Tigers not the biggest underachievers

By Chris Preston  |   Monday, August 25, 2008  |  Comments( 4 )

Clemson Tigers
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Judging by the number of win-or-else articles written about Clemson football as we approach the start of the 2008 season, it’s clear that the national media are quite intrigued by the Tigers’ much-heralded underachiever status during head coach Tommy Bowden’s tenure. Scribes far and wide have weighed in on the tantalizing possibilities Clemson’s promising 2008 campaign bring: Either the Tigers live up to their consensus top-10 preseason hype by winning the ACC and qualifying for their first BCS bowl under Bowden, or – perhaps more deliciously for media outside South Carolina – they again fail to meet expectations and prove why they are perennially overrated.

But upon further review, perhaps the only thing that’s overrated about Clemson football is its actual status as an overrated program. There are two teams in the Tigers' own conference that have been far more overrated and even greater underachievers in recent years: Florida State and Miami. Let’s examine these two alleged college football heavyweights in comparison to Clemson over the last four seasons – a nice round number that not only matches a scholarship football player’s years of eligibility but is enough time to identify a clear trend among a given program.

From 2004-2007, Florida State’s record was 31-20, its high water mark coming back in ’04 when it finished 9-3. Since that season the Seminoles have gone 8-5, 7-6 and 7-6. Granted, they won an ACC title during that stretch – something Clemson has yet to accomplish under Bowden – but those records are subpar when you consider the talent FSU has been bringing in. The Seminoles’ last four recruiting classes carry an average Rivals.com ranking of about seventh in the country, a number that would be even higher had FSU’s 2007 cracked the top 20. Their ’04, ’05 and ’06 classes were ranked third, second and third, respectively. Those kinds of hauls should get you further than the Music City and Emerald Bowls (FSU’s last two bowl destinations).

Miami hasn’t fared much better. The average national rank of its ’04-’07 recruiting classes was 11. The Hurricanes' overall record during that time was a lukewarm 30-19, including last year’s 5-7 debacle. With five national titles in the last three decades and too many eventual pros to count, a 12-13 record over a two-year span (as was the case the past two seasons) is putrid.

Clemson’s recent shortcomings are peanuts in comparison. The Tigers’ last four recruiting classes prior to their stellar ’08 class averaged more than a 25 nationally, according to Rivals. If you’re scoring at home, that’s much lower than FSU’s rank of seven and Miami’s 11. Despite that, the Tigers have posted a better four-year mark (31-18) than either the Seminoles or the Hurricanes, and hold a 4-2 head-to-head advantage against the two Florida schools. Thirty-one wins in four years means the Tigers have averaged about eight victories a season since ’04. Eight wins in the ACC typically makes you a fringe Top-25 team – which is precisely what Clemson’s 25.25 recruiting average suggests that it should be. Meanwhile, the high school hauls the Noles and the Canes have made in recent years should have enabled them to maintain their status as top-10 programs. Neither has been anywhere close to that.

FSU and Miami aren’t the only big-name programs that have underachieved worse than Clemson the last four years. Nebraska (27-22 record since ’04; 16.25 average national recruiting class), Alabama (29-21 record; 13.5 average ranking) and Notre Dame (28-21; No. 22 average) have all failed miserably to live up to their considerable talent levels. So why do Clemson and Bowden receive so much flak?

There are two reasons. The first is simply because Clemson does not have nearly the pigskin pedigree of schools like Alabama, FSU, Miami, Nebraska or Notre Dame. Those are all top-10 all-time programs whose past glories are still fresh in the minds of the national sports media. The second reason is that all of those schools other than FSU have fired coaches during the past four seasons. FSU hasn’t because Bobby Bowden is a unique case like Joe Paterno, a coaching legend who basically has immunity until he decides to retire. His son Tommy, on the other hand, has survived all the disappointing times at Clemson – not just the last four, but nine years of ups and downs as the Tigers’ head man. Because Clemson’s alleged underachievement has all happened on his watch, Bowden – as every Clemson fan knows by now – is a popular whipping boy among media types.
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CommentsComments: 4  |  Sign Up  View all comments
No.1
RazzMaTazz		05:01 AM
08/25/2008
If you define underachieving as ending up ranked around the average of the ranking of your recruiting classes, then apparently...
No.2
NB		02:56 PM
08/25/2008
I totally agree with the writer's premise that Florida State and Miami have been collossal underacheivers in the last 3 seasons...
No.3
paw'em		11:09 AM
09/04/2008
NB, well put. Can't do better but do have one objection. Ohio State. If the buckeye's played in the sec, big 12 or pac 10 they...
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