Q & A: Bobby Bowden Part 1

Were you surprised that Boston College coach Tom O'Brien took the safety to give you back the ball with a chance to win the game?

Bowden: Kind of. I think I would have probably gone ahead, I would have probably gone ahead and punted, I think. But it wasn't a bad move. No. 1, he was afraid we were going to block the punt, and that would have tied it. He's going to be sure we didn't do that, so he said I will give them two and we'll get a free kick out of there. Now, he took a chance that if we do score, we win. And it worked for him.

Is it hard for you to remember Drew (Weatherford) is still a sophomore?

Bowden: Yeah, because here's what happens. We work with these guys - we've already been through this with Chris Rix and now we are going through it again with Drew - we know, as a freshman, he can throw the ball, we know if he has time he's accurate. Now does he know where to throw the ball and keep from throwing interceptions? He gets better, he gets better, he gets better. Finally there comes a time when you don't mind throwing anywhere because he's not going to do anything dumb. I kind of felt like he about reached that point, but he hasn't yet. He's normal.

Do you hold him largely responsible for that interception (before halftime) or is that a shared deal because it might not have been the best play-call for that situation? You said you second-guessed that (call) last night (Saturday).

Bowden: I always second-guess it. I haven't seen the film yet, but we send one guy in the flat and we send another down behind him, 15 yards. If the corner takes him (long), you hit him (short). If the corner takes him (short), you hit him (long). The corner sat right on that (short) and that's who we threw to. Were we better off not calling that? Yes, but today's Sunday. Yesterday was Saturday night and we thought that was the thing to do. I wish we hadn't. Just like roughing the punter. If we had to do it again, you wouldn't rush him.

Was the punt-block called by the coaches?

Bowden: I wasn't sure last night whether the kid just took the initiative to try to block it, but I think it was a block (call). Their center had the poorest snap of anybody we've played against in a while - he just lobbed it back there. We weren't trying to block it, we were trying to return it. I was thinking, we ought to try to block it. We can get to this thing. I guess (the coaches) thought the same thing - we can get that thing and we went after it. But again you have a kid in there who is a walk-on who hasn't learned you don't rough that kicker. It's a tough lesson to learn.

Where you thinking at any point in the fourth quarter about putting Xavier Lee in?

Bowden: We were fixing to. When Drew took (team) in for a touchdown, it changed our mind. I can't afford another second quarter of the Duke game. I can't afford that. Once he shows me that's not going to happen anymore, I'll put him in. But we were going to do it the other night. We didn't feel like we were getting production.

Weatherford's numbers were great, but it seemed like he was not able to make the big plays.

Bowden: He missed a lot of them, but he did make some great plays. My feeling - I think I mentioned this last night - we either looked great or terrible. We had some great drives. Every time we got the ball in the first quarter, we were on the 10-yard line. I think three times in a row, we got the ball . . . you are 90 yards away. Are you going to throw the ball? We did it one time and it got intercepted for a touchdown. Keep throwing down there? You are really handicapped. Yet, we did keep throwing and he brought us out of there a couple of times. He did some good things, he did some good things. But it seemed like he missed more people that were there than I've seen him in a while. You think up every excuse you want to, and I can too, we lost because of errors. Errors. Mistakes. Without them, I think we win. Two errors there. Everything else is speculation.