Mike Berardino

Web posted January 3, 1998

 Auburn rallies, wins late
 Peach Notes

By Mike Berardino
Staff Writer

ATLANTA - Some questions are better left unanswered. Such as the one posed to Auburn linebacking star Takeo Spikes after Friday's Peach Bowl debacle.

Which Southeastern Conference team, someone wanted to know, does Clemson most remind Spikes of?

The pride of Washington County High School thought for a moment. He stroked his chin. He opened his mouth to answer then quickly caught himself. He opened his mouth again, gave a little shrug and went ahead with his painful assessment.

``Vanderbilt,'' he said after Auburn's 21-17 win over punchless Clemson. ``Vanderbilt has a great defense. Their offense is OK. They've just had some bad things happen.''

Bad things? Oh, like repeated shutouts and ridiculous turnovers and cascading laughter in enemy stadiums, Saturday after Saturday?

Two seats away from Spikes on the Georgia Dome dais, Terry Bowden nearly swallowed his tongue. The spritely little coach hopped forward in his chair and quickly launched into damage control.

``You know what he means, right?'' Bowden said. ``Please write it that way. Otherwise it's going to come out like we're ripping (Clemson) because Vanderbilt's at the bottom of our conference.''

Well, yes, that's true. When was the last time the Commodores won an SEC game, the Disco Era?

``They're one of the best-coached teams in our league,'' Bowden said. ``Nobody wants to play Vanderbilt.''

Save it, coach. There's no spinning this thing to get your stud 'backer off the hook. Besides, we all know Takeo only spoke the truth.

Clemson's offense was beyond bad in this one. It was truly offensive.

Those two touchdowns? The first one came off a blocked punt return, the second came off another blocked punt that set up a 2-yard drive.

Throughout this four-hour trip to the periodontist, Nealon Greene and friends behaved as though they were double-parked out on Peachtree Street. And had dinner reservations in Buckhead. And had room, board and tuition riding on their opponents from the Plains. Minus the points.

Of Clemson's 14 possessions, nine were of the three-plays-and-out variety. The Tigers' longest drive of the day lasted seven plays, and that only came in the final four minutes.

Third-down conversions? Clemson was 1-for-14. The one came with 3:09 remaining.

Vanderbilt, huh? Those are fighting words - for the Commodores. Spikes may be hearing from Woody Widenhofer, and soon.

``It's frustrating,'' Clemson coach Tommy West said after his third straight bowl loss. ``We didn't get it done. We just didn't get them blocked. We were poor in the passing game. Very poor. We just played very poor all day.''

Great. Now Hicks Poor, the Auburn receiver, is mad, too.

Down, Hicks, down.

If you're noticing a pattern here, you may try Disgusting Bowl Performances for $200. West's teams have now managed just 24 points and two offensive touchdowns in the last three postseasons combined.

Throw in a 14-13 win over Kentucky in the 1993 Peach Bowl - done with Ken Hatfield's players and schemes - and the tally is four offensive touchdowns in four bowls.

No wonder Clemson got destroyed by Syracuse (41-0), suffocated by Louisiana State (10-7). And now this.

They say the IPTAY crowd ``travels well.'' That's why the Tigers keep getting invited to better bowls than their records merit. But is it really traveling well when you keep forgetting to pack an offense?

``Every offense has been different as we've gone along (in the bowls),'' West said. ``We have struggled, and I can take some of the blame for that. I've changed coordinators. I don't plan on doing that again.''

OK, so Steve Ensminger stays. Is that a good thing?

``We'll see in time how it turns out,'' West said.

Yeah, everybody's real curious.

At Vanderbilt.