offensive lineman, that is just one foot and is less time to make any type of adjustments. So as a wide receiver you can play early. Of course, you really only need one great wide receiver. We had Rod Gardner and he had 86 catches and was the only real major threat we had. But Clemson is going to have probably the best overall set of wide receivers in the ACC.”
Andre Ellington
Tajh Boyd
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