Davis' guarantee adds spice to practice
CLEMSON — A minute or two into Clemson's game at Maryland on Saturday, it probably won't matter what James Davis said five days earlier.
On Monday, James Davis proffered a guarantee that the Tigers would beat the Terrapins in a potentially pivotal Atlantic Coast Conference clash. And in doing so, he guaranteed a stir among fans and media who actually believe the statement will have an impact on the game.
At Tuesday's press conference, Tigers coach Tommy Bowden spent several minutes debating the distinction — or lack thereof — between the terms "expect" and "guarantee," insisting Ralph Friedgen's use of the former equates to the latter.
James Davis' teammates were besieged with breathless questions about James Davis' bluster.
Yep, slow news week. This is what happens when there's nothing from the last game to pick apart.
"You don't win a game off words," said starting quarterback Cullen Harper. "While you're out there, you don't think about what somebody said about you."
Nowadays, coaches will go to almost absurd lengths to spin even the most innocuous words into something threatening, providing fodder for the bulletin board.
Bowden is kept closely abreast of what his players say publicly, as evidenced by Monday's chronology.
James Davis, a junior tailback, gathered with reporters late in the morning and expressed abundant confidence Clemson (5-2, 2-2) would win Saturday and keep alive hopes of winning the ACC's Atlantic Division.
The Tigers snapped a two-game losing streak with last week's 70-14 dusting of Central Michigan. That left James Davis feeling
good about their chances of a second-half surge, and great about their fortunes against Maryland.
"No hesitation," James Davis said. "We're going to win this game."
Not long thereafter, James Davis' comments were the controversy du jour on message boards. The guarantee ended up on the desk of Bowden, who managed to make it a prominent part of his pre-practice address to the team later in the afternoon.
The coach and his staff were not happy James Davis chose to convey his confidence publicly, but Bowden tried to turn it into a positive by lauding James Davis' willingness to take charge.
"You're always looking for leadership," he said. "We don't have a lot of seniors, and the ones we have are quiet. ... Somebody needs to step up and take the team on their shoulders and say, 'Hey, follow me. I'll take you where you need to go.' "
Bowden showed his team a copy of a story from earlier this week by Friedgen, the Maryland coach who was quoted as saying he expected to win Saturday. To Bowden, it sounded a lot like James Davis' guarantee.
"They used identical terminology," he said.
Semantics aside, it might be a stretch to imagine Clemson's players getting angry over an opposing coach saying he — gasp! — expects to win a game. Yet offensive lineman Thomas Austin said the Tigers will be motivated by it just as much as Maryland's players are by James Davis' statement.
"It puts a bull's-eye on James' chest, and it'll tick off their defensive linemen and linebackers," he said. "At the same time, coach Friedgen made a reference to a guaranteed win for them. So that makes us mad as well."
In the next breath, though, Austin acknowledged this fabricated war of words will be irrelevant once the ball is kicked off shortly after 3:30 p.m. in College Park, Md.
"That's just pregame hype," he said. "After that first snap, all that goes out the window and you're just playing football."
James Davis' backfield mate, C.J. Spiller, didn't have any guarantees Tuesday. Though he said James Davis' statements will "make it harder for us," he couldn't argue with them.
"His reasoning was good," he said. "We definitely can't afford to lose another game. If you're not confident, you shouldn't be on the football field."
See more at www.charleston.net
