Tigers notebook
Posted Sunday, September 21, 2003 - 12:15 am


By Duane Rankin, Adam Davis and Bart Wright
STAFF WRITERS

Break out the purple: Clemson wore purple jerseys for the first time since the 1992 Florida Citrus Bowl, a 37-17 loss to California.
During the regular season, Clemson wore purple and beat North Carolina State, 29-19.

Up the gut: Clemson's 138 yards rushing was the most allowed by Georgia Tech this season, and it was almost double the 72.3 yards per game the Yellow Jackets' first three opponents averaged.

The previous high was 91 yards a week earlier at Florida State.

Blame him: Georgia Tech coach Chan Gailey stepped up and accepted the blame for his team's resounding defeat.

"Obviously, I did not get this team ready to play this week," Gailey said. "It would be easy to point a lot of fingers, but just point them right here at me. It's my responsibility to get them ready to play.

"There's a lot of things that happened in the ballgame that we have not done in previous games that allowed us to look very poor on the field. We've got to get those things straightened out, and that's my responsibility."

Special teams aid victory: One factor contributing to Clemson's strong defensive effort was field position. Georgia Tech had 14 offensive possessions, and 13 times it started at its own 37-yard line or farther back. The Yellow Jackets started inside their own 30 nine times, including twice at their 11 and once at their 7.

Clemson's committing just one turnover helped, and another major factor was punter Cole Chason. He averaged 44.3 yards per punt, including two that pinned the Yellow Jackets deep. "The special teams were great," linebacker John Leake said, "and that helped a lot."

Leake recovered a fumble on a Georgia Tech kickoff return, and Clemson also had two nice returns. Derrick Hamilton returned a kickoff 39 yards late in the first half, leading to a touchdown, and Justin Miller ran 41 yards with a free kick after a safety in the third quarter.

The special teams' only serious gaffe was a missed extra point by Aaron Hunt. Hamilton also dropped a punt, but the Tigers recovered.

Injury report: Clemson starting cornerback Toure Francis left the game in the third quarter because of an ankle injury. The extent of the injury was not immediately known.

Air show: After Charlie Whitehurst's 12-yard scoring pass to Kevin Youngblood with 9:50 left in the second quarter, the Clemson quarterback had 177 yards passing. That was 17 more yards than Florida State managed in its 14-13 win over Georgia Teck and 13 fewer yards than Auburn had passing in its loss to the Yellow Jackets.

First miss: Georgia Tech kicker Dan Burnett missed his first field goal of the season, a 36-yarder, in the second quarter. He had made his first five attempts.

Defense? David Dunham, a fullback on Clemson's depth chart, played linebacker. Dunham was a linebacker before being moved to fullback during spring practice.

Briefly: Clemson's captains were Whitehurst, John Leake and Dunham. Whitehurst is from nearby Duluth, Ga. ... Clemson redshirt freshman receiver Kelvin Grant missed the game for personal reasons, sports information director Tim Bourret said. Grant had two receptions for 18 yards in the first three games.