Tommy Bowden Press Conference

by TigerNet Staff - Tue Sep 14 14:52:11 GMT-04:00 2004

"Let me just briefly mention that I talked to my sister last night, and she wanted to mention the tremendous amount of mail and support she has gotten from Clemson people. She was appreciative that they had sent their condolences and thoughts and prayers in regards to what happened last week.

"We are disappointed with the loss last week. Any time you have one where you think you have it won right there in the end it's tough. All losses are tough to take, but I think this team last year showed some resiliency and was able to bounce back. The obvious characteristic of this team after two conference games is that they will fight for 60 minutes. Since that has been their trademark so far, I would think that we will carry that attitude into this week's game.

"The two most insignificant days are yesterday and tomorrow. The most important thing is today, and that game last week is yesterday, it's behind us. Can we learn something from it? Yeah, but we won't change practice routine or anything like that.

"Do the players rally around and respond in times like this? Yes, they do. We had several players that could have made a play in that game that would have taken an extra 30 seconds off the clock. Our team is knowledgeable about what could have been done to prevent that situation.

"I want to bring up the positives with my team. If you want your team to carry over anything it's the ability to fight. You want them to fight for 60 minutes and this team will do that. Those are some of the characteristics we showed the last four games of last season. Center-quarterback exchange problems, we haven't had any, 10 men on the field or 12 men on the field, we haven't had any, only two sacks in two games, running game is getting better. We are doing a lot of positive things. The thing I like the most is that they'll fight for 60 minutes.

"Usually early in the season the kicking game suffers. We have already blocked a punt, returned one for a touchdown, and we haven't given up a return or had one blocked. So I think we are a pretty solid team but we lost the game. We have to focus on the positives because we lost and that is the most important thing, but we are doing some things well.

"You like to think you have the ability to motivate a team and get their minds refocused after a disappointing loss. It's more the staff and the players themselves as far as how we have responded in the past. (Clemson is 9-1 under Bowden the week after a loss by seven points or less). I don't play the next game myself as far as taking a snap, or blocking or tackling. I think we have a pretty good idea of how to approach the team after a tough loss.

"Texas A&M is a tough place to play. I have been there once with Alabama in 1988 in a game that was moved to the end of the season because of a Hurricane. We won that game, but I was still impressed with the atmosphere. We have loyal fans here and they do at Texas A&M. The fact that we have played in environments like that should help us some. When you want to go to the top atmospheres in college football, you have to put a game at

DB Justin Miller

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DL Maurice Fountain

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DL Vontrell Jamison

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