Postgame: Tommy Bowden

Clemson's head coach talks about the tough loss to Duke.

Can you point your finger as to what happened out there today?
Bowden: Defense showed up, and the special teams show up, offensively we didn't show up. The fans showed up, the defense showed up. Two out of the three showed up. Duke had hung around all year against Wake and they hung around against Florida State, and hung around against Maryland. We couldn't finish the job.

Did you just let them hang around too long?
Bowden: Yeah, we couldn't do anything offensively and generate separation. We had plenty of chances defensively and on special teams. We had a problem on a punt and on a kickoff that gave them points. Give them a credit for hanging around, but as far as finishing them off and playing smart, we didn't do it.

Can you comment on your offensive play today?
Bowden: It was poor. Other teams got in that position and finished the job and we couldn't.

Were you positioning yourself to go into overtime there at the end?
Bowden: Well, we had a chance to hit a receiver and he got knocked down. He didn't fall down, he got knocked down. You know that's part of it. We're trying to win the thing. They had enough time outs to stop it and make us punt, so we needed to get a first down.

What happened on that last interception?
Bowden: The receiver got knocked down and then of course when he threw it, the ball was in the air and he got knocked down.

Is this as disappointing as it gets?
Bowden: Yeah, there's no doubt. It would rank up there with the top couple.

Do you think motivation was a factor today?
Bowden: I don't know if it was. The fan support was tremendous. I think it's more of Duke, rather than the win over Miami.

How frustrating is it for you right now considering how well your defense is playing?
Bowden: That's what you want. You want a defense that's going to be able to give you the opportunity and give you the at bats. We haven't been able to capitalize on it offensively.

A couple of guys said that they thought Duke wanted it more. Would you agree with that?
Bowden: Well I don't know if their defense wanted it more than our defense. We worked on that guy kicking that ball like that all week. The execution was more the problem. We didn't execute. Offensively, I think our offensive players wanted, we just have to be able to finish the job. That's one thing we haven't done in a long time.

Does this now add a lot of fuel to the fire considering you have to beat your archrival to get to a bowl game?
Bowden: I don't know if you can add more fuel to that fire. It would be hard. There's fuel anyway. When you play in that thing, you are pretty motivated. Everybody knows whats at stake.