Monday August 21, 2006

Lucas Gets The Wrong Phone Call; Red-shirt or Not; UGA Gives Clemson A Sneak Preview?; Collegefootballnews.com; Anyone Have Monday off?; Korn Back To Work

Lucas Gets The Wrong Phone Call
Tom Lehman had to make some tough phone calls Monday morning and he said perhaps the toughest was to Lucas Glover. The former Clemson All-American wanted to make the United States Ryder team as bad as any player under consideration but the United States captain did not pick Glover. Instead, Lehman chose Scott Verplank and Stewart Cink.

Lehman said he had a special feeling about Glover. He said he respected Glover but he said Glover did not play well the last three months. Lehman said he felt Glover put too much pressure on himself trying to make the team.

Glover will be under consideration for future Ryder Cups but Lehman said Glover was crushed with the news Monday morning.

Red-shirt or Not
With the unfortunate news of Tremaine Billie?s injury last week the questions started. After the surgery, the staff starting looking at his recovery and starting making plans with regards to the depth chart.

One thing that will be discussed is the option to red-shirt Billie. He is a senior but has not red-shirted yet. If he does not come back soon enough the staff has a lot of things to consider when making the decision. A player?s academics is a concern because satisfactory progress towards a degree is a requirement for eligibility.

If Billie does red-shirt, next year I could see a scenario where Billie and Nick Watkins would be the starting outside linebackers and Antonio Clay could be moved to the Mike linebacker. The depth at linebacker could look like this next year if Billie red-shirts:

MLB-Clay Jr, Conner So, Vincent Jr, Alexander Fr

WLB-Watkins Sr, Miller Jr, Nelson Sr, Cooper Fr

SLB-Billie Sr, Campbell So, Kindred Jr, Hunter Fr

UGA Gives Clemson A Sneak Preview?
If Clemson fans want to get a sneak preview of their starting quarterback battle next season they may be able to look at Georgia?s quarterback battle of 2006.

Georgia signed the nation?s top signal caller last year, Matthew Stafford. The Dallas, TX native came to school in January with hopes of being the starting quarterback. Fifth-year senior Joe Tereshinski had started only one game going into this season but he won the battle over the highly touted freshman.

Could this be a preview of the Cullen Harper-Tribble Reese-Willy Korn upcoming battle? I would add a couple of thoughts with the first being that it is extremely difficult for a freshman to start his first game of his college career. Even though a Tereshinski and Harper have not been starters, they have prepared and been around the system. On the Korn side of the debate, I would add that I believe at some point this season Stafford will take over the starting role in Athens. Also, it is not fair to compare different quarterbacks and different programs.

One thing is for sure, Bowden will get asked the question about when Korn will start a few thousand times.

Collegefootballnews.com
The thorough website www.collegefootballnews.com has their offense unit rankings out and they think highly of the Tigers. The website has Clemson?s offense ranked 11th in the country. They rank Clemson?s QBs 38, RBs 9, WR 19 and OL 7.

Below is a look at how Clemson compares to its opponents:

   Team            Offense    QB    RB    WR    OL

Clemson            11         38    9     19    7

Florida Atlantic   118        119   117   115   118

Boston College     46         54    27    60    27

FSU                10         21    31    4     16

North Carolina     70         77    44    66    75

La Tech            92         106   80    57    101

Wake Forest        63         75    50    82    49

Temple             117        118   115   114   114

Georgia Tech       29         33    55    32    12

Virginia Tech      27         57    34    5     44

Maryland           28         55    11    39    19

NCSU               62         73    53    42    56

South Carolina     48         51    36    26    72

Korn Back To Work
It did not take Willy Korn long to pick up where he left off. The Clemson commitment was 18 of 25 for 338 yards passing. He passed for six touchdowns and rushed for two more on six carries for 44 yards. The Byrnes quarterback only played a little more than the first half of Byrnes? 55-20 win.

For his career now, Korn is 550 of 836 for 7,569 yards for 92 touchdowns and 15 interceptions.

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