Clemson Holds 68 Play Scrimmage in Death Valley

by Press Release - Sat Mar 10 18:21:39 GMT-04:00 2001

CLEMSON- Aaron Hunt made all five of his kicks to highlight a 68-play scrimmage by the Clemson football team on Saturday. The sophomore place kicker converted two extra points and field goals of 28, 31 and 33 yards during the course of the scrimmage.

"Overall the effort was good," said head coach Tommy Bowden. "Now we have a starting point where we can look at the film and see how far we have to go. Aaron Hunt made all of his field goals and extra points. I was encouraged by what I saw."

Willie Simmons started for an injured Woodrow Dantzler, who had surgery to repair a lower leg injury and is not expected to practice until after spring break. Simmons completed 10-18 passes for 67 yards, including a 2 yard touchdown toss to fullback Chad Jasmin. He also rushed four times for 26 yards.

"He had some good throws today. He made some key ones in the red zone," said Bowden "He had a lot of dropped balls so that probably skewed his numbers a bit. He looked good in his first time with the number one unit."

Carson makes the stop on the goal line.

Matt Bailey led all receivers with four catches for 21 yards. The longest play of the scrimmage was a catch and run from Matt Schell to J.J. McKelvey. Keith Kelly rushed seven times for 33 yards and a touchdown, and Bernard Rambert had seven rushes for 31 yards to lead a backfield that was without senior Travis Zachery, who is recovering from a broken foot suffered in the Gator Bowl.

Linebacker Altroy Bodrick had nine tackles to lead the defense and cornerback Toure Francis recorded three tackles and three PBUs to lead the secondary. Safety Marcus Houskin recorded an interception and had the highlight of the scrimmage on defense. He broke up a pass play by delivering a bone-crushing hit to Kelly that jarred the ball loose and sent Kelly to the sideline.

"Marcus Houskin had a big hit and an interception," said Bowden, "Rodney Thomas and John Leake looked pretty good. We didn't give up any big plays, on defense today. That was an objective, so we're encouraged by that."

Offensive lineman Nick Black suffered the only injury of the scrimmage. Black suffered a knee injury and will be re-evaluated to determine the extent of the ailment. The Tigers will practice this Monday, Wednesday and Friday, then take time off for spring break. Spring practice will conclude with the Spring Game on April 7th at 3 pm.

Passing

Player Comp. Att Yds TD INT

Simmons 10 18 167 0 0

Schell 3 10 54 0 1

Carr 3 7 27 0 0

Bever 0 1 0 0 1

Total 16 36 148 1 2

Rushing

Player Att. Yds Long TD

Kelly 7 33 12 1

Rambert 7 31 16 0

White 5 30 15 0