The AntiBowden

Apparently it's become obvious to Tommy Bowden that he sucks at football. He's now started calling other coaches for advice on the game, including daddy Bowden. This is hilarious to me: not only do we get embarrassed on national TV yet again, but now our $2 million a year coach is calling other coaches to help him with the game. Wow.

"As I talked to coach Saban, I said, 'I'm not one to have enough pride where I've got all the answers. I see you got six months to study me, a guy like you, what did you see?" Bowden said Tuesday.

The article doesn't mention Saban's answer, so I'm just gonna go ahead and fill that one in: "Well, I saw that you run a gimmicky offense that spends way too much time going east to west instead of north to south, and you run a soft defense that has cornerbacks playing linebacker. All my team had to do was play fundamental football to beat you like a drum."

"I'm always trying to learn and correct mistakes and solve potential problems," he said.

Yeah well how about solve current problems and worry about potential problems later.

+newsvine   +digg   +del.icio.us   +reddit
Posted by Tom on Wednesday, September 03, 2008 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Clemson fails to capitalize ... again

Can't really add much to this. This is a stinging, but accurate article.

+newsvine   +digg   +del.icio.us   +reddit
Posted by Tom on Sunday, August 31, 2008 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Tommy Bowden today set a new world record in excuse making during his Sunday press conference.

Normally in Bowden Bytes, I simply go through the article line by line, in order. However, with this one, I'm going to skip directly to the end, where the most telling quote is given by Bowden. One of Bowden's chief criticisms during his tenure at Clemson is that he's just not a motivator. His teams just don't come out fired up and ready to play. Well, I think he just told us why:

Q. Did you promise Jamie Harper the first carry from scrimmage? If so, would you do it again?

A. "Yes. And yes. Shoot yeah. I did it for James, Roscoe, Justin and C.J. To get a good player, oh man alive, yes. We were down 6-0. A touchdown wins that game. We didn't lose the game because of that."

Q. It seemed like it set the tone for the game.

A. "Most head coaches talk to their team before the game and tell them that nothing will happen in the first few minutes that will change the outcome of the game. It's one of the last things a coach says to his players."

Actually... no coach in their right mind would say something as ridiculous and idiotic as that. In fact, most coaches tell their players to go out there and smack the other team in the mouth and set the tone for the rest of the day. That attitude says "hey, we're going to push you all over the place today, get used to it." Apparently Tommy Bowden's teams come out and have the attitude that if they just show up and stay there for the duration of the game, something good will eventually happen. No wonder we're never fired up.

The thing that really strikes me here is the arrogance of this statement. He says "every coach says this" and just expects that everyone will believe that, when it's such an egregiously wrong and football ignorant thing to say. He really has gotten spoiled being at Clemson where people seem to just accept whatever he says as gospel. The true depth of his arrogance can be seen by the rest of the quotes from this press conference... they are simply unbelievable.

Q. What did you see again today after further evaluation (off film)?

A. "The biggest thing was point of attack. Our defensive line couldn't handle their offensive line. Our offensive line couldn't handle their defensive line. That hasn't happened here recently. I haven't seen us manhandled like that the last three or four years. That was surprising. I haven't seen it, so I surely didn't expect it."

I've seen us manhandled like that, often. Any time we play a good team, like UGA or VT, we get manhandled like that. Why? Maybe it has something to do with our gimmicks on offense like not ever using a 3 point stance? Or maybe, for all the great "talent" Tommy brings in, he can't recruit linemen worth a damn?

Q. Are you now more inclined to develop your young offensive linemen, especially at guard?

A. "They played. (Mason) Cloy got in a good bit. I don't know if we got any other ones in there. We'll meet on grades in a little bit. The coaches got in late so they're just getting those done. I've already looked at all the defensive and offensive snaps, but want to talk with them."

We better develop someone because at this point we don't have shit.

Q. Can you begin to unravel where things fell apart? Was it in your game plan?

A. "Sometimes you just don't know. As you look at this, you look at college football and how it's played. I look at Pete Carroll and what he might have said to his team after they lost to Stanford after being favored by 40 points. You start looking for reasons for why it happened. Along with preparation is what goes along with it, the preseason hype and the bulls-eye. If they didn't know it, they surely understand it now."

"If we had started with a lesser opponent, it wouldn't have made much difference. We don't know how good Alabama is. But we'll find out at the end of the year. When you start out against a quality opponent, you better understand what you have to do."

Pete Carroll!!!! Are you serious! Did he really just compare himself to Pete Carroll and then use the USC loss to Stanford to explain away his constant ability to lose games he should win? My Lord! I really can't believe that he said that, wow!

Q. Some who have attended your practices suggest that your team lacks toughness.

A. "We have closed practices. That would be kind of hard. Must be coming from the leaves or the trees. It would surely be hard to gather that kind of information. We don't open practices. That would have to be someone on my staff and I don't think any of those guys would say that. We surely didn't practice any differently than we have the last three years. We didn't practice any differently than we did against FSU."

Toughness wasn't a question last year. Toughness hasn't been a question the last three years. I would think that things like this would pop up occasionally by anonymous guys. I don't think they would be experts by any stretch of the imagination."

First of all, anybody can go stand on Perimeter road with some binoculars and watch practice, it's not that "closed." Second, does Tommy really believe toughness hasn't been an issue for the last several years? We never seem to show toughness. Last year our biggest example of this was the VT game where we went out there, laid down, and let them run all over us. Is Tommy demented or is he just so used to being full of shit and getting away with it that he's lost his grasp on reality?

Q. Given your expectations with your getting an extension and with your being here for ten years, is this kind of outcome less acceptable?

A. "It's never acceptable. You don't want this in the first or middle part of your contract. But a lot of teams will have performances like this. It's a 12-game schedule. Most teams will have one like this. Southern Cal had one like this last year with Stanford. I don't know what year he's in. Maybe he's in his eighth year. West Virginia losing to Pitt last year, Michigan losing to Appalachian State, you can go on down the line. To expect this not to happen just because you are in your tenth year…"

Again with the Pete Carroll comparison. Maybe someone should remind Tommy that Pete Carroll actually wins his conference on a regular basis and wins the national championship from time to time. Look at all the excuses. Oh and btw, Michigan fired their coach for letting them down.

Q. Six months to prepare for a game like this, a big game, and for a team in a conference considered to be the premiere conference, but your team was not ready. How could that be?

A. "I guess it could be the same way Virginia Tech wasn't ready for LSU. The same way Southern Cal had the national title on the line, the national championship, just beat Stanford, but they lost when they were a 40-point favorite. You have to take human error in to it. In college sports you've seen examples where teams didn't perform, and you have to point that out as a coach."

... and the excuses keep coming. VT lost to LSU, so it's OK for us to play like complete shit, right? Stanford beat USC, so it's OK for us to go out and have absolutely no clue how to beat Alabama, right? Right?

Q. What do you say to your team now?

A. "You challenge their pride. We'll appeal to their pride. This isn't the first time this has happened in college football. I'll talk to them about human error, the human aspect. They'll bounce back and play well. If you look at our track record, we haven't been kicked around like that. 50-percent of the teams lost yesterday. I don't have any doubt our players will come back and respond."

50% of the teams lost yesterday. If you ain't first, you're last. Which statement was made by someone who makes $2.2 million a year and isn't a fictional character?

OK that's enough. I can't take it any more. This guy is beyond belief, and it's really a shame that we're stuck with him because of the stupidity of our administration.

+newsvine   +digg   +del.icio.us   +reddit
Posted by Tom on Sunday, August 31, 2008 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

This post game press conference is almost surreal. It sounds like one of Ricky Bobby's kids or something.

Opening statement: "Since y'all don't have any (questions), we got whipped about every way you can get whipped. We surely didn't slow them down on defense. Maybe we can cover No. 88 by next week some time. I don't think we've been beaten that bad physically in the last three years."

Next week some time? Is this seriously a division 1 football coach speaking here? This sounds like something a redneck assed sidewalk alum would say in a drunken stupor on the way back to the tailgate after the game. What a class act this Tommy is. Oh and 3 years? Uh, I seem to remember one a lot more recent than that: Virginia Tech, LAST YEAR, in Death Valley.

Question: Did it surprise you to see them dominate you up front?

Tommy Bowden: "Yeah. Yeah. It surprised me that we couldn't stop them all night. We couldn't find something to slow them down. I cannot remember us getting beaten that bad physically in at least three years."

Of course it surprised this idiot, when's the last time we had a good OL with Bowden? Oh yeah, that's right, never.

Question: Can you talk about that play-call in the opening series and how big that fumble was?

Tommy Bowden: "We usually think that nothing will happen in the first five minutes of the game to cost you the game. The game is 60 minutes long. That's just one of two plays. I usually teach my team that nothing will happen early that'll cost them the game. It gave them momentum. I don't know if we could have regained it had we gotten a first down."

What kind of nonsense is this idiot talking about? Nothing can happen that early in the game that can cost you the game? Has he never heard about "Setting the tone" of a football game? He went out there and showed Alabama what he was all about: insane stupidity. Saban knew he had the game won at that point.

Question: Were you surprised the kickoff return for a touchdown didn't give you more momentum?

Tommy Bowden: "They stopped us and came out and scored. We never established any control of the game at any point. When a kickoff is the highlight of your offensive production, that's not very good."

You can say that again. Too bad you won't realize it was your poor coaching and strategy that caused the poor production. You'll probably just blame the players...

Question: Do you feel your team was rattled in the first half?

Tommy Bowden: "I'd like to think we didn't. Cullen is an older guy. We've got a lot of skill guys who are older. Defensively I wouldn't think we got rattled. We've got some younger guys on the offensive front. I'm anxious to find the answer. I don't know why they would have been rattled. We surely didn't respond to the preseason hype of being No. 9. That's pretty obvious by the play of the team."

There it is! Blame the players! It *surely* couldn't have been poor coaching or gameplan, or lack of adjustments, no it was simply the "play of the team" that cost us the game. Fucking arrogant prick!

Question: Talk about the play of your defense overall.

Tommy Bowden: "I'm anxious to see (off the film). We'll watch it tomorrow. I have not seen that done to us the last three years. I don't know why it happened. Responsibility of getting the team prepared is mine. As I told the team, I didn't get them prepared. And that's my job, my responsibility. I'll find a solution to the problem. We'll go to work on Monday. It's one game out of 12. But we've obviously got a long way to go. I've got to start with myself and work down."

Whoa!!!! Did he actually just take some responsibility? Maybe he'll give some of that $2.2 million back... or better yet, resign!

Question: Did you expect them to come out and just run right at you?

Tommy Bowden: "No, because nobody has really done that the last three years. No one has done that to us. That's what is surprising."

Of course he didn't expect that, he's a moron! I mean why would any coach expect a big, strong, powerful, young, inexperienced team to come out with a simple, straightforward gameplan that relied on power running and passing to the tight end? Who could have seen that coming?

Question: Going to make any recruiting promises again (starting Jamie Harper)?

Tommy Bowden: "If he's here for three years – there are 1,000 plays in a year – that's 3,000 plays, and I played him one, that's a pretty good return, pretty good tradeoff."

Is that English, or Retarded?

+newsvine   +digg   +del.icio.us   +reddit
Posted by Tom on Sunday, August 31, 2008 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Well, game one of the season, and my season prediction is already wrong. I thought we'd win a close, hard fought game against Alabama, but it turns out we just decided to go out there and get dominated in all aspects of the game. I guess it's really unrealistic to think you're going to have a championship caliber team when you have no offensive line and no linebackers, huh?

Alabama stomps Clemson 34-10



There's far too much to criticize about this game and really I'm too fatigued from suffering through it to break it all down but let's just say this: it all started downhill on our very first offensive play of the game when, instead of starting with Senior James Davis or Junior CJ Spiller, we hand the ball of to a true freshman who promptly fumbles. That's Bowden Ball.

+newsvine   +digg   +del.icio.us   +reddit
Posted by Tom on Saturday, August 30, 2008 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

OK, so it's that time again. Time to take a fair look at the road ahead and take an educated guess on how things will pan out. Generally, we have a very weak schedule, and the road to the ACC championship is wide open. Will we win it? No. Here's how it breaks down:

Sat, Aug 30 Alabama
Comments:
Alabama is coming off of a bad year. It was the worst first year for a high profile coach in recent history. However, Saban has a reputation for pulling off miracles in his second year. He's got a very bottom heavy talent pool (no NFL draft prospects, but lots of underclassmen with talent.) Are they going to step up and return Alabama to glory?

Upset Potential:
Clemson is heavily favored but what hasn't been taken into account is coaching ability. Saban is a very good coach, so it wouldn't surprise me to see Clemson get beat on the X's and O's.

Result: WIN
First game of the year, Alabama has a ton of youth. If this game was in November, I'd give the edge to Alabama.


Sat, Sep 6 Citadel
Comments:
FCS opponent, nothing to say here, except that they shouldn't be on the schedule.

Upset Potential:
None

Result: WIN

Sat, Sep 13 North Carolina State
Comments:
Some people say NC State will have a surprisingly good year. Maybe so, but they have a lot of work to do. They still have an uncertain QB situation, and while Tom O. might be a great coach, he really doesn't have much to work with.

Upset Potential:
I'll be rooting for the Wolfpack to pull the upset in their season opener vs SC, but there's little hope for them against the Tigers.

Result: WIN


Sat, Sep 20 South Carolina State
Comments: Who? SC State? Really?

Upset Potential:
None

Result: (meaningless) WIN


Sat, Sep 27 Maryland
Comments:
Maryland starts the year with a pretty easy schedule, with the exception of California, so they'll probably be coming into this game at 3-1 and a pretty good comfort level with running their offense without the Fridge calling the plays. This is a team that usually gives us trouble and they'll have the same formula for success this year with a veteran offensive line, a speedy running back, and a good receiving corps. The one area where they lack stability is quarterback, but that will be shored up by the time they play us.

Upset Potential:
Even when outmatched in talent level, the Fridge finds ways to win games. This year he's definitely going to face problems with our speed and agility at the skill positions, but he'll have plenty of gaps to work with in the passing game with our inexperienced linebackers. If they can get that west coast offense going against us, it might be a long day in Tiger Town.

Result: WIN
It's in the valley, and while they have a good coaching staff they just don't have the talent to beat us this year. Tommy could screw this one up of course, but it's unlikely.


Thu, Oct 9 at Wake Forest
Comments:
Ah, Wake Forest. The last time we played them in their house, it took a miracle play by a beast of a defensive end to snap the Tigers out of a Tommy Bowden pregame induced coma to come back and take the game. The time before that... well... let's just not talk about that. This year the Deacs have 15 returning starters but they have some big questions at Wide Receiver, which will really hurt them when it comes to keeping defenses honest against their run-heavy attack. Yet again we blatantly out-talent this team, but the coaching edge definitely goes to Grobe.

Upset Potential:
It's at Wake, it's on Thursday night ESPN, and we'll be undefeated with a huge target on our backs and lots of expectations... not a good formula for success under Tommy Bowden

Result: LOSS
Yep, they did it again.


Sat, Oct 18 Georgia Tech
Comments:
Georgia Tech landed the best coach in College Football today, Paul Johnson. They should be fun to watch this year. However, even though he's done more with less, he simply doesn't have the talent to compete with Clemson this year. Additionally, his offense is going to be a tremendous change from Chan Gailey, so look for them to have some rough times.

Upset Potential:
The gnats usually give us problems. For a long stretch we had every game decided by 3 points or less. Not this year though.

Result: WIN
Too many changes in the offensive playbook for GTU, and not enough talent.


Sat, Nov 1 at (10) Boston College
Comments:
The Eagles. The damned Eagles. The team that never should have been brought into the ACC yet Clemson hasn't been able to beat. The first time we met they had Tom O'Brien, last year they had Matt Ryan, this year they have neither. However, they have a 5th year senior to take his place and a supporting cast of unspectacular yet fundamentally solid players. This will be a challenging road game.

Upset Potential:
BC has our number, we've yet to beat them in ACC play. This game is on the road and is quite a trip from Clemson, so the players might be groggy.

Result: LOSS
This will be a great game. It'll be a close game that won't be viewed on any television sets above the Mason-Dixon line, but we won't win it.


Sat, Nov 8 at Florida State
Comments:
This is going to be the toughest game of our regular season. FSU in Tallahassee is never an easy game, but this year it's going to be even harder because the Seminoles might actually have their swagger back. The talk of the town this year has been that they are a team unified and ready to re-establish their name as the ACC's best. For now it's just talk, but as we all know, FSU can make it happen.

Upset Potential:
Daddy Bowden has dominated Tommy Bowden with the exception of the past few years. This year it's likely that the father will remind the son who's the boss.

Result: LOSS
This is the year that FSU awakens from their slumber.


Sat, Nov 15 Duke
Comments:
It's Duke

Upset Potential:
Little to none.

Result: WIN


Sat, Nov 22 at Virginia
Comments:
Virginia is a team that we haven't played in a while and has had a ton of trouble off of the field during the past off season. While they rebounded to 9 wins last year they have lost a lot of players and are only bringing back 10 starters this year. They have a good coach in Groh but that's about the only positive to mention at this point.

Upset Potential:
Groh has been able to beat us when he shouldn't have. Plus, they have a pergola.

Result: WIN
This will be a close one but Virginia just doesn't have many good things going on this year.


Sat, Nov 29 South Carolina
Comments:
This will be the year that South Carolina demonstrates to the whole world that they are the NCAA's coaching graveyard. Steve Spurrier, I hope playing Augusta National was worth ruining your coaching career. Couldn't have happened to a better guy.

Upset Potential:
It's the biggest game of the year, plain and simple. There's always a chance the cocks can pull out a miracle.

Result: WIN
Bye Steve!


Conclusion: 9-3
So there you have it: 9-3 with no wins against teams that finish in the top 25, no ACC championship, and no BCS bowl. I wonder how much of a raise and how many more years Tommy will get after that?

+newsvine   +digg   +del.icio.us   +reddit
Posted by Tom on Friday, August 08, 2008 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

This article is full of nice tidbits.

“Yeah, it would make life a lot easier for me if this was the old days, but again if this were the ‘80s we would have been champions three times the last 10 years and that would have been pretty good,”

Wow. I really don't even know what to say to that. Is he admitting that he's inferior to the coaching staff that we actually had during the 80's? Is he saying that with our records over the previous years we would have automatically won the title? Is he saying that if you took out certain specific teams from the conference (namely FSU) that we could have won the title? Is he saying that if my aunt had balls she'd be my uncle?

This is pure lunacy folks. This guy gets millions of dollars a year to beat up on D1-AA teams and choke in every single game against a top 25 opponent and he thinks that he would have automatically won the ACC 3 times during the 80's? What?

“Three times in the nine years I have been here, and every third year win the conference championship that would be pretty acceptable, but none in the 17 years is obviously not very good,”

Is that English or retarded? Seriously though, even if you accept his erroneous position that the ACC without FSU would be a cakewalk every year, it would not be acceptable to just stumble your way into a conference championship and then crap out in whatever bowl we went to because we finally faced good competition. The problem with Bowden is not a statistical issue, it's a matter of principle. Bowden's strategies over the years have been idiotic, his game management has been purely terrible, and every time we've faced a team that finished in the top 25, we've lost. That's the issue. Sure, we can roll over the crap teams, but when the chips are down we fold.

Yet, he continues:

“It used to be Clemson won it every year until Florida State came and then you add the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Boston Colleges, which if they weren’t in it we would have been the champions the last three years so it has been a factor,” Bowden said. “If you take those three teams out of the conference then we win it the last three years, I think.”

Is he honestly trying to compare himself to Danny Ford here? I mean is he so arrogant as to say that if he was competing against the same teams that Danny Ford went against he would win the conference championship all the time? Sure, the ACC had less teams in the 80's, but they weren't all crap like Bowden is suggesting. It was still a tough conference, and Danny Ford's teams absolutely dominated it. Add to that the fact that instead of playing 3 cupcakes a year for OOC games (two of our games this year are D1-AA SC teams) we used to play the likes of Georgia, Virginia Tech, Florida State, Oklahoma, Penn State, etc AND WIN. (Granted, Georgia had our number, but we at least fought them well, as opposed to 0-30 in the valley.)

“If I were younger, maybe it would bother me more, but after 31 years of coaching and seeing other coaches going through that and finally you know Mack Brown doing poorly, poorly, poorly and finally winning that, and my father going through it and finally winning it, I think there is a little bit of comfort, not much, knowing we don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” Bowden said. “We are close and eventually it is going to happen if we can just hang on.

“I think it is going to happen where we will get to the championship game and will get in the BCS.”

I swear, that is Bowden's favorite thing to say. 'We don't have to reinvent the wheel.' Well then, why in the hell do we always run some stupid gimmick offense every year with some new "twist" in it that never, ever works in big games? Why is it that every time we play against a decent defensive coordinator we get absolutely shut down because of our latest gadget offense? Insanity is when you keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results, yet every year, be it 10-2 or 6-6, Bowden says "we don't have to reinvent the wheel" ... and yet we just keep increasing his salary. Insane.

+newsvine   +digg   +del.icio.us   +reddit
Posted by Tom on Tuesday, July 08, 2008 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

... but I thought Tommy got all those good recruits over the years because he's such a good Christian man? lol

+newsvine   +digg   +del.icio.us   +reddit
Posted by Tom on Thursday, March 27, 2008 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

but congrats to our Tigers this evening as they upset Duke in the ACC tourney. I say Oliver Purnell and Tommy Bowden should swap salaries until the football team can do something equally impressive.

+newsvine   +digg   +del.icio.us   +reddit
Posted by Tom on Sunday, March 16, 2008 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

http://georgiasports.blogspot.com/2008/03/longest-tenured-coaches-without-bcs-bid.html

+newsvine   +digg   +del.icio.us   +reddit
Posted by Tom on Saturday, March 15, 2008 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

In true Christian, compassionate form, Tommy Bowden decided to take a way Ray Ray scholarship this past Saturday. I'm late on this story, so I'll defer to Danny Ford Is God as they have a pretty good write up.

This doesn't surprise me at all really. Tommy is a used car salesman and will surely spin this to make him look like the messiah again.

+newsvine   +digg   +del.icio.us   +reddit
Posted by Tom on Tuesday, March 11, 2008 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Take a look at this news: More rules changes for college football.

What the hell was wrong with the rules in 2005? Are we really so damn ADD that we can't have a game last over 3 hours?

Why do people always want to change stuff? I love college football just the way it is. Why do we need to fundamentally change the rules so that people with short attention spans will be happy? This reminds me of the democratic presidential candidates this year: change, change, change. They don't have a clue what they're talking about, and they haven't spelled out any specifics of how their ideas are going to work, but they want change, change, change. Sickening.

+newsvine   +digg   +del.icio.us   +reddit
Posted by Tom on Friday, February 15, 2008 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Hat tip, DFIG



Source Article

+newsvine   +digg   +del.icio.us   +reddit
Posted by Tom on Saturday, February 09, 2008 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

They have all signed on to play for Bowden.

I have to admit, it's an impressive haul. My mind is still not changed about Tommy Bowden though. I've always said he's a great recruiter, but he just unfortunately doesn't know enough about the fundamentals of football to coach a team to a championship. I will hold that opinion until I am proven incorrect.

+newsvine   +digg   +del.icio.us   +reddit
Posted by Tom on Thursday, February 07, 2008 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post