The AntiBowden

OK so obviously the name for this Blog isn't that applicable any more. Tommy Bowden is gone. I still want to write about Clemson football though so I've decided to keep doing so but now on my all-inclusive blog site: www.itsmyblog.com

So, I might add a post to this site here and there, but mostly everything's gonna be on It's My Blog.

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Posted by Tom on Monday, October 20, 2008 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

First I have to say it was really great to get back up to Clemson to see another football game. I was actually excited about football this weekend for the first time in a loooooong time. Nothing beats gameday at Clemson, just nothing.

As for the game itself, well what can I say, Paul Johnson is a great coach. I never in a million years would have predicted, even with Bowden as our head coach going into the year, that Paul Johnson would have the Tech nerds miles ahead of us in only his first year of coaching in the ACC. The score didn't really show it at the end of the game, but unfortunately, such was the case this past saturday. Tech had a short field all day, usually about 50 yards, while they absolutely shut down our rushing attack and stopped our passing enough to hold us from winning the game. The score would have been much more lopsided if Tech's QB was 100% healthy, but he was obviously still shaken up from his previous injury.

Either way, it was a good showing for Dabo Swinney. He had the team fired up and our defense did a great job in the first half against the triple option. We held Georgia Tech to their lowest rushing total of the year (I'm ignoring the Gardner-Webb game, don't know what the stats were there.) Our offense got off to a shaky start and Dabo disappointed me a little bit in running a couple of trick plays early in situations where all we needed to do was keep dinking and dunking our way down the field. Unlike Bowden, he seemed to learn from these mistakes quickly and we didn't see another one after the intercepted WR pass. Our team actually got better as the game progressed and we were arguably one holding call away from a great comeback. Our offense in the second half had some spark and it looked like they were actually coming together as an effective unit. Additionally, it was nice to see us throw the ball downfield to setup the screen pass, which I think we only ran twice.

I give Dabo an A- for this game given the shape of the team he inherited. There were some things that could have been done a little bit better, especially with Korn at the beginning of the game: less trick plays, more bootlegs. We should have seen a Michael Vick / Warrick Dunn style scheme with Willy Korn and James Davis where Korn takes the snap and steps to Davis, either faking the handoff and bootlegging out to the weak side or giving the ball to Davis, making the defense guess every time. We saw that maybe twice in Korn's short stint at QB and it was pretty effective.

Dabo's a good coach in my estimation, and I still say that we'd be in great shape with Foster as the head man/DC and Dabo as the OC. Dabo's got two weeks to get this team rested, recovered, and reeducated for the Boston College game and I think he's going to make tremendous progress. Clemson will beat BC.

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Posted by Tom on Sunday, October 19, 2008 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Well, this is it. Now is the time we face the coach that we should have hired last year. This game was slated to be a blowout in Clemson's favor before the year began, and even as late as a couple of weeks ago. Then the tables turned and it seemed that Johnson would surely blow us out with our incompetent coaching. However, the events of the last week have just thrown everything into complete turmoil.

Firstly, Tech had a game against Gardner-Webb last week in which they struggled mightily and only won 10-7. Now, that score doesn't really reflect what was going on, mostly in the fact that Johnson used the game to rest up many of his dinged up starters. Nevertheless, even Tech's third string should be able to handle Gardner-Webb better than that. Somehow, I think that game is going to have absolutely no bearing on how the nerds come out to play us. For one thing their starting QB is back and healthy and ready to kick some ass. For another thing they won't be playing vanilla practice defense against an offense that they didn't gameplan for. In fact, if anything they've had two weeks in which to prepare for our offense.

This brings me to the second part of this tale of turbulence: this week we have experienced here at Clemson the inevitable and the tardy departure of Tommy Bowden and his Bible study buddy Rob Spence. In their wake we have been delivered interim Head Coach Dabo Swinney, who most of us see as a Godsend. The man has reenergized the students, the fans, and the players. He's made some changes around Clemson that people are already feeling and he's gotten us back in the mindset that Clemson football is something to appreciate and to get fired up about.

That being said, he's inheriting a crippled team from a football ignoramus. He's got an offensive system to work with that was made by a mad (insane) scientist (dumbass) and a roster full of track stars with nobody to block for them, plus a quarterback who's never started a collegiate game. The ultimate recipe for success right? Hardly.

Although Dabo has already made some critical adjustments (that he's made public) like putting the linemen back into a three point stance, I just don't think 5 days is enough to completely turn around a totally inept offense. For that reason, I see a game full of excitement and big plays, but not enough will go our way. Georgia Tech wins 28-17. Dabo will do a good job and we will improve leaps and bounds the rest of the year, but this game is going to prove that old school fundamentals are too much to overcome, regardless of talent.

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Posted by Tom on Thursday, October 16, 2008 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Bud Foster is known by many as the defensive genius that has guided Virginia Tech to its successes in the national spotlight as well as in the ACC. The Hokies have never been known for their great offense (aside from Michael Vick) but have instead relied on a stingy, fierce defense to hold opponents down while the special teams dominate the battle of field position. Also, Bud Foster has been responsible for the absolute domination of otherwise high powered offenses, such as the debacle us Tigers witnessed two years ago when we blew out Georgia Tech and the following week got our teeth kicked in by the Hokies. Nobody thought we could be stopped, not even the analysts, until Bud Foster showed the country how to do it. Everyone else on our schedule took note, and Boston College used the same strategy to beat us at home, keeping us out of the ACC Championship.

Foster's list of awards is noteworthy. He took the Hokies to the National Championship with Frank Beamer in 1999 and won the Defensive Coordinator of the Year for his efforts. As recently as 2006, he won the Broyles Award for the best assistant coach in all of college football. Most important to me as a Tiger fan, Foster's defense has led the ACC every year since they joined the conference.

Additionally, Foster has been courted as a head coach for some time now, but has turned down many offers through a mixture of loyalty to Frank Beamer and career savvy as he's openly admitted he's "waiting for the perfect opportunity." In fact, just this morning Foster had this to say:

"I'd be stupid" not to go, Foster said when asked what he would do if Clemson called tomorrow. "That's what you guys have all asked me for the last five years, six years. Who wouldn't be [interested]? ... That'd be one I'd be jumping through hoops to try to get. But at the same time, right now I can't worry about that. All I can worry about is what I can control, and that's trying to put the best defense on the field here."

I'd say that's a pretty clear indicator that not only is he ready to move into the role as Head Coach, but he wants to do it at Clemson. This is good news.

This means that now we have two high profile defensive coordinators up for the head coaching position here at Clemson. The problem with both Muschamp and Foster is that we just don't know what kind of offense they would want to run, or what their recruiting philosophy would be. We also don't know how open they would be to retaining current members of the staff, most notably Dabo Swinney, who has energized the team, the students, and the fans with his straight talk and spirited comments about the direction he wants to take Clemson Football. However, he's yet to coach his first game, so we'll have to see how he performs during the rest of the season before we jump to conclusions about his abilities.

I don't know how realistic this is, but personally I would hope for a situation where Dabo Swinney proves himself as not only a great recruiter but also a great offensive mind. Then we could hire Bud Foster to be the Head Coach and Defensive Coordinator, and have Dabo Swinney as Offensive Coordinator and asst Head Coach. This way we wouldn't miss a step in recruiting and we wouldn't have to guess at what kind of scheme Foster would run on the offensive side of the ball. At this point, I'm really leaning towards Foster as my favorite pick for our next head coach, and I hope that the scenario I outlined plays out.

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Posted by Tom on Wednesday, October 15, 2008 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Dabo Swinney's PC audio + Player interviews

Terry Don Phillips and Tommy Bowden PC audio

Interestingly, Terry Don admits that he was the one who "pulled that string" and gave Tommy the contract extension this past winter. Great move.

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Posted by Tom on Monday, October 13, 2008 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Click here to order yours today!

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Posted by Tom on Monday, October 13, 2008 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

From the press conference about his firing:

"(Athletic director) Terry Don Phillips approached me this morning, and we agreed that this is the best solution for the direction of the program. Clemson has been very good to me and my family. Both of our children are Clemson graduates.

I appreciate the opportunity Clemson University gave me and the support of the administration while I was here. I also want to thank all the players and coaches who worked so hard for this program the last 10 years. I wish Clemson University nothing but the best in the future."

Hahahaha, yeah right. I'm sure you both agreed. Oh well, however he wants to put it, he's gone. Done. Finished. Gone. It's great to finally have some hope in Clemson football again.

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Posted by Tom on Monday, October 13, 2008 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Here's the article, I'm going to address each point.

1. Won-loss record. Obviously. But even before this season of underachieving -- Clemson is 3-3 after starting the year ranked No. 9 and being picked to win the ACC -- the Tigers under Bowden lost games they should've won and won games they should've lost. That's a sure sign of a program in trouble, and one with little internal direction and leadership. You can't lose to Duke and beat Miami in the same season. Or lose to Wake Forest and beat Tennessee.

I understand what he's getting at, but he's not quite right. The problem was two fold: 1) we never made it to the top (10 wins and/or an ACC championship) and 2) is that we always had letdown games when we were in the spotlight. Every team wins some upsets and falls victim to some upsets, our problem under Bowden was that every single year we came out and played a couple of games like we just didn't have a clue. Then every time we played a fundamentally sound powerhouse we lost.

2. He lost control of the team. Players were bickering more and more after each loss, and then Bowden announced after last week's loss to Wake Forest that he was benching quarterback Cullen Harper, a senior captain, in favor of redshirt freshman Willy Korn. Bowden said he was looking for "a spark" in the offense, even though Harper has been playing behind an inexperienced and beat-up offensive line and has dealt with receivers dropping balls all season. Bowden essentially blamed Harper for the team's struggles -- and nothing could be further from reality.

Couldn't agree more. This has always been a problem with Bowden, starting with the Woody/Willie situation after Willie Simmons came in and led the Tigers to a win over UNC when Woody had been struggling with them.

3. He stayed too long with offensive coordinator Rob Spence. Bowden, like his father, Bobby, is big on staff continuity. He believes like minds get teams through rough patches. Spence had a few uneven seasons, but Bowden stuck with him. That loyalty likely cost Bowden his job. According to sources, Bowden was feeling pressure to fire Spence after last week's loss to Wake Forest.

This is pure speculation and I'm not sure it makes sense. Bowden's offenses have ALWAYS underperformed and it didn't matter who the OC was, so I don't see why the Administration would be so hell bent on getting rid of Spence. Also they asked Dabo if he wanted Spence or not, which they wouldn't have asked if they were the ones who wanted him fired in the first place.

4. The team never developed an identity. The Tigers were so erratic under Bowden because there was never a foundation or philosophy to embrace. It's well known around the league that Clemson can't brawl and doesn't get physical. "They try to out-athlete you," says one ACC coach. "You never had to be concerned that they were going to line up and trade punches with you. That comes from up top and works its way down."

This is fanspeak and sportswriter language. In reality, Tommy Bowden just didn't understand the fundamentals of football. Hell he even said "nothing that happens in the first 5 minutes of a game affects the outcome." Any coach in the world knows that you use the first drive of the game to set the tone. Whenever a team uses a gimmick offense and isn't fundamentally sound, it appears that they're lacking "toughness" but in reality they're just getting beat on technique and strategy.

5. He was never embraced by the Clemson community. Think about that concept: This was Bowden's 10th season, yet there were many big-money boosters who never felt like he was the right coach for the job. There was constant bickering among the school's legendary booster club IPTAY, and Bowden was seemingly always considered on the proverbial hot seat.

What? What is this guy smoking? Tommy Bowden brainwashed 99% of the fanbase into thinking he was the second coming. Hell we still have people saying he was a good coach for us because "he improved facilities." That literally makes me laugh out loud. Our new facilities sure have helped us build an OL and a linebacking corps this year havent they? Oh wait, we've never had either under Bowden.

This is a decent article and I appreciate the attempt, but the reality is this: our Administration is weak and spineless and they made this move because of the outcry from the fans and donors. If they were using analytical factors to make a coaching decision, Bowden would have been let go after the 2003 season when he showed just how inconsistent of a coach he was even though he had a supremely talented team. If our Administration was using a thorough evaluation to make this decision, they would have let Tommy go last fall while he was flirting with Arkansas. The fact is that our Administration was starting to feel some of the heat from Tommy's seat so they made the move now.

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Posted by Tom on Monday, October 13, 2008 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Since we've featured him before, I thought I'd post his comments.


One of his quotes is kindof concerning though:

“That’s upsetting,” Muschamp said. “That’s the way college athletics is going, I guess.”

That doesn't sound very... BOOMish. I mean, is he saying we were rash in our decision to fire Tommy? This is a guy that's coached for teams that have won the national championship... and he's implying that we shouldn't have fired Tommy after 10 years of disappointment? Not sure what to think about this.

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Posted by Tom on Monday, October 13, 2008 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Awesome!!! I'll try to find something to substantiate. This was heard on the radio.

Update
Block-C is keeping up with everything on this day. Here's all the details.

Hell the guy gets a big decision to make on his first day and he does the right thing... Maybe we should just keep Dabo?

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Posted by Tom on Monday, October 13, 2008 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

The day has finally come. Tommy Bowden has been fired. Dabo Swinney to be interim Head Coach.

Thank Goodness.

In the time between now and hiring a new coach I will continue to profile prospects, such as: Bud Foster, Mike Leak, Brian Van Gorder, Jim Grobe, etc.

My work here is almost done. At the end of the year, I will sell this domain to the unlucky souls that hire Tommy. 'Till then, let's get us a football coach!

Update
The news is all over the web now.

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Posted by Tom on Monday, October 13, 2008 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

In the quest to find the next Clemson coach I have gone out and researched some more about another one of the fan favorites: Vanderbilt's own Bobby Johnson.

First off, a good place to start is his Wikepedia article.

It's hard to find something you don't like about this guy by reading about him. He's had a good career, he's even coached at Clemson before. He took Furman to the promised land while he was the head coach there. He's taken Vanderbilt from the whipping boy of the SEC to an actual tough team. He's a hard worker, a good Christian man, he doesn't allow any foul language, and everybody likes him.

My biggest problem with him, is this:
2002 Vanderbilt 2–10 0–8 6th (East)
2003 Vanderbilt 2–10 1–7 5th (East)
2004 Vanderbilt 2–9 1–7 6th (East)
2005 Vanderbilt 5–6 3–5 5th (East)
2006 Vanderbilt 4–8 1–7 6th (East)
2007 Vanderbilt 5–7 2–6 6th (East)

Now, I know this is Vandy. They don't even have an Athletic department. They used to be an automatic win every year for everybody in the SEC. Even South Carolina used to count them as an automatic win, that's how bad they were. Still... how long do we want to wait to be a contender? 6 years is a long time to have that little of an improvement. He also took a while to get Furman going, and even though they did make it to the championship they still didn't win it. So now, in his late 50's, would he have the fire and determination we'd need out of a head coach?

However, this year he's got the 'dores off to a 5-1 start, which is their best ever. Still, they just dropped a "letdown" game to a Mississippi State team that just isn't that impressive. Worse still is what you can find in the post game quotes:

"All the things we were doing when we won five games, we didn't do a very good job with today. That's just the difference between winning and losing, especially when we take on teams with a lot of talent like Mississippi State. We had too many penalties, dropped balls, and too many missed tackles. We couldn't seem to make the big play and that's what seems to happen to you when you don't win. We will try to bounce back. Our guys are pretty resilient and our coaching staff will be too. It is tough to be that close and not get a win."

While not quite as brain dead, that statement sounds an awful lot like Tommy Bowden. Blame the players' "execution," instead of talking about what the coaches could have done differently.

Even more damning is this:

On Vanderbilt's offensive struggles:
"I think it definitely had to do with Mississippi State. They did a good job with that week off and showed us something a little bit different. They also have good players doing it too. We probably weren't as sharp as we had been but you have to give them a lot of credit for making some big plays and they did a real good job in coverage. It looked like when we had some momentum, we would get a penalty to stop us."

So in other words, they came out and did something unexpected on defense, but you weren't able to make the proper adjustments to counter their strategy, so you're blaming penalties (the players) instead of strategy. That's not good. That's the same thing we've experienced at Clemson for the last 9 and a half years.

Then there's the issue of allegiance. Yes, Johnson is a Clemson man, but would he actually leave Vandy? They really like him there, plus, he doesn't have an AD to deal with. That's a pretty sweet gig for a head coach. All he has to do is win a couple of SEC games a year and people think he's the greatest coach in the world... why would he leave?

All in all, Bobby Johnson is a good coach, and he would be a good coach at Clemson. We'd win 8 or 9 games a year and we might even sniff the ACC championship game. He has the same type of Bob Jones mentality of Bowden and that would probably lead to a clean program with not that many arrests. While that's all well and good, it's not enough for me to want him as our next head coach. It is my conclusion that he would not be a good hire and he would not take us to the next level. Unfortunately, the goal of our Administration doesn't actually seem to be winning championships, but rather having a clean program that sells tickets.

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Posted by Tom on Sunday, October 12, 2008 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Feel free to add your own message in the comments section.

Dear TDP,

What the hell is going on? Last thursday, for the second time this year, our beloved Clemson football team had a chance to shine on national TV but instead came out and crapped all over the football field. Our offense looked so pathetic that watching our guys try to score was like watching a midget try to hump a doorknob. Yet... nothing has been done or even said about the situation by the powers that be.

This same type of meltdown has gone on for the last 9 and a half years, and this year it has culminated in the most miserable experience for a Clemson football follower since the 3-8 season. We've dropped two ACC games in a row only to have our head football coach come out and throw his own starting quarterback under the bus to save his own ass when it is clearly evident that you could have John Elway back there throwing screen passes and it wouldn't make a bit of difference.

So where are you? Why aren't you doing your job? The Clemson nation continues to suffer and we've heard nothing from you about the situation. Are you content to simply sit back and let Tommy Bowden run this program into the ground until the end of the year, just so you can save some money on his buyout contract? We're already the laughing stock of ESPN, how much lower do you want us to go? I'll tell you what, since it was your brilliant idea to give this schyster a contract extension last year after having accomplished absolutely nothing, then how about we dock your pay until you've made up for it?

Terry, do your job. We desperately need a solution to this downward spiral.

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Posted by Tom on Sunday, October 12, 2008 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

What was promised by your dedicated blogger has now come to pass: Korn to start against Georgia Tech. Tommy Bowden, feeling the lake water draining out from under his jetski, has decided to throw 5th year senior Cullen Harper under the bus in a last ditch effort to save his floundering coaching career. Will it work? Sadly, it probably will. This is going to make my Georgia Tech prediction more difficult. Regardless, someone who isn't sitting in an airport and who has time to do such things should photoshop a "Tommy Bowden's Career" bus with X out stamps on it like the old WWII fighter planes with pictures of Willie Simmons, Mike O'Cain,  Levitte (or whatever that defensive coordinator's name was), and now Cullen Harper. Poor guys.

Clemson SID Tim Bourret: Coach Bowden would like to make a statement first.

Oooohhhh how official, like he's the frapping president or something.

Tommy Bowden: "We're going to make a change at quarterback. We've got to find a spark, offensively. A more mobile quarterback will give us more options."

Too bad, I thought the statement was going to be "I resign." Unfortunately you've decided to take the CYA move by throwing a hardworking player under the bus to hide your coaching deficiencies.

Some notable quotes:

Question: Have you talked to either or both of the young men?

Tommy Bowden: "When I made my mind up about 1 p.m., we started calling Cullen's cell phone. Rob was still calling that cell phone as of about 15, 20 minutes ago."

Oh wow. So not only are you throwing the kid under the bus, but you also are so classless that you tell the press first before you even talk to the kid? Man, you must be a dumb ass redneck, or just really desperate to save your job, or both. You damned asshole.

Question: You have been against this for a while. What was the final straw?

Tommy Bowden: "I made the decision based on the things that I just said. We need to find a spark offensively. And we need to re-evaluate our plan of attack. A more mobile quarterback gives you more options. That's why I made the decision. (Cullen) He has been a pretty productive quarterback, but has struggled some this year."

Question: So he is going to start?

Tommy Bowden: "I think I said that. I think I opened up with that."

What a pompous ass. What a momma's boy. Damnit why is he still employed?

Question: Why did you wait this long?

Tommy Bowden: "I think we have gone six quarters without a touchdown. We just need a spark. We have to find something that sparks us a little bit. I've waited so long because it was the appropriate time."

"When you make a move like this, I want to make sure it's done for the right reasons, and appropriately off of evaluation."

Yep, the appropriate time to divert attention away from your complete lack of coaching ability. I'm sure this is done for the "right reason," if you mean the right reason is saving your own ass.

Question: How about with play-calling and play selection? Any chance you would become more involved?

Tommy Bowden: "Not right now. Rob has been here for about three years. He has had a pretty productive track record. I think over the last couple of years we have had a couple of lapses in productivity. He didn't forget how to coach or call plays or coordinate an offense in six games. I have not thought about that."

Interviewer: are you fucking insane? Tommy's already too involved now. Go back and watch Spence's offense before Clemson, it operated much better and had far fewer moronic plays in situations that they simply were doomed to failure. I'm not saying Spence's offense is good, I hate it, but Bowden is already handcuffing him.

Question: I know how difficult you said this was for you several years ago when you started Charlie Whitehurst ahead of Willie Simmons. Was this similar?

Tommy Bowden: "Yes. One is a fifth-year senior and one is a freshman, plus because of his performance last year."

Similar? It's fucking identical. Bowden knows that Korn is the savior to the multitudes and he's the only way he can save his ass from being run out of town, which is exactly what was going on with Whitey and Willie.

I have a hard time even thinking about this stuff. Why is he not fired yet? You've got a head coach of a college football program benching his quarterback in the press... really? Good God. That's reason enough to fire his sorry ass, even without the last 10 years of fraud.

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Posted by Tom on Friday, October 10, 2008 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post