The 6-foot-3, 235-pound senior from Lake View said that despite the slight chance he could be available to play in three months, he has ruled out returning if Clemson reached a bowl game.

Waters said he was flattered that coach Tommy Bowden has invited him to travel with the team to Saturday's game at Boston College because of his leadership capacities.

In Waters' absence, sophomore Cortney Vincent said he and redshirt freshman Kavell Conner continue to split reps at middle linebacker. Conner is listed as the starter on Clemson's depth chart.

The school has ruled that the owner of a popular Clemson-themed Web site has not committed wrongdoing after investigating allegations of inappropriate conduct, spokesman Tim Bourret said.

Cris Ard, publisher of TigerIllustrated.com, is a former member of IPTAY, the school's booster club. NCAA rules prohibit boosters — and by its definition, anyone who has once been a booster — from contacting recruits, which Ard regularly does for stories on his site.

Bourret said Clemson plans to send a letter to the NCAA next week seeking its interpretation of the matter. He also said no violations are expected to result from the investigation.

"First and Toal" has grown into a cliched call at Boston College because of the success outside linebacker Brian Toal has experienced as the team's short-yardage running back.

Toal, a scrappy 6-foot-1, 238-pound junior, has tallied seven touchdowns in 24 career carries — including the decisive 1-yard plunge that won last year's 16-13 overtime decision at Clemson.

"One of the major selling points we told him is if he gets us a first down, he'd probably get two to three more minutes of rest on the bench," O'Brien said.

Bowden said he has never been a huge fan of putting defensive players on offense because their instincts are to flinch — and therefore draw false-start penalties — when a defender moves toward him before the snap.

Boston College starting quarterback Matt Ryan (sprained ankle) will be a game-time decision, O'Brien said. Bowden has said he expects Ryan to play. ... If Bowden learned one thing about his team by crushing Florida Atlantic, he said it was the Tigers have paid attention to detail. They had no delay-of-game penalties — despite the NCAA's new clock rules — one false start penalty and no bad quarterback/center exchanges.

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