Thursday, Sep. 04, 2008

Practice report: Bowden gives Ford a call

News of the day

Add another name to Tommy Bowden’s Rolodex of coaches to call for advice.

One name Bowden forgot to mention was former Tigers coach Danny Ford, who still lives on a nearby farm and coached and played at Alabama.

Bowden said he phoned Ford last week before the Alabama loss.

“(It was) to get some perspective, something to tell my team, just about how Alabama played and how they viewed Clemson,” Bowden said. “He gave me some good information. It just didn’t help.”

News that Bowden has called several coaches, including Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban, created a stir.

Bowden said he has called opposing coaches for self-scouting purposes his entire career, particularly picking the brains of coordinators whenever they leave the team his played against.

“I’ve never said I have all the answers,” Bowden said. “I’m surely not going to make an adjustment based on public reaction.”

Stock rising

Left guard David Smith. The redshirt freshman will start at left guard Saturday against The Citadel as the Tigers push toward developing their young linemen in the wake of the Alabama loss.

Stock falling

Cornerback Crezdon Butler. The junior was responsible for busted coverage on both of Alabama’s passing touchdowns.

Quote of the day

“I don’t know if you really can tell until you play.” —Bowden, on how Clemson has responded emotionally

Injury report

Doctors deemed an MRI unnecessary when it was learned junior defensive end Ricky Sapp had suffered a ruptured bursa sac in his right knee and will not require surgery for anything more serious. Sapp hopes to begin jogging today and would like to play a small amount Saturday.

Extra point

As of Wednesday night, kickoff for Saturday’s game with The Citadel was still planned for 3:30 p.m. School officials have been monitoring TropicalStorm Hanna to determine whether the start time should be pushed to later.

Scouting report

Evidence why the Tigers would get little satisfaction over beating The Citadel this weekend: They are a perfect 20-0 against lower-division teams since the NCAA created the tiers in 1978, winning by an average margin of 29 points.

—Paul Strelow