CLEMSON - For a few plays last Thursday, it was almost deja vu for the

Clemson offense.

There was quarterback Willie Simmons, in the shotgun vs. Florida State,

keeping the ball on running plays that made former Tiger Woodrow Dantzler so

dangerous. The fake to running backs Bernard Rambert or Keith Kelly and

keeper in the opposite direction worked for positive yardage almost without

fail against the Seminoles.

Because of that, and some internal evaluating, don't be surprised if you see

more of the same the rest of the way in 2002.

"You want to break tendencies," head coach Tommy Bowden said. "(Defenses)

read a certain angle by the back and a blocking scheme, and they take off

because (the running back) has the ball. We hadn't abandoned it completely.

It's just that we had given the ball to the back 100 percent. It wasn't

really anything Florida State did. It was more of a tendency-breaker than

anything else."

Simmons' rushing totals (13 carries, 50 yards) don't seem impressive until

you factor in he was charged with 17 yards in losses on two quarterback

sacks.

His effectiveness on the ground was a welcome compliment to the career-best

293 passing yards Simmons put up against FSU. And even his two interceptions

could be written off - one was a deflected pass which should have been

caught, and the other was a deep ball thrown from his own end zone on third

and long that actually served as more effective a punt than almost anything

Wynn Kopp got off during the game.

Simmons' performance pleased Bowden, who has seen his quarterback continue to

improve virtually every week.

"He's very accurate, very composed, he ran when he had to run and got

positive yardage," Bowden said. "On the deep throws he made, they were

accurate enough for the guy to catch it or to have an opportunity to catch

it. He made good decisions, and that might have been his most consistent

game."

Willie Simmons Weekly Stats in 2002

Opponent   Com-Att Yds TD-Int Eff    Pct Rush Yds Plays Tot Off 


Georgia      17-37 165 1-1    86.9  .459 8    -29 25    136 


La Tech      25-43 242 0-0    105.4 .581 6    -8  49    234 


Georgia Tech 18-31 176 2-1    120.6 .581 8     8  39    184 


Ball State   17-25 188 1-1    136.4 .680 3    13  28    201 


Florida St   17-27 293 2-2    163.8 .630 13   50  40    343 

Dan Scott covers Clemson University for the Florence Morning News. He also hosts SportsTalk from 10 a.m.-Noon, Monday-Friday, on WCCP-Fm, 104.9. Click here for Dan Scott's SportsTalk discussion board.

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