A reponse to Tommy Bowden supporters

By Chris Preston  |   Thursday, June 12, 2008  |  Comments( 19 )

Clemson Tigers
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A column of mine from last week concerning Clemson head coach Tommy Bowden created quite a stir among Tigers fans. Thus far, that stir has entailed 16 posts in our “comments” area here at RealFootball365.com and apparently a chain of angry posts on TigerNet. Though I was the target of some of these comments, I must say that I love the passion from Tigers fans who still support the embattled Bowden. But that doesn’t mean I agree with everything that was written.

I stand behind my statement that “year in and year out, the Tigers are among the preseason favorites to win the ACC title," though many argued that I was off-base in such a claim. For instance, one poster at this Web site copied and pasted research done by someone over at TigerNet2 which supposedly revealed that the Tigers were never “among the preseason favorites." The results, nevertheless, conceded that Clemson was tabbed first in the Atlantic Division by two out of 12 preseason publications in 2007, and one in 2006. I consider that to qualify as being among the preseason favorites. After all, it’s not as if North Carolina or Duke, or even ACC middleweights like N.C. State or Virginia, were getting any votes. Furthermore, the Tigers are receiving more praise than ever this preseason, averaging a 9.63 national ranking among 13 major publications – by far the highest average of any ACC team. In my book, three years in a row of such high praise is enough to say the Tigers are “year in and year out among the preseason favorites to win the ACC.”

But I’m not here simply for the sake of defending myself. Instead, I’m here to raise a question I didn’t see among all the comments: If Clemson isn’t tabbed to win the Atlantic Division most years, doesn’t that reflect just as poorly on Bowden? Isn’t an inability to generate expectations on a consistent basis just as bad, if not worse, than failing to meet expectations? I think the Bowden era has seen a little of both: Low expectations in the early years mostly validated by a series of six- and seven-win seasons (four out of his first six years as coach, in fact), and higher expectations the last three years that resulted in fast starts (7-1 in 2006; 8-2 last season) but disappointing finishes. Whether that trend continues this season remains to be seen.

One last thing I should mention -- and I’m speaking mostly to the Bowden backers here: I think Bowden deserves the support of Tigers fans. While he hasn’t lived up to many Clemson fans’ expectations – nor the media’s expectations the last two seasons – a 60-37 record in a BCS conference is nothing to sneeze at. But the voice of his detractors grows louder with every increasing ACC championship-less season. Fair or unfair, if Bowden doesn’t quiet that large contingent right now, he will soon lose his job – contract extension be darned.
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