Bowden Likes Tech Time Change

by Will Vandervort - Correspondent - Wed Oct 26 00:36:00 GMT-04:00 2005

CLEMSON --- Clemson fans can sleep in a little longer Saturday before journeying to Atlanta for the Georgia Tech game at Bobby Dodd Stadium.

The Atlantic Coast Conference announced Tuesday the football game will be moved to 3:30 p.m. and will be televised nationally by ESPN. The game was originally scheduled for noon and was to be broadcasted on ESPN2, but the change was necessitated by the effects of Hurricane Wilma.

“It will be good for us because it will let us do some meetings on Saturday that we would have had to do on Friday night,” said Clemson head coach Tommy Bowden. “It will be a short week for us and a little bit longer one for them so it is a better situation for us.”

Miami hosts North Carolina Saturday at the Orange Bowl in a game that was originally scheduled for 3:30 p.m. However, the Orange Bowl’s lighting system was damaged by the hurricane, so that game had to be moved to noon.

Tickets for the Georgia Tech game are available at www.ramblinwreck.com. Fewer than 2,000 tickets remain.

Opportunistic defense.
The Georgia Tech defense leads the ACC and ranks second nationally with 14 interceptions.

“Pressure, pressure and pressure is why they have so many interceptions,” said Clemson offensive coordinator Rob Spence after Tuesday’s practice. “They put an extremely large amount of pressure on the quarterback and their secondary is the beneficiary of all that pressure.”

The Yellow Jackets (4-2, 2-2) are 10th nationally in pass efficiency defense and 11th in rushing defense. The Jackets are giving up just 95.6 yards a game.

Getting better.
Clemson has made steady improvement on offense this year and now ranks third in the ACC in total offense with an average of 396.3 yards per game. This is quite an improvement over last year when Clemson was 10th in the ACC in total offense with an average of 295.6 yards per game. That is a jump of over 100 yards per game.

Clemson has shown some consistency in terms of scoring and has reached at least 25 points in six of the seven games so far this season. This is the first time since the 2000 season that Clemson has scored at least 25 points in six of the first seven games, and just the second time in the last 27 seasons it has done that.

Over the last three games Clemson has averaged 485.7 yards per game in terms of total offense, gained 6.65 yards per play, averaged 183 yards a game on the ground and 303 yards per game through the air. Clemson has completed 68 percent of its passes over the last three games and has averaged 31.7 points per game during that time.

Hill on the list.
Clemson cornerback Tye Hill was a mid-season addition to the Jim Thorpe Award list. The Tiger senior was not on the preseason list because he was not a returning all-conference player, but he has reached the award’s radar screen with his strong performance so far this season.

Hill is fifth on the Clemson team in tackles with 40, including 31 first hits. He has three interceptions to lead the Clemson team and rank 21st in the nation and he leads the Clemson team in takeaways with four (three interceptions and one fumble recovery).

In his September listing of top senior NFL Draft prospects, Mel Kiper ranked Hill 14th overall, third among defensive backs. Hill made a seven-place jump in Kiper’s rankings since the season began.

Hill had a career high 11 tackles at Wake Forest, including three tackles for loss. That was a Clemson single game record for tackles for loss by a defensive back. He followed that up with an impressive game at N.C. State in front of a press box that had 15 NFL scouts. He had five tackles and a 24-yard interception return in that contest.

Hill now has three interceptions for 35 yards and five total passes broken up for the season. He also has a fumble recovery for a team best four takeaways, and has a caused fumble to be involved in another turnover.

Hill will have his hands full this weekend as he will be a part of a Clemson secondary that faces Calvin Johnson of Georgia Tech, one of the top receivers in the nation.