Q & A: Bobby Bowden Part 2

So the fact that this was a loss, maybe you'll put things on the table?

BOWDEN: Might be. We'll look ... I think our kids are playing hard. It's just the dadgum execution of the thing.

Were you happy with moving Alex Boston inside and will it stay that way?

BOWDEN: I haven't studied it. I haven't talked to coaches. They'll be grading the film today. I'll grade the film too and then talk to them about it.

What were the timeout issues in the first quarter where you burned all three timeouts in a blink of an eye?

BOWDEN: Defense called how many of them, one? Defense called one. ... One the first one (by the offense), something happened. They lined up wrong, so the quarterback called time out. I believe that's what happened. Then the next one, was the defense. Then the third one ... Did it hurt anything. It's the first half. What can it mean in the first half?

You wouldn't be able to challenge a call without a timeout.

BOWDEN: I haven't thought about that. We've about determined we wouldn't use a challenge until the second half anyway. We're going to save our challenge if we can. Plus, the fact that they are going to look at every play (in the replay booth). Sometimes I wish they wouldn't, maybe they wouldn't have seen that fumble. It works good and bad ... But yes, that was very poor management of time outs.

It looked like you ran straight at the defense a little more, kind of like you did late against Troy. Was that because they were banged up with their linebackers and safety or did you see anything after Troy?

BOWDEN: Going dead ahead? That's the style nowadays. It's the style. It's the zone blocking. You take the ball to a certain point and sometimes it will break back over here or bounce outside. Sometimes it goes straight in there ... . There is a science to that doggone thing. We've popped some through there. We've just got to get better at it.

Is that at least something that was encouraging?

BOWDEN: Well, we worked on it last week, so you'd say, 'At least what you worked on, you did better.' But the only thing is I think you sacrificed some of your passing game, you know? You ran the ball 38 times, which is good if you are making real positive yardage. But if you had thrown it 10 more times, would you have broken something? We don't know.

Greg Carr didn't have a chance for a catch last night. He was one of your most productive players last year and now he's not getting on the field. What is behind that?

BOWDEN: Like I said, a lot of it is he's not our best blocker. When we are trying to run the ball, we put somebody in who can block for him. Now you've got your top receiver out. That's why I said I'm not sure I'm willing to do that anymore. He probably got caught out of the game a lot.

Does that also have to do with his route-running and his day-to-day preparation?

BOWDEN: I think his preparation has been pretty good. He's got some learning to do, which he'll get. He's what, a sophomore? He'll get it.

The defense allowed three touchdown drives of 80 or more yards against Clemson, one for 85 yards. They are so good at times, so is that inexperience?

BOWDEN: I don't know. That's not a good sign ... One thing, our offense ain't turning the ball over on the goal line. It's not like our offense is fumbling on our 10 and the other team scores. At least the offense is getting the ball out of there ... But I'm amazed that they got three drives over 80 yards for touchdowns. That ain't supposed to happen.

Clemson does have a great offense, though. He's got every offensive lineman back from last year. Maybe his first and second team. I think he loses four of them next year and the other one will probably go out and go first round. This is there year, offensively especially. That quarterback is a fifth-year senior. His offensive line is experienced. I said it before, I think at the ACC (Kickoff), Clemson may be the team to beat. They should have beaten B.C. They could be the team. Their offense is tough.

You won the first four games with Tommy and now he's won three of the last four. How do you account for it?

BOWDEN: I think everybody in the conference has gotten better ... Somebody asked me on TV last night if we had fallen back. We're not quite where we were. Maybe we are lacking one super runner or super lineman or one guy who could put us over the edge. The thing is, Clemson and everybody else has gotten tougher.

But Tommy is the only coach you are going against who is your son?

BOWDEN: Yeah, I can't stand him ... He got the best of us last night, no doubt about it ... It hurts as much as any (other loss). It's good for him, but it doesn't help me a bit ... I like to see him do good, but not at my expense. The best I can hope for Tommy is for him to go 11-1, lose to us. That's why this thing is no fun anymore for your family. He's got to beat me and I've got to beat him, and neither one of us is going to give the other anything. Just because he's my son I'm not letting off, and just because I'm his old man, he's not going to let off, either.

... What is happening at Clemson is happening with Tommy, who happens to be my son. But it could have happened with any other coach, too, who had been there. They might have won last night, too.

Next year, we've got most of ours back and he probably loses some pretty good ones, maybe that thing turns around. .. We've still got too much. This team here looks like a team with potential that you can tell ain't there yet. If we can continue to just manage to win, if we can win until we finally grow up and get it together, that's kind of where it is ... It's not like we can walk out there and just beat people ... Troy and Georgia Tech were close yesterday, so they are a little bit better than people think, and Tech had a warning from our game and they were still 14-14 .. Everybody is getting pretty good players.

It's not any fun anymore, is it? You don't know who's going to sneak up and knock you upside the head do you?

BOWDEN: You don't know ... You sure don't know ... As long as I've been here, we probably went years where we didn't lose to anyone where we were heavily favored, like a Troy or Southern Miss. Now you are seeing more of it now.

How hard is that at this stage of your career when you look back and there were so many games you won by large margins and now everything is a dog fight?

BOWDEN: It's changed that way. When we first got in there, we had some blowouts. But dadgum, I think everybody has gotten better, especially at their place ... I don't like the losses any less than I did 30 years ago. The thing I probably accept more than I used to is a close win. A close win is a win to me. A win is a win to me. You can have all that other stuff, I just want to win. Now when we do something bad, I like to know why we did it and see if we can get it corrected. But I've learned to be happy, very happy, with a win.

After last night, do you fight the temptation to make changes just for the sake of making them?

BOWDEN: I want make them just to make them. If we see anything that needs to be changed, though, we're less likely to back down off it.

On that fumble, could you see the 'mutual possession' that they called?
BOWDEN: I couldn't tell on the highlight film. All I know is our guy came up with the doggone ball.

Based on your comments last night, it appears "mutual possession' is not a phrase you were familiar with?

BOWDEN: I've heard it on a forward pass, but never on a fumble. I've always heard if two guys go up for a pass and they both come down with the ball that the offensive guy gets it, but I've never heard that on a fumble.

You are fixing to play a Rice team that is making a dramatic change in offense. How difficult is it to go from option personnel to a pro set? They are running a spread.

BOWDEN: It takes time. You've got to recruit that kind of player. I think Nebraska showed you that. Nebraska has always been a pounding team, an option team, then all of a sudden they hire a pro coach and he changes it, and they don't go to a bowl for the first time in 30 years or something like that. But now he's doing better, beginning to get his kind of material in there.

Have you ever tried to make that kind of change in your career?

BOWDEN: You know, the most drastic change I've probably made is in the last two years where we quit flip-flopping our line. That was a pretty big change. A lot of that is mental because the thinking changes. That's probably the biggest change I've made ... I've run the Wing-T, I've run the option, I've run the triple-option, I've run the pro-set, the pro-I, the spread. So I've brought a lot of different things to fit the personnel.

Do you have second thoughts about not flipping the offensive line?

BOWDEN: No, I think it's fine. I think all the pros do that. I don't know if they are flipping or not. I would think out of 120 college teams, I would think 110 of them don't flip. It might be all of them don't flip now that we don't. I don't think the pros flip flop a lot.

Are you confident after three games that you have a playmaker?
BOWDEN: Is there somebody who can break a dadgum game open? We sure haven't. We still have to remember it's only three games. We've got time for that to happen. But right now, it hasn't happened, and we sure need it to happen.

How much tougher is it that you don't have a guy like that to make defensive coordinators nervous?

BOWDEN: Now we did have that with Carr last year, so we've got to get that going again. We tried to get into the running game more yesterday, and that's not my mentality ... Last year everybody wanted to know where he (Carr) was so they would put two guys on him ... We got receivers hurt last night and got in a bind there for a while. De'Cody (Fagg) had to come out and (Joslin) Shaw, who backs him up, hurt his ankle and couldn't go back in. We put a freshman on that side and it got a little tight.

Was there anything physically wrong with Carr?
BOWDEN: I don't think so ... I'm going to take a look at that, what we are doing.

Did you catch any of the Louisville and Miami game? How surprising was that to you? It hasn't been a good year for the ACC.

BOWDEN: Boy, I know it. No. 1, Miami came out and went right down the field and scored, running the ball. Then that dadgum Louisville. I couldn't believe how good they are. It was amazing. They have really gotten good.