Thursday, September 7 Bowden's boy becoming his own man at Clemson By Bill Doherty Special to ESPN.com

Clemson coach Tommy Bowden is no fool. He knows that most of the attention prior to this week's first-ever father vs. son Division I coaching matchup will be on his dad, Bobby Bowden.

After all, the elder Bowden is the coach of top-ranked Florida State and sits just one win away from becoming the fifth coach in NCAA Division I-A history to reach 300 career victories.

	Woodrow Dantzler set a Clemson yardage record in his third career start.

"Either way (win or lose), I'm going to be an asterisk," said the younger Bowden. "I think we'll play hard and be extremely excited. But I don't think there's nearly as much at stake for me as there is for him. If they lose, they lose a national championship. If we lose, we're 3-4."

"He's got great bloodlines. Other than bloodlines, what's he got?" quipped Bobby Bowden, when asked to assess his son's coaching skills. "Nah, he's done a great job wherever he's gone."

The key to Tommy Bowden's success at Tulane and so far this season at Clemson (3-3, 3-1 ACC) is his wide-open-as-a-stretch-of interstate-at-three-in-the-morning offense. Last season, the younger Bowden's offense -- which borrows liberally from his dad's FSU attack, with a generous helping of some of Tommy's own tinkerings -- averaged 300 yards through the air and 200 on the ground.

And this fall, despite the fact that he had to piece together a new offensive line, overcome an injury to his opening day starting quarterback, Brandon Streeter, not to mention change the mindset of the Clemson faithful who were used to a conservative-as-Bob-Dole offense, the "other" Bowden is succeeding more quickly than expected in Death Valley. Bowden's no-huddle attack, with ultra-athletic Woodrow Dantzler at the controls, piled up 542 yards of total offense in last week's 42-30 win over Maryland. Dantzler was sensational against Maryland, completing 16 of 23 passes for 252 yards and rushing 22 times for 183 yards. His 435 total yards was the most ever by a Clemson player and was 43 more yards than the entire Maryland team was able to produce.

"Preparing for their offense is very challenging," said Maryland coach Ron Vanderlinden. "Because there is no way for your scout team to simulate that (no-huddle) offense. I guess offensive football runs in their family."

Win or lose, Tommy Bowden knows that this game will give some much-needed exposure to his program -- a necessity to win the in-state recruiting battles with South Carolina's "other" famous D-I coach, struggling Gamecocks coach Lou Holtz. Small but fertile South Carolina has seen far too many out-of-state powers gobble up its best and brightest. In recent years, Florida State has snared pass-rushing ends Peter Boulware and Jamal Reynolds out of South Carolina. Current Heisman Trophy favorite Joe Hamilton from Georgia Tech and the defensive lineman most coveted by the NFL, Penn State's Courtney Brown, are from the same town (Alvin, S.C.). Think those sandlot games were any good?

"We have to win as many in-state (recruiting) battles as possible. That's a given. And when we do lose a talented player, we have to make it expensive for other schools to recruit here, in terms of phone calls, mailings and time spent," said Tommy Bowden. "So, then the following year, they'll think twice before coming here."

And those unwanted visitors to the state include his father Bobby, whom Tommy admits has done one of the most remarkable building jobs in college football.

"They won a national championship at Alabama before Bear Bryant got there and they were successful at Penn State before Joe Paterno got there," said Tommy Bowden. "For my father to go above and beyond at a school that was a girls school in 1950, to me, makes his accomplishments that much greater."

Stars in receivership
NFL scouts figure to be jotting down the names "Kelly Campbell" and "Billy McMullen" before too long.

With defenses concentrating on stopping Georgia Tech's Dez White, Campbell has emerged as target for Joe Hamilton, the nation's most efficient passer. In the past two games, Campbell has caught 18 balls for 393 yards. Last week, Campbell notched a career-best 11 receptions in the Yellow Jackets' tougher-than-expected 38-31 win over Duke. And with tailback Phillip Rogers now sidelined for the next 6 to 8 weeks with a deep thigh bruise, look for Hamilton to continue to hurl the ball in Campbell's direction on a regular basis.

McMullen, Virginia's true freshman, is another young receiving star who appears to be coming into his own. The 6-foot-4, 195-pound McMullen caught four balls for 109 yards and two TDs in last week's 47-26 win over N.C. State. "Obviously, he's a player, or we wouldn't be putting him out there as a true freshman," said veteran coach George Welsh.

The emergence of McMullen gives junior quarterback Dan Ellis another tall target to throw to and keeps defenses somewhat honest. Without any threat of the pass, opposing teams will just line up eight or nine guys in the box in an attempt to slow down Virginia's prolific tailback Thomas Jones, who is currently second in the nation in rushing with 158.4 yards per game. By the way, Jones is on pace to shatter Don McCauley's 29-year-old ACC record for rushing yards per game. McCauley, the former North Carolina star, averaged 156.4 yards per contest back in 1970.

Scarlet Knights in a rut
The nightmare continues for Rutgers coach Terry Shea. After a 62-16 loss to struggling West Virginia, the Scarlet Knights are 0-6 as they enter the second half of the season. Making that loss tougher to swallow was the fact that the man who ran wild on them was West Virginia's redshirt freshman tailback Avon Cobourne, a New Jersey kid who got away. Cobourne rushed for 141 yards on 25 carries against Rutgers.

Next up are what seemed like three winnable games at one time -- home vs. Pittsburgh, then at Temple and home vs. Navy. However, Shea must prepare for the final five games without his best offensive player, junior quarterback Mike McMahon.

"Mike is injured and is out for the season," said Shea. "It will be very difficult to overcome an injury to a quality quarterback like Mike."

So what keeps the embattled coach going, you ask?

"I feed off the resiliency of the student-athletes," admitted Shea. "We had lost our quarterback and had been pasted in Morgantown, but the kids have bounced back this week in practice. They refuse to quit."

With McMahon done for the 1999 season, 6-4 senior Mike Jones will be handed the keys to the offense.

The Hurricane Bowl?
Could 1-5 Temple be headed to a bowl game? That's how glass-is-half-full head coach Bobby Wallace is looking at the postponement of last week's Miami (Fla.) game due to Hurricane Irene. The Big East game has been rescheduled for Dec. 4.

"By playing Miami in December, we will get two extra weeks of practice this season," said Wallace, whose team has a bye week prior to the Hurricanes game. "That will be a huge benefit for such a young football team like ours. Those extra weeks will be like a mini-spring practice -- which is a benefit that normally only bowl teams get."

While Wallace has a point about the youth of his team, this glass-is-half-empty writer has one downside to report. Thanks to the rescheduling of the Miami tilt, the struggling Owls will close the season against the Big East's top three teams: at Syracuse (Nov. 6); Virginia Tech (Nov. 20) and Miami (Dec. 4).

Can you say "Owl-ch?"

Extra points