The Tommy Bowden review—a final salute

By Marc Hudgens  |   Thursday, October 16, 2008  |  Comments( 4 )

 Clemson Tigers
Facilities improvements. Nationally ranked recruiting classes. Regularly beating South Carolina and Florida State. Academic progress. Responsible players with high character. Those are among the many good things former Clemson head coach Tommy Bowden accomplished during his nine-plus seasons in Tigertown. You can’t deny the utmost importance of...
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CommentsComments: 4
 No.1
RazzMaTazz		 05:01 AM
10/16/2008
It's simple. Tommy Bowden is a pretty good coach. He's maybe a B-. He wasn't bad. He wasn't great. At first he seemed like an A- when he had Rich Rodriguez as his OC. But after RichRod left, it started becoming clear that Bowden was just a B-. Clemson fans wanted better. Clemson fans wanted somebody who could bring a periodic ACC title and (win or lose) play football you could be proud of (like the Texas-Oklhahoma game this past weekend).

The AD was a fool for giving Bowden an extension with a $4M buyout a few months ago. Bowden would have stayed anyway. He had no options. Bad negotiation.

I'll be surprised if Tommy takes another coaching job. He doesn't need the money. He won't get a better offer. And he just doesn't seem to love the job. For the last few years, he just looked pathetic and worried on the sidelines and at press conferences.

Clemson either goes up or down depending on who they hire. I have no faith that an AD who gave TB an extension with a $4M buyout, will make a good decision about a head coach. I expect that the AD will give more preference to a southern accent than ability. I can only hope that he'll get lucky.
 No.2
NB		 11:32 AM
10/16/2008
I agree with the author that TB brought some marginal restoration to the Tiger football program. In fact, he actually set up a very nice situation for the next coach coming in. I am still very convinced that Clemson would be using conventional wisdom to hire a new head coach next season who is "outside of the box". In other words, get away from the southern accented guy. This program is at a point of needing a "fresh difference" from what it has had in recent history in terms of a head coach. Alabama did this in hiring Nick Saban, not your typical "southern gentleman". Clemson would be wise to follow that example. Guys like Lane Kiffin and Chris Peterson bring that "western mentality" to Clemson, and this wouldn't be bad at all. The game of college football has evolved in the 2000s, and old habits have to die in order to succeed or keep up. Of course Bill Cowher is the "golden egg" Clemson could definitely use right now, but he's more than likely out of the scope. Therefore, the two men I just named would be smart to pursue by AD Phillips. At this time for Clemson football, the RIGHT man could propel them to a national title in two years, so it has to be handled with great strategy and smarts.
 No.3
 06:00 PM
10/16/2008
I find it interesting to see what the coach who got fired always has to say about it.
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