Quotable Bowden: Tigers' Spring Practice Continues |
Clemson head coach Tommy Bowden offered his thoughts on Friday's spring workout: ON TURNOVERS DURING SKELETON DRILLS “That’s not good on offense, but that’s the kind of mentality you want to develop on defense,” Clemson coach Tommy Bowden said. “If you can start doing it everyday you build that personality to where everyone (on defense) is going to get one.” ON ENTHUSIASM FOR SATURDAY'S SCRIMMAGE “We ended up with a pretty spirited practice,” Bowden said, “but you are looking for enthusiasm and we had fun several times. “I let them banter back and forth a little bit and then they started talking the scrimmage up and about getting after each other and all that. A lot of that is anticipation on what is going to happen in the first scrimmage.” WHAT HE WANTS TO SEE - OFFENSE “You like to see the offensive line take control of the scrimmage with the running game and establish some sort of running superiority,” he said. “Defensively you like to see them establish the line of scrimmage. “I’m anxious to see how our young defensive linemen go against our veteran offensive line.” DEFENSE “You like to see some on the field leadership take over,” he said. “The first time the first-team defense is on the field together you like to see how they kind of gel and how their personality and chemistry evolves. “I want to see some big plays (offensively) and how Will manages the team. This will be the first time we will get to see him do that.” OFFENSIVE LINE “That is a position that takes awhile to learn from a communication standpoint and so many combination blocks,” he said. “By the end of spring we need to see which of those red-shirt guys will be able to help us because right now we are pretty solid up front.” Bowden said he is very interested to see how far guys such as left tackle Tim DeBeer, left guard Chris McDuffie and right tackle Christian Capote have come since last season. SECONDARY “We have six guys battling for two spots and it’s the deepest we have been,” he said. “We are in the best position to find two quality guys since I have been here.” FINAL NOTES Cornerback Sergio Gilliam and safety Chris Clemmons will miss today’s scrimmage as they attend separate funerals. Gilliam could see some action, but if he does it will be very little. Zach Green (stomach) and Donald Clark (knee) will also be held out. Bowden said both Green and Clark will miss all of spring practice and he hopes to have both back in August. Green is recovering from a stomach ailment, while Clark is recovering from season-ending knee surgery after tearing his ACL in last year’s Duke game
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