The AntiBowden

• Looks like we'll be missing at least four starters for the Chik-Fil-A Bowl in Atlanta. Tommy Bowden is "considering" suspending the fourth after his DUI Arrest. I thought Tommy was a good Christian Man?
• West Virginia is considering Tommy Bowden for their coaching vacancy. Why they would want to regress into mediocrity is beyond me, but if they can get him to leave Clemson, great!
• Bowden's new contract at Clemson keeps him here until 2014, but school officials have still not released the full financial details. According to Terry Don Phillips the new contract moves Tommy into the ranks of the highest paid coaches in the ACC, whatever that means. Interestingly, even though Tommy says "I fully intended when I came here nine years ago to make this my last stop," when talking about the fattened up contract extension, the reason for the extra cash and buyout money is that he went to Arkansas to talk about becoming their new Head Coach before they hired Petrino. I wonder how much more money Terry Dumb will throw in after Bowden goes and talks to West Virginia?
  

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Posted by Tom on Monday, December 17, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Rich Rodriguez, the real talent behind Tommy Bowden's undefeated season and early success at Clemson, has been named the new Head Coach at the University of Michigan. Big Ten Football just got a lot better. The rest of the Big Ten is going to have to seriously adjust and catch up to the spread out, speedy offense that Rodriguez will implement. This should be fun to watch.

Additionally, here's an analysis of all the recent coaching hires. Pretty good work.

My favorite part of the article:

Georgia Tech AD Dan Radakovich has talked about reinvigorating Yellow Jacket football and he certainly went a long way towards accomplishing that goal by hiring Paul Johnson. Very quickly (as Tony Barnhart points out in a very good look at the situation, Johnson will get it done at Georgia Tech) Johnson will take control of the Yellow Jacket football program and he will stamp his unique blend of passion and competence that will have the Tech players singing his praises once they get past the shock to the system that is certainly on their way. Georgia Tech will be much better, and very soon, and that spells trouble for the rest of the ACC, and for big-time college football for that matter. Paul Johnson is on the big stage now, and he has control of the type of football program that can be put him and his team front and center. No doubt, this will be great fun watching Paul Johnson at Georgia Tech in the coming years.

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Posted by Tom on Monday, December 17, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Today it was announced that Tommy Bowden initially turned down his contract extension with the Tigers, opting instead to entertain the idea of coaching at Arkansas. However, he decided to come back to the Tigers only after Terry Don Phillips beefed up his contract to the tune of OVER TWO MILLION DOLLARS a year.

This is insanity. What in the world has Bowden done that would warrant anything other than getting canned? We won 9 games this year... 7 of which were against bottom half teams (ranked 50th or worse.) We haven't played a good out of conference game since UGA, and they handed our asses to us each time. The only two times this year we played a top 25 team, we lost. We even lost to the 45th ranked Georgia Tech yellow jackets.

It is beyond me why TDP allowed Bowden to put the screws on him to extract more money from Clemson University and its fan base. Usually, when people continuously underperform on the job, they are let go. At Clemson, we give them half a million dollars for a raise.

I'm hoping that the buyout wasn't increased, but I have no faith whatsoever. If the buyout is still relatively low, then we're in good shape. When Bowden fails to get us to the ACC title game again next year, he's gone. That's simply too smart a move for TDP to be capable of making. We shall see though, and I'll post updates as they come.

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Posted by Tom on Tuesday, December 04, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

WIStv, Columbia, SC
The Birmingham News (AL)
Arkansas Democrat Gazzette

Maybe this isn't just rumor afterall...

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Posted by Tom on Tuesday, December 04, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Arkansas is trying to hire Tommy Bowden.

Oh. Thank you. God!!!

Here's the best part:

Bowden's total package could be about $2.5 million or so annually, including money that Bowden could use to pay off a $2.5 million buyout at Clemson.

Clemson made Bowden a counter-offer, a source said Monday night. But a high-ranking Clemson official said he doesn't believe the offer will be enough to keep Bowden from going to Arkansas.

Wow, what in the world do they see in him that would warrant that much money? Have they bought into the Bowden Kool-Aid as badly as the majority of our fan base? How is that possible?

Eh, whatever, I don't care, as long as they take him!!!

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Posted by Tom on Tuesday, December 04, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

I redid this site based on the Kiss theme by Oniam Software.

Anybody got any design comments?

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Posted by Tom on Monday, December 03, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

So, the rumor is out that Bowden's contract extension will only be a $400k raise and will lower his buyout to $500k.

I don't believe this. It's simply too smart a move for Terry Don Phillips to make.

I'll hold out hope that it is true though. If so, it's a great message. It's basically saying "ok, here's your new contract, but if you screw up again next year, with all this talent returning, you're gone."

Yeah, this can't be true. Makes way too much sense.

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Posted by Tom on Monday, December 03, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

when BC goes to the ACC title game instead of Clemson.



A couple of observations here:
1) John Swofford should really be mad at Tommy Bowden for being so inept. Clemson would have filled that stadium to the brim.
2) BC was a horrible addition to the ACC. Everyone talks about "TV Markets" and all that jazz, but that's just BS. People in New England don't give a damn about college football and so this is what you get, an empty stadium.

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Posted by Tom on Saturday, December 01, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

The ACC Title game is today (ABC, 1PM EST) and yet again a Clemson team that should be playing for it all is instead sitting at home watching. My money is on VT in this one, so it might even be a good thing that we're not playing, because we're going to get a much better bowl now than if we added another loss.

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Posted by Tom on Saturday, December 01, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post