"You see a lot of guys diving after balls, hitting guys out of bounds -- they were just trying to show the coaches, 'Hey, look at me, I've got talent,'" said Carswell.

"I mean, spring was wild. It was all-out, everybody was working hard. Receivers were diving for balls that they couldn't catch, where last year they would have let them go. Receivers were going across the middle, stretching out. Defensive backs were making spectacular interceptions, linemen were running downfield. It was really up-pace, and if that's any inclination of how everything is going to be, we're going to shock a lot of people."

"Every little thing counts," said Carswell. "One day, he said we lost five games in the fourth quarter. That's because of little things and conditioning, so that's one of his biggest points.

"As a team, I feel we were conditioned (last season), but not for the fourth quarter. The path that we're on now, we're going to be the best-conditioned team in the country. I believe at the end of the game, we'll be able to play another game."

All hyperbole aside, Clemson has evidently shifted its training emphasis.

"It's a whole new attitude," said Carswell. "I don't want to say we were strictly power-oriented in the past, but there's a lot more running now. The weights are still important, but the running has taken the forefront."

What would a typical day's running entail?

"We had three 300-yard shuttles in 58 seconds in the morning, then we came back and had a 12-miute run where we have to do seven-and-a-half laps (almost two miles). For the bigger guys, it would be a little less -- six laps in 12 minutes," said Carswell.

"He said, 'It was proven that you can't win your way, and I went 11-0 (at Tulane), so either you're going to buy in or that's it and you can go wherever you need to go," said Carswell. He's proven that he can win, and everybody agreed. You had a few that wanted to test him, but they found out that he wasn't playing.

"He came in and laid down the rules and said it was going to be his way or the highway. He wanted to come in and make a statement, and it went over pretty well because a lot of guys are tired of losing, tired of working hard and coming up short in the fourth quarter."

Those who dared to push their luck were quickly rebuffed in Bowden's very first meeting with the team.

"One of the guys had a dog in there, and he threw the dog out," said Carswell. "A few guys had their hats tilted to the side, and he didn't like that. I'd say 90 percent of the guys knew to sit up straight and take their hats off, but you had a few who just wanted to do their own thing, and they found out that this guys means business."

So far, the heightened discipline has brought the team together.

"I see that we're closer," said Carswell. "We go into the cafeteria and everybody eats together. We're having team cookouts and team-oriented events. We want everybody to get close."

But before you get all warm and fuzzy, remember Clemson's ultimate goal.

"We expect to get back to the point where people fear Death Valley, where they fear playing Clemson," said Carswell.

SCOTTIE MONTGOMERY, DUKE

"At Duke, they treat us like kings," said Montgomery.

But in the royal court that is Duke University, football and basketball players have a very different existence.

"The thing is, they live a little bit more of the glamorous life than we do," said Montgomery. "We have the helmets. I love the helmets. You can hide behind the helmet when times are bad. But once you get in the limelight and once your face is continuously seen, you get accustomed to a way of living."

Montgomery said he couldn't fault the basketball players who left.

"I think that those guys made a decision they felt was right for them," said Montgomery.

"Richmond demands perfection," said Montgomery. "That's why I love him, because I know he's going to give me his all when he's out there on the football field.

"I can look across at him if I have a corner route, and he's going to run that hitch route to try to hold the corner so that the safety and I will be one-on-one, and I know he is going to run a full, hard four steps before he breaks it down. I know he's going to give it his all and try to get as much attention he can get. I love that about him. Even when the ball's not coming to him, he runs as hard as he can."

"It's flattering when someone tells you they want to get you the ball and they believe you can get the job done," said Montgomery. "I believe he can get the job done, too."

Montgomery said Franks earned instant respect by taking an active role in spring practice.

"Coach Franks sometimes runs conditioning drills with us," said Montgomery.

PETER WARRICK, FLORIDA STATE

"If we would have won, I would have been out," said Warrick, who said he has no regrets.

"When Torry (Holt) got picked, I thought, 'I could have been right here.' I would have felt bad if I had woke up the next morning and said, 'I wish I would have left.' But I didn't feel like that, and I don't now. I feel like I made a nice decision."

He made another wise decision by taking out a $3 million insurance policy toprotect himself in the event of a career-ending injury. The new policy takes effect on August 1, replacing the $1 million policy under which he played last season.

Incidentally, Warrick said that the rumors about him wanting to enter the NFL Supplemental Draft were baseless.

"That was never a consideration," said Warrick. "I don't even know where that (rumor) came from. The first I heard about it was when I came home one day, and my mother said she heard it on the radio."

"We've got a nice little bond," said Warrick. "With Chris Weinke coming back, that's a great feeling. He's older and more mature than our other quarterbacks. I feel like he knows the game, and on Saturday, we see eye-to-eye. If he stays healthy, teams are going to have to watch out for us."

So far, Warrick said Weinke has looked sharp in voluntary summer workouts, but what remains to be seen is how the quarterback will react under defensive pressure.

"He looks sharp now," said Warrick. "But there's no heat coming."

"He told me, 'Man, I wish you would have left, so you could be in the NFL with me,'" said Warrick. "But now he said he's glad I stayed so I can try to win the national championship.

"People come up to me all of the time and say, 'Pete, if that was me, I'd have been gone.' But none of the people I call my friends ever say, 'I wish you would have left.' At least, they don't tell me that. They probably feel that way."

The image-conscious Warrick also differed with Moss on hair style.

"I had braids in my hair, but I cut them because I didn't want anybody to have anything bad to say about me," said Warrick.

Unfortunately, Warrick didn't get the chance to go head-to-head with the Dallas Cowboys star.

"He doesn't want none of this," joked Warrick, said Sanders stayed on the sidelines because of an injury.

"He was out there giving us tips on what we were doing wrong. It felt good to have an NFL star come in and say, 'Pete, this is what you're doing wrong.'"

So what was Sanders' advice?

"He said, 'You run great routes, but you need to come out of your breaks faster,'" said Warrick.

"Georgia Tech is going to be a great game, but we're the team to beat," said Warrick. "They have to come to Tallahassee, and we haven't lost in Doak Campbell in a long time. We plan on keeping it that way."

JOE HAMILTON, GEORGIA TECH

"Of course I've tried it," said Hamilton. "Everybody in this room has probably tried it. I just didn't look right. Everybody would say, 'No, that's not it, that's not it.' To this day, I still can't do it. To be honest with you, I tried it the other day, and it still didn't look good. So I don't think that's one thing I'll be doing, ever."

Hamilton is enjoying his Heisman candidacy, but he knows that the path to individual accolades is paved with team achievements.

"You you have to realize that you've got to win games," said Hamilton. "If you don't win games, then your name is up there one minute and gone the next, easy as that."

"I would not ever wish the hip pointer on any one of my enemies," said Hamilton, who suffered the injury against FSU.

"I don't want to put this put this out there about Florida State, but yeah, he hit me after I threw the ball. I just felt the sharpest pain ever, and I tried to come back. Actually, I ran two plays after that. I played the next week at Maryland, and it was painful. But we were fighting for a conference championship, so I wasn't about to sit out. Anything can happen on a given Saturday in the ACC. But it was awful."

"What I wanted, really, was for Jamie and I to go out and play 18 holes of golf or shoot some pool," said Hamilton. "I wish we would have brought some video games. I just love competition. Jamie's a real good guy and I wish the best for him, but it's competition. Any kind of competition I can find, I jump after it."

This year, Barnette and Hamilton will both be competing for their place in ACC history. Barnette is only 2,002 yards shy of the ACC career record, while Hamilton is 2,451 short of the mark held by former Yellow Jacket Shawn Jones.

"We're very similar," said Hamilton. "I think the only difference between me and Jamie is that I don't think he likes to take off running, and I don't mind it at all. I think he wants to sit back and gun it. He was telling me that in high school, he just sat back in the shotgun and slung it. With me, though, whatever it takes to move the chains, I'll do."

However, NC State and Georgia Tech are hardly the only well-armed teams in the ACC.

"Well, (Chris) Weinke's good," said Hamilton. "Peter (Warrick) says Weinke's doing very well, and that he's throwing the ball well. So I think it will be an all-out war.

"I think individually, you want to be the best in the league. I'd be lying to you if I said I didn't check the stats out to see who had a good game. But I will never, ever look at the box score and hope that somebody has thrown three interceptions. I wish the best for all of these guys, but you want to beat them out in the end, definitely."