Q & A: Bobby Bowden Part 1

Your offense has scored three points in the first half of the three games this year. What can you do to improve that production?

BOWDEN: Execution is the only thing ... We were not sharp last night. We were not sharp whatsoever with our passing game. We were just not sharp at all. I don't know why. We've just got to get the execution. If we had executed against Troy and didn't fumble the football we probably would have scored a couple of times in the first half. Last night ... field position has been critical, too. All I've seen is the highlight film and it didn't have much of the game on it. It just seemed like every time we got the ball we were on the 8-yard line, 20-yard line. Seems like we'd have a long way to go and it makes it very difficult to produce points ... I know against Troy we were backed up the whole time, it seems like ... (Against Clemson) We had it four times the whole first half, and the fifth time we killed the clock to get off the field. That's not many at bats, and you've got terrible field position to start with. In a close game you don't want to do anything real stupid. It's the same thing with Auburn and LSU. It's tougher to score nowadays. It seems like everybody is playing better defense.

Tommy is averaging, what, 40 something points a game until yesterday.

The fact that you had just four first-half possessions and you went about 10 minutes of game time without the ball because Clemson got the second-half kickoff, did that also contribute to the lack of continuity on offense?

BOWDEN: Yeah, it's hard to score when you don't have the ball. I think the second quarter we might have had it three minutes ... So anyway you didn't have the ball. That's one explanation. The big thing is not executing. If you are executing, you've got a chance to move the ball and you've got a chance to score. But also you need some field position. You need field position, and I don't think we've had it. The best chance we had last night to getting field position was when they punted out of their end zone, fourth down and a billion. We rough the punter and we fumble or touched the ball down here. Now instead of getting the ball on the 50 or closer, we finally get it down on the 10-yard line. That's an 80-yard swing ... You've got a long way to go.

But our defense scored off that. Blocked a field goal and scored (on Clemson's next possession), so it didn't have any affect on the game.

... The questions y'all ask me today are going to be the same ones they get at Notre Dame. The same ones they get at Oklahoma. The same ones they get at Tennessee. One of the best games yesterday was Auburn and LSU, 7-3. That was one of the best games there was, but they are having problems, too. You simply got to execute better. That's the only thing I know.

What's the solution to that?

BOWDEN: Practice, practice, practice. That's the third game. We've got 10 or 11 more games. Just practice and try to solve it ... We go into that first ballgame and the one thing that is good is our passing. We were sharp against Miami. We didn't throw as often, but we were sharp. We won the game with it. Then you play against Troy, and it's the same. Now you're really sharp throwing the ball. Now you go out there yesterday, and you weren't sharp at all. You hit some, but you weren't sharp. You overthrew the ball, under-threw the ball, didn't protect, too many people around the passer, receivers drop the ball. It just wasn't enough to win the game.

When you look at your offense right now, do you see a void of play-makers? You're not getting guys to make big plays. Receivers don't seem to be getting separation.

BOWDEN: We're not getting big plays. We're not getting big plays.

Why is that?

BOWDEN: Players need to make big plays. We're getting the ball to them. Now someone asked me why we didn't play (Greg) Carr more last night. Well, we were trying to run the ball more, so we were trying to get receivers in there who could block. Now it's keeping one of your best threats out of the game. I'm not sure I'm willing to go with that. I'm not sure I'm willing to give up that passing threat to hammer in the run. I'll have to look at that real good. It's just the third game of the year. We've still got time to adjust.

When you don't have guys who are making big plays, and you are not getting field position, aren't you really up against it then? Then you are looking at needing a 12- to 13-play drive to score.

BOWDEN: What kind of drive did we get to score?

You had the three longest drives of the night in terms of the clock, over five minutes, and you had to punt after the first one.

BOWDEN: Well, it's one of them things where we did some things good, but we didn't do good enough to win the game. We just didn't do good enough to win the game.

You've compared your quarterbacks to pitchers, getting hot and cold. Is there any chance you are going to look at Xavier Lee?

BOWDEN: If you had many more like last night, you'd have to. I don't know ... I think that was just kind of an off-night or something. We need to (see Lee). Our hope was to get him in there against Troy for a quarter and a half, or something like that. But the game was tight and you are fighting to come back, and your quarterback is throwing well. Then last night, you are tied up to the end of the game. I think what happened at the last is we were thinking about overtime. That's where we'd like to be. Let's get this thing into overtime. I think even Tommy was sitting on the ball, but his back broke it. Why was he running the ball when he had a minute and a half to go or something like that, you know.

But they quick snapped. They were trying to hurry you up and mess up your tempo and they caught you?

BOWDEN: They did, didn't they? They did a good job .. The game could have been won on that fumble ... (FSU's Lawrence Timmons appeared to recover a fumble by Clemson quarterback Will Proctor in the final six minutes, but Clemson retained possession). You talk about one play, we could have sat on it right in front of the goal posts and won the game. There was maybe five minutes left. We could have worked it down there and might have scored a touchdown. But instead they got it ... They had to punt there, but a lot of time it gets down to one play.

When you look at the highlights and see where you got caught on the long run by James Davis, what exactly were you trying to do at that point?

BOWDEN: All I saw was the highlight film. They got three big linemen in front of him. It was like a tank. It was like three tanks in front of the guy. It looked like they just pulled them out. I couldn't study it by that film last night. I'll have to get the film and look at it, but he had a wall of blockers out there, boy. Somebody might have missed a tackle.

You talked last week about how hard it is to get players motivated for a game against a team like Troy. Do you risk falling into the same situation with Rice this week, even coming of this loss?

BOWDEN: We need a win so bad, I'd be surprised. The rough thing so far is we've had to play 60 minutes every game. Sixty minutes. It's not like some games where you get into it, and two and a half quarters, middle of the third, you've got it wrapped up. We've had to play 60 minutes. You're afraid to sub. You're afraid to put in somebody who hasn't been in there. The fact that we need this win so much, I don't think there will be a letdown. The kids have played hard every game but the offense needs to execute better. The defense has been playing good enough to win, I think. And our kicking game has been extraordinary.

You've said before that the general tendency of coaches is not to lose a game, not try to win. Then you use that fear thing where you are afraid to substitute. Is there some point, though, where there is the temptation to stir up the pot? When you see a team laboring and laboring and laboring, and you are just not seeing the response that you want, do you think about making changes?

BOWDEN: Usually it takes a loss. When you are winning, you don't like change. If you get a loss, you maybe look at thing.

Three substandard performances by the offense, by the measuring stick used around here, wouldn't be enough?

BOWDEN: Not if we win. To a coach, the objective is to win, not (get) style points. I'd like to get style points, but the win is what you want.