By
Brian Harbach
Disclaimer
I would like to apologize to family members who may be offended by what I am about to write in regards to Clemson’s head coach. This is not an indictment of your school, just an opinion on the job Tommy Bowden has done. Feel free to ignore this column, but if you do read it, we really are looking forward to seeing you guys in a couple weeks if the invitation is still there.
The Background
One of the most interesting paradigms in college football is the Clemson Tigers and coach Tommy Bowden. Year after year Bowden brings talent and expectations to Death Valley and year after year he disappoints. The strange pattern attached to this is that fans don’t seem to have a problem with his failure and most feel he is doing a good job. The majority of big time college football programs would have been over this consistent underachievement years ago, especially in a conference like the ACC where there is no longer a dominant school. The Clemson decision makers continue to define insanity, which is doing to same thing over and over again expecting different results.
Clemson fans deserve better, they deserve a coach who acts with accountability for the program he is running and they deserve to be rid of Tommy Bowden. Right before the kickoff of the Clemson/Alabama game Lisa Salters asked Bowden a question to see if he felt any pressure before playing the Crimson Tide. His answer was essentially that he didn’t, but the players should. That answer in a nutshell is Tommy Bowden, he is in charge of a program with great tradition, but if there is any failure he blames the players and never himself. Why does he keep his job, why does Clemson seem to turn a blind eye towards a program that is uber-talented, yet constantly chokes?
And your answer is…
The casual fan may ask why Clemson continues to put up with Bowden’s consistent failing, but there is an answer to this question. The answer is the University of South Carolina. When it comes to any rivalry game there will always be a small part of the fan base that would take a 1-11 season as long as that 1 is over their hated rival. Usually it is only a very small segment of the fan base that is of this opinion, but it is safe to say that Clemson fans are made up of a larger percentage of fans that are ok being mediocre as long as they beat the hated Gamecocks.
There is absolutely no other reason to explain how Tommy Bowden has kept his job. His record against South Carolina is 7-2 and that keeps the boosters and alumni happy. It is hard to imagine him still being employed at Clemson is that record was flipped. The Battle of the Palmetto State has been dominated by Clemson; they lead the series 64-37-4 and have shown no signs of letting South Carolina close that gap. It is an intense rivalry that is relatively underappreciated because neither school is really a national power. Because the game is largely ignored nationally, it becomes much more important regionally and that makes the game a much bigger deal to the fans. Bowden knows how important this game is and he knows it is what keeps him employed. But even with dominating South Carolina during his time at Clemson, Bowden has given fans plenty of reason to call for his dismissal.
Blown Bowl Games
The easiest place to start is actually at the end. Bowden’s propensity to blow winnable bowl games shows how he coaches when he is given time to prepare. This also shows what other teams can do to Bowden when they have time to prepare for his Tigers. The worst example of this happened last year against Auburn in the Peach Bowl (I refuse to call bowl games by their non-traditional name). Auburn fired its offensive coordinator in early December, hired a new one a couple days later and decided to change the entire offense in a matter of 8 practices.
Auburn went from the west coast to the spread in 8 days and beat a Clemson team that was top 5 in the nation defensively and heavily favored to win. Nine months later the Auburn spread offense looks terrible and that bowl loss looks even worse. This was just one of the postseason chokes by Bowden, who has an overall bowl record of 3-5 with the Tigers. Postseason may not matter as much to some because bowl games are not always taken seriously, so let’s take a look at the regular season.
Regular Season Collapses
Clemson has garnered the reputation during Bowden’s tenure of doing well only to blow up in games they are supposed to win. Clemson being Clemson is just another expression for when the team blows up when they seem to have everything going in their favor. Just last year Clemson had a chance to beat Boston College for a ticket to the ACC championship game but couldn’t get the job done. In 2006 the team started out 7-1 with prime time victory over Georgia Tech, they were ranked 10th in the country and went on to lose 4 out of their last 5 games finishing the year 8-5. That year ended with, you guessed it, an upset loss in the Music City bowl to Kentucky.
For some reason Bowden can’t win the games that will get his team over the top, the implosion in 2006 was special, but Clemson has never lost fewer than 2 games in the ACC under Bowden. The Tigers have only done that once and that was in the 2000. They have gone 7 straight years losing 3 or more games in conference and it hard to see them not continuing that streak to 8 years in 2008. They have already been upset at home by Maryland and have to play road games against Wake Forest, Boston College and Florida State.
Almost got off the hook
Last year Arkansas lost Houston Nutt as their head coach and their search to replace him went all over the country and at one point focused directly on Tommy Bowden. Clemson could have let him go to Arkansas and not extend his contract, but they decided to give Bowden an extension. It is easy to say that Clemson boosters and fans are an optimistic bunch, because what probably played in the minds of the decision makers was what Bowden was bringing back in 2008.
This year Clemson has the top two running backs in the ACC, they have the best wide receiver in the ACC and they return last years second team All ACC quarterback. The returning players plus a reasonably soft schedule set the table for Tommy Bowden to make a splash. It was hard for Clemson to let him go with so much potential in 2008. In return for the contract extension, Bowden has started the year 3-2 with an embarrassing loss to Alabama and a home loss to Maryland. The potential for a special season is gone, but Bowden’s contract extension remains.
What is Clemson’s Next Step
Unless Tommy Bowden can disprove the definition of insanity soon, it is time for Clemson to move in another direction. The Bowden Bowl is cute and some may miss it, but for this program to get moving in the right direction they need to move in a new direction. 10 years is a long time to prove yourself as a coach and Clemson has been very patient waiting to be rewarded by Bowden. There are a lot of great young coaches available and some special coordinators as well. Two names that make a lot of sense are Chris Peterson of Boise State and Gary Crowton, LSU’s offensive coordinator. It will be interesting to see is if the people who make the decisions for Clemson are the fans who care about championships or the ones who don’t mind going 1-11.
This Week’s SEC Picks
Auburn 27, Vanderbilt 16
Florida 48, Arkansas 9
Alabama 28, Kentucky 18
South Carolina 27, Ole Miss 24
Tennessee 31, Northern Illinois 10
Do you agree or disagree? Is Clemson in need of change or are they are the right path with Tommy Bowden? E-mail
me Brian Harbach
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