Wednesday Practice Report

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Wed Oct 07 22:08:39 GMT-04:00 2009

CLEMSON – Just before the Clemson Tiger football team finished their practice on Wednesday night, a large group of players started exiting the practice fields behind Jervey.

These players were not wearing pads and helmets, however, but instead were carrying batons, tubas and trumpets.

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said he had recently invited Tiger band director Mark Spede to bring the band out to practice, and the band took in a portion of the practice and also lent their skills to simulating a game-day atmosphere by playing some tunes.

"It was great," Swinney said. "They're a group that's just always supportive. They're always there, whether it is raining or sunshine or whatever. They practice all summer. They're here in camp when we are. They hurt just like we hurt. They put a lot of time into practicing to be the best, and they feel the same pain we do, so it was good to have them out today."

Swinney then turned his attention back to the Maryland game, and the sack of Kyle Parker that effectively ended any hopes of a Tiger comeback.

Parker dropped back to pass, but lost a fumble after a linebacker came in untouched on a blitz, and Swinney said that there were two errors on the play that contributed to the fumble.

"They brought two off the edge," Swinney said. "It's a quick-game protection. You don't take a sack on a quick-game protection. There are two guys. One of them was going to come free, and our back should've taken the inside guy. He took the outside guy. So we had a mistake there.

“But we were in “Yankee” on that play, and that is catch, cock and throw, so they should have never been there. It's either there or it's not a sack. Just a mistake. That's on us. “

Swinney also said that starting left tackle Chris Hairston spent the entire practice with the first string. Hairston has missed most of the past two games with a sprained MCL in his left knee that he suffered on a fourth down play in the TCU game. His absence was felt at Maryland as Clemson struggled with the left part of the offensive line.

Swinney also mentioned right tackle David Smith, who played just under 20 snaps at Maryland, giving Landon Walker a rest at different times.

"I thought David played pretty good,” Swinney said of Smith. “We were very encouraged by him. And the same thing in practice today. He did some good things. Hopefully that's a good sign and we can keep developing another guy. He's a very athletic, strong kid. But he's still developing into what we hope he can be."

Junior receiver Xavier Dye, who has had his struggles this season and even quit the team briefly last month, had a touchdown pass during Wednesday’s practice.

“I think he's a good example to a lot of people why you don't quit,” Swinney said. Why you don't just give up when things aren't going your way. He was first team for a reason, and he dropped to second and third team for a reason too. But his mentality is different. I think he's grown a lot just from that little incident that he had."