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SPORTSSaturday 19 December 2015

Clemson QB Deshaun Watson voted ACC offensive player of year

Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson throws a pass during the first half of an NCAA college                                          Whitehead - share the           title.
football game against Florida State in Clemson, S.C. Watson, a Heisman Trophy finalist, was                                        award for top newcomer.         Clemson (13-0) will play
honored as the ACC’s offensive player of the year this week by The Associated Press.                                               Watson received 11 votes        Oklahoma in the Orange
                                                                                                                                   for the offensive award         Bowl semifinal on New
                                                                                                         (AP Photo/Richard Shiro)  from a panel of 14 report-      Year’s Eve.
                                                                                                                                   ers, one for every school in    In winning the Davey
JOEDY McCREARY                   week by The Associated            ney said. ‘’I haven’t caught                                    the league. The other three     O’Brien Award as the top
Associated Press                 Press while lineman - and         a ball. I haven’t made a                                        votes went to Florida State     quarterback in college
No. 1 Clemson swept              fellow AP All-America se-         tackle. (Coaches) of the                                        running back Dalvin Cook.       football, Watson led the
through the Atlantic Coast       lection - Shaq Lawson was         years are really made by                                        In defensive voting, Law-       ACC with 3,512 yards pass-
Conference this season           picked as the defensive           the players. That’s just the                                    son had seven votes to          ing and added 887 yards
and that helped three Ti-        player of the year and            way it is. It’s an honor and                                    six for Duke safety Jeremy      rushing - good for seventh-
gers claim league-wide in-       Dabo Swinney was select-          it’s great to be recognized,                                    Cash. Swinney received          most among all ACC rush-
dividual awards.                 ed as the coach of the            but it’s truly a reflection of                                  10 votes for the coaching       ers. He’s the only player in
Heisman Trophy finalist De-      year.                             the team and the staff.’’                                       award and four went to          the nation with more than
shaun Watson was hon-            ‘’I enjoy it, but I enjoy it for  A pair of Pittsburgh play-                                      North Carolina’s Larry Fe-      3,500 yards passing and
ored as the ACC’s offen-         our team because that’s           ers - running back Qadree                                       dora.                           850 yards rushing.
sive player of the year this     just a team award,’’ Swin-        Ollison and safety Jordan                                       Ollison and Whitehead           Clemson finished with the
                                                                                                                                   each had five votes for         ACC’s most productive
                                                                                                                                   the award for newcom-           offense, averaging 510.6
                                                                                                                                   ers while Clemson’s Mitch       total yards, and ranked
                                                                                                                                   Hyatt received two votes.       second in total defense,
                                                                                                                                   Six players were unanimous      giving up 295.7 yards per
                                                                                                                                   selections to the inaugural     game. The Tigers rank in
                                                                                                                                   AP All-ACC first team: Wat-     the top four in each of the
                                                                                                                                   son, Cook, Lawson and           eight major statistical cat-
                                                                                                                                   Cash plus Pitt receiver Tyler   egories.
                                                                                                                                   Boyd and North Carolina         ‘’The game is about per-
                                                                                                                                   guard Landon Turner.            formance so if I win or lose
                                                                                                                                   Watson and Lawson were          some awards, I’ve pretty
                                                                                                                                   joined on the first team by     much got to still go out
                                                                                                                                   teammates Eric Mac Lain         there and do my job,’’ Wat-
                                                                                                                                   at guard and Macken-            son said. ‘’You celebrate
                                                                                                                                   sie Alexander at corner-        and enjoy it and appreci-
                                                                                                                                   back. Nine more made            ate all the hard work and
                                                                                                                                   the second team follow-         support of your teammates
                                                                                                                                   ing Clemson’s best season       and coaches around you.
                                                                                                                                   since 1981, when the Tigers     You make sure you don’t
                                                                                                                                   claimed their only national     take it for granted.’’q

Duke tunes out distractions, focuses on Pinstripe Bowl

JOEDY McCREARY                   Duke quarterback Thomas Sirk (1) looks to pass against North                                      Forest and worsened dur-        working on them.’’
Associated Press                 Carolina during the first half of an NCAA college football game                                   ing the second half of that     Having a coordinator
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) - Duke         in Chapel Hill, N.C., Saturday, Nov. 7, 2015.                                                     game. Cutcliffe said team       take a new job - but stick
is tuning out some distrac-                                                                                                        doctors told him an MRI re-     around for the bowl - isn’t
tions ahead of its Pinstripe                                                            (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)                    vealed that ‘’this needed       exactly new territory for the
Bowl matchup with Indi-                                                                                                            to be done, and it needed       Blue Devils. Two years ago,
ana. The Blue Devils (7-5) will  It’s been a busy week off         emy Cash - an All-America                                       to be done immediately.         then-OC Kurt Roper took
need to find a new offen-        the field at Duke: Offensive      safety who was voted the                                        ‘’It’s really frustrating to    the same job at Florida but
sive coordinator soon and        coordinator Scottie Mont-         team’s MVP - will miss the                                      him, but I get it,’’ the coach  called plays for Duke in the
their team MVP will miss the     gomery was hired Sunday           bowl game after having                                          added. ‘’The health of the      Chick-fil-A Bowl against
bowl game with an injury.        to coach East Carolina,           right wrist surgery.                                            player is always first.’’       Texas A&M.
Despite that, coach David        but will call plays in the        Cutcliffe said Cash was                                         Cutcliffe said he won’t start   ‘’When Coach Roper (took
Cutcliffe said his team’s        bowl game before taking           injured in Duke’s next-to-                                      searching in earnest for a      the Florida job), we found
focus hasn’t wavered             over the Pirates’ program.        last game at Virginia, was                                      new offensive coordinator       that out and came back
heading into the Dec. 26         Three days later, the team        bothered during practice                                        until after the bowl game,      to practice, and it was
game against the Hoosiers        announced that senior Jer-        before the finale at Wake                                       saying he’s received more       business as usual,’’ center
(6-6) at Yankee Stadium.                                                                                                           than 100 emails and about       Matt Skura said. ‘’That’s
‘’The challenge for us is                                                                                                          90 phone calls about re-        kind of the same thing it’s
to play our best game -                                                                                                            placing Montgomery.             been here. (Montgomery)
that’s what you should do                                                                                                          ‘’The process is always         hasn’t mentally moved on.
in your last game, that’s                                                                                                          started because my brain        He’s probably coaching us
what you should do in a                                                                                                            does work,’’ Cutcliffe said.    harder right now than he
bowl game,’’ Cutcliffe said                                                                                                        ‘’I don’t have time for that    ever has, and we’re taking
this week. ‘’It’s about the                                                                                                        and to do the job I should      it as business as usual. Ev-
preparation right now and                                                                                                          be doing for our squad. I       eryone’s locked in. ‘Coach
we’ve been very focused                                                                                                            am totally focused on the       Mo’ wants to win this game
and very pleased with                                                                                                              Pinstripe Bowl preparation.     just as bad as all of us do,
what we’ve gotten ac-                                                                                                              ... I have some thoughts,       and we’ve been seeing
complished to this point.’’                                                                                                        I have plans, but I’m not       that in practice.’’q
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