Top-10 ranking a rickety pedestal for Tigers

By Marc Hudgens  |   Monday, August 18, 2008  |  Comments( 5 )

 Clemson Tigers
As great a reward as Clemson's ninth-place ranking in the AP's preseason Top 25 is, one can’t help but get the feeling that the Tigers won't last long as a highly rated team; after all, coach Tommy Bowden’s Tigers have had trouble in the past maintaining their place among college football's elite. For instance, after its big win over Georgia...
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CommentsComments: 5
 No.1
NB		 05:03 PM
08/18/2008
I tend to totally agree with the writer here. The Alabama win is a MUST for Clemson, if they are to be considered a true elite Division I program(The talent is indeed there, as it has been for the last 4 years). It seems that every time the Tigers are on the brink of breaking through the wall of being a top ten program, they slip. Here they are again at pre-season, being touted as a possible BCS bowl team. I am under the impression that if Tommy Bowden doesn't win the ACC title
and earn a BCS bowl THIS season, he won't ever get it done at Clemson after 10 seasons. My guess is that after he leaves, another coach will inherit the deep talent pool that he's recruited, and this new coach will probably lead them to the promised land, like Larry Coker did at Miami in the early 2000s
after inheriting Butch Davis' recruits.
 No.2
RazzMaTazz		 07:37 PM
08/18/2008
Clemson seems to have been schizophrenic during the Bowden era. (In last week's ESPN preseason college football review TV program, their commentators said the same thing, and they questioned whether Clemson could remain consistent for an entire season.) But I wonder if Clemson is any more inconsistent than other schools of similar player-talent levels. As a biased Clemson fan, it feels that way to me. But it would be interesting to see an objective statistical analysis of Clemson and other similar upper-middle-talent schools to see how they stack up in consistency against favorites and underdogs.

Of course, this coming season, Clemson's player-talent is a notch higher, so hopefully Clemson will be more consistent. It'll be interesting to see.

I've been under the impression that Bowden & his staff are kinda upper-middle tier coaches that have led Clemson to the upper-middle. Whereas top tier coaches like Jim Grobe have done far more with far less talent. But I could be wrong. Many Bowden fans have argued that Clemson hasn't had enough talent to win the ACC and (perhaps consequently) hasn't been picked to win the ACC since 1991, and so it's unreasonable to have expectations of an ACC title after only nine years. But I think everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) agrees that Clemson easily has the the most talented squad in the ACC this year (and more talent than every team on the schedule). So this year will be very telling indeed.

Go Tigers! 14-0!
 No.3
NB		 11:23 AM
08/19/2008
Razz, I have to say that Jimmy Grobe has done a better job than any coach in the ACC up to date. You cannot count WF out of the race this year with the return of their QB (Skinner) for the 3rd year in a row, so Wake is once again dangerous, (and they have Clemson at home) It is certain that the three most talented teams on paper in the ACC are Miami, Clemson and Florida State, but the coaching is suspect at all 3 schools. No emphasis is placed on the fundamentals. It is all placed on speed and athleticism first and foremost, and this has crippled all of them, reducing them to underachieving programs. Football is a game of blocking and tackling first, then quickness and precision. The raw talent, athleticism and speed come after that. Until the coaches at these three programs get back to that, we will see them bumble and stumble even more continously.
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