The AntiBowden

Tommy is a good Christian... BALLER!

2008-03-27T19:10:00.002-04:00

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

I usually don't care about basketball at all...

2008-03-16T00:01:00.003-04:00

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.

Hey look, Tommy Bowden actually won something!

2008-03-15T23:52:00.000-04:00

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

Bowden throws Ray Ray under the bus

2008-03-11T12:39:00.002-04:00

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.

What a bunch of horseshit

2008-02-15T12:41:00.002-05:00

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.

Dearl Lord

2008-02-09T18:25:00.000-05:00

Hat tip, DFIG

Source Article

Bowden lands #2 recruiting class in the country

2008-02-07T12:38:00.000-05:00

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.

The Used Car Salesman Does it Again

2008-01-19T20:29:00.000-05:00

I have no clue how, but Tommy Bowden pulled another recruiting miracle by getting James Davis to stay one more year at Clemson. Damnit JD, why commit career suicide? How does Tommy Bowden keep getting these kids to come/stay to/at Clemson? How? It's not by winning the conference, or going to top bowl games. What does he give them?

Wait 'til next year?

2008-01-09T22:23:00.001-05:00

After claiming 4 moral victories in the 2007 season (I mean hey, we only lost by 1 play,) many tiger fans and even Tommy Bowden himself could be heard echoing cries of "wait 'til next year!' which traditionally was something you would only hear coming from the South Carolina Gamecocks, but is now a Tiger staple. However, with X amount of starters coming back and Spence having another year under his belt, 2008 was looking like the year that Tommy might actually take us to 10 wins. Well, that pipe dream just took a big nose dive:

James Davis will not return for 2008 season.

So long, Mr. Davis, we salute you.

Who can blame him? What did he get in our biggest games of the year, 6 carries per game? It will be fun to watch him in an offense that is led by a coach that knows what the hell he's doing.

Is this Bizarro World? Spence rejects UT

2008-01-07T17:07:00.000-05:00

Why in the world would he turn down UT? Perhaps he knows that playing SEC defenses week in and week out would expose his offense as the pile of garbage that it is?

Spence turns down Tennessee again

By Larry Williams (Contact)
The Post and Courier

Monday, January 7, 2008

CLEMSON - Rob Spence has turned down Phillip Fulmer and Tennessee again.

According to sources familiar with the situation, Fulmer approached Spence on Saturday and asked him to rethink his week-old decision to remain Clemson's offensive coordinator instead of pursuing the same job at Tennessee.

Spence, coming off his third year with the Tigers, said no thanks a second time.

Reached on his cell phone Sunday, Spence would neither confirm nor deny a second contact with Fulmer. He did say he's sticking with his original decision, announced two days before Clemson's 23-20 overtime loss to Auburn on New Year's Eve, to stay at Clemson.

"That stands," Spence said.

Fulmer, seeking a replacement for current Duke head coach David Cutcliffe, had Spence at or near the top of his list.

Sources said he made Spence an offer of approximately $375,000 annually on his second approach, far more than the figure the two discussed when Spence interviewed at Tennessee on Dec. 21.

The 49-year-old Spence makes $207,000 a year at Clemson but is expected to get a boost to his contract soon. The Tigers, who finished the regular season 23rd nationally in scoring offense at 34.2 points per game, finished 9-4 after the loss to Auburn in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.

Fulmer was also interested in Detroit Lions assistant Kippy Brown, a former Volunteers assistant, but Brown received a promotion to stay in Detriot.

A year ago, Spence turned down lucrative offers from Alabama and Minnesota. On Dec. 29, after he removed his name from consideration at Tennessee, Spence said Fulmer did not offer him the job.

Reach Larry Williams at lwilliams@postandcourier.com.

Bowden Bytes - Bowden Wraps up 2007 Season

2008-01-05T17:43:00.000-05:00

Here it is folks, a feature called "Bowden Bytes," where we comb through the Tommy Bowden press conferences and think critically about what exactly it is he's saying so that we can illustrate just how good of a snake oil salesman we have for a head coach.

In this installment, we'll be looking at the last press conference of the 2007 season, shortly after the Peach Bowl loss to Auburn. Let's get to it...

On his thoughts about the 2007 season:

"With everything toward the end of the year, as you look at the year in a complete picture, I was pretty well pleased. It seems as if you're never satisfied...It seems you're always one play away from a win. It seemed that way in our four losses."

Really, so we were one play away from beating Georgia Tech? I sure didn't think so as I was sitting in that glorified high school stadium on that ghetto of a campus. It looked to me like Georgia Tech's defense absolutely dominated us, and our offensive playcalling retreated into a shell of bubble screens and reverses that frankly brought Rob Spence's sanity into question. Were we one play away from beating Virginia Tech? Really? I sure didn't think so from my seat in the west endzone of Death Valley. To me it looked like Virginia Tech absolutely handed our asses to us in every aspect of the game. I mean we scored some late points but that game was an absolute slaughter. Does Tommy think if he says "we were just a play away in 4 games" people will end up believing that revisionist history? I guess so.

On being close, but coming up short again:

"When you lose by 20 or 30 you're not one play away. I'd much rather be saying that we lost in overtime in our bowl game than Oklahoma getting beat by 30. A some point we're going to make that one play that will put us in the championship or the BCS. It will happen, eventually."

I've already covered this one. PS - 48-28=20, genius. Funny how Tigernet chose not to point out the actual score that he was referring to. Maybe that lack of arithmetic skills is why we suck at clock management... hmmm...

On the status of his players considering a jump to the NFL:

"I'm meeting with those guys next week. I talked to the NFL today. I have all their projections and what their reports are going to say. I think the NFL is getting in touch with the players today. I'd rather talk to them and let them talk to the press. I'd feel more comfortable about it after I talked to them (Note: Bowden also said none of his players were projected to be a first round draft choice)."

Man you talked to the entire NFL in one day? That's impressive. Personally I hope James Davis leaves for the NFL right now. We don't use him enough anyway, so it's not like his draft stock is going to rise. He needs to go right now, get into a good system where he can learn the ropes behind a veteran, then he'll get his chance to shine. He'd learn more and get more experience being on an NFL practice squad than he would by coming back for another year anyway.

On whether he expects most of them to come back:

"I would feel good after talking to them today. We've got a good track record with giving good advice...I think it's going to be pretty obvious what they need to do. We'll share some of that information next week."

We have a good track record for giving good advice? How is that? Does he consider the Roscoe Crosby situation a time when he gave good advice? I don't think so, I'm pretty sure Roscoe doesn't think so. He could have played baseball then returned to play football if that didn't work out. By coming to Clemson to play for Tommy Bowden, he ruined both his football and baseball careers.

On whether he expects any players to transfer:

"That conversation will come up in my team meeting. I'll be meeting with a couple of guys who might express and interest. I could very easily see that. That's a common occurrence this time of the year. There will be some surprises. But that will happen next week."

The sad thing is, players wishing to transfer really isn't that common of an occurrence on teams where their talents are properly utilized. You don't see many people trying to leave USC, UGA, OSU, etc, etc.

On whether there will be any staff responsibility changes:

"Not at this time. But we'll do a thorough evaluation of the program. There might be some minor changes, maybe on special teams. But I'll talk to Vic (Koening) and Rob (Spence). It won't be anything major."

Is Bowden firing himself? Isn't he the special teams coordinator? I would go into individual coaching adjustments that should be made, but the fact of the matter is that it just wouldn't matter. They all take their orders from the top man, and that's where the change needs to be.

Another Graph, this time using Open Office

2008-01-04T20:58:00.000-05:00

Quick and Dirty. Wins against top 25 teams(orange) vs number of top 25 teams played(purple). Again, click for bigger version.

Again we see a lot of opportunity, but unfortunately a lot of failure. Is this worth $2 million a year?

Open Office is cool, btw.

This quote was too good to pass up...

2008-01-04T15:03:00.000-05:00

This is still not a full on Bowden Bytes feature, but I saw a quote today by Tommy Bowden that I simply had to highlight. From the article:

Is a 9-4 record and three years of one loss away, one play away frustrating to Tommy Bowden?

If it is, he isn’t showing it.

“Hopefully, we’ll be able to keep saying that,” he said Thursday when posed that question. “We’re not losing by 20 or 30 points, we’re one point away, one play away as opposed to Oklahoma where you’re 30 points away (a 48-28 Fiesta Bowl loss to West Virginia).

Do you believe he said that? If you think I'm making it up, go check the article yourself.

Tommy Bowden actually would prefer to lose the crappy Chik-Fil-A bowl and not win his conference (which is the worst of the big 6 this year) than to win his conference, go to a BCS bowl, and lose by a larger margin.

OK, of course, nobody wants to lose by 30 points, but hell maybe he should wait until he gets there ONE FREAKING TIME before he goes spouting off about how bad Oklahoma must feel. Boy I'd like to see the look on Stoops' face if he sees that one... good Lord. We haven't even sniffed a BCS game and Oklahoma is there every other year it seems like, and Tommy's saying he'd rather not be in their shoes?

Is this Bizzaro world? Why haven't we kicked him out of town yet?

There are a lot of other interesting nuggets in that article, including blaming Aaron Kelley specifically for the BC loss, blaming the kicker for the GT loss, etc, etc. I would point them out but frankly I'm too shocked at that opener to even think about the rest right now. Does he think the Tiger nation is full of idiots?

People, take off the orange colored glasses and listen to what this snake oil salesman is saying, please!

Tommy Bowden's Legacy

2008-01-04T10:34:00.000-05:00

So I've done a little more analysis with the data I posted yesterday and boy oh boy things are looking sad. I decided to figure out what the true nature was of our season by season W/L records under Tommy Bowden. Often times you'll hear people say "He has three whole 9-win seasons!" or "He's been Bowl Eligible every year he's coached!" (the latter being an outright lie as we were in fact banned from bowls the year of the SC brawl.) Anyway, on the surface, you could agree with those folks; I mean Tommy Bowden does have a winning record overall. Each year we win more games than we lose, so you can't be unhappy with that, right?

Well, not exactly.

We compete in the ACC. Even though a few good teams were added to the ACC, our conference still has a good many patsies. Absolutely horrible teams that earn us the moniker: The ACC - When does basketball season start? So should we really count those as quality wins when we're talking abot coaching efficiency? I don't think so.

In addition, we play 2 or 3 absolute cupcakes a year in the form of out of conference games (and that's not even including South Carolina!) Should running up the score on the likes of UL-Monroe or La Tech be considered a quality win? I don't think so.

It is my contention that when you remove the teams from our schedule that are absolutely terrible, Tommy Bowden has had a very poor record at Clemson. To illustrate this point, I came up with this chart: (click for larger version)

Basically I broke the number of games won each year into different categories. "Wins" is just the total number of wins, while "Top 115 wins" is the number of wins that year against teams ranked 115th in the nation or better (at year's end.) I realize this isn't the prettiest chart but A) It should be ugly, because the results are ugly and 2) I didn't want to manipulate the numbers any, this is just the raw data with no juxtaposition.

So, look at that orange bar there: "Top 25 wins." 6 total. TOTAL, in 9 years. That's not even one a year. In fact, it could be said that the only year we had that was worth a damn was 2003... which leads to an entirely different discussion about why that came about, and the coaching changes that followed. I'll leave that for another time.

In the other 9 win seasons, we just didn't beat anybody with a decent football team. Look at 2000, 8 of the teams we played ended the season ranked worse than 40th! 5 of those wins were against teams ranked worse than 70th in the country! That is horrible. This year wasn't much better, with 4 of our wins coming against teams ranked worse than 70th, and no top 25 wins.

So, in 9 years, we've had one quality season, 0 Ten win seasons, 0 ACC championships, 0 BCS bowl appearances, and we only beat a maximum of 5 "decent" (top 70) teams a year.

In the SEC, we'd be known as "Vanderbilt."

This is mediocrity folks. This is horrible. We are Clemson, we should not accept this.

So I did a little number crunching...

2008-01-03T20:03:00.000-05:00

... and boy is it depressing. For example, take a look at this chart of the game-by-game scoring difference vs the opponent's rank. The Scoring Difference is the amount of points Clemson scored minus the amount of points the opponent scored, so any loss will have a negative value. The opponent rank refers to the end of year Massey Ranking, which was used for a variety of reasons, but mostly because the only ranking that matters is the one after all the games have been played, based on the number of wins and losses. Anyway, here it is: (click for bigger version)

Look at that. The lower the opponent rank, the lower the score difference. In other words, whenever we play good teams, we get beat. The worst part about it: no wins against teams who finished in the top 25. All that talent... same old results.

If you'd like to take a look at my data, feel free. I'll be using this compilation for further analysis.

Some quotes from Bowden on the Auburn Loss

2008-01-03T11:07:00.001-05:00

I just read this article on the Tardnet and I wanted to point out a few of the Tommy Bowden quotes from after the Peach Bowl. The reason I want to do this is that so many Clemson fans seem to agree with absolutely everything Tommy says and they never stop to think about what he's actually saying. I equate the way he speaks about Clemson and about his coaching decisions to the way a used car salesman would talk about a lemon he's trying to sell you, and to me that comparison is obvious. He's always making excuses, shifting blame, and generally talking out of his ass but for some reason so many people just accept what he says as truth. In the future, when the full press conference transcript is released, I'll post a feature titled "Bowden Bytes" that goes through each statement and translates from Bowden speak to reality, but for now...

General thoughts on the game:

"It's a shame somebody had to lose...They made one more play there at the end of the game," said Clemson head coach Tommy Bowden. "Everybody hates to lose, and we hate to lose. That's good. You can't fault the effort."

They made one more play at the end of the game? Is this guy serious? Watching our offense play in that game was like watching a Ferrari being piloted through an obstacle course by a blind midget. Yet Bowden thinks we lost the game on one play? Seriously? He's right about one thing, you can't blame our players for their effort. As usual our guys really played hard. It's too bad their coaches are inept.

Thoughts on Auburn's team:

"We had a hard time tackling their quarterback," Bowden said. "He was their leading rusher at about five yards per carry (and 73 yards total). We weren't sure how much of that they were going to do, so hats off to them."

As usual, Tommy takes this opportunity to blame the defense. Sure he doesn't come right out and say "the defense lost the game for us," but like any good used car salesman he uses slight inferences like "we had a hard time tackling" to infer that the problem wasn't with him or with the gameplan, but just that the defensive players didn't play well enough. He plays the blame game yet again.

One last thought to close the article:

"Our throwing game wasn't as sharp," Bowden said. "We had an opportunity to hit some passes we hit in previous games. We just didn't hit them tonight."

Well when you wait until third and long to pass the ball downfield (after back to back failed screen attempts) your success rate isn't going to be very high. The defense knows you're passing the ball which puts you at a severe disadvantage both in coverage and in pass blocking. It also doesn't help that CJ Spiller picks up rushers about as well as Napoleon Dynamite picks up chicks. Bowden yet again sees no problem whatsoever in the game plan or the play calling, but instead blames the players for not being "sharp" enough. He didn't outright throw Cullen Harper under the bus, but it'll be interesting to watch the QB situation in the spring.

Notice how every single quote shifts blame away from Bowden or the coaches themselves. Notice how he says nothing about the team's preparation or possible calls that could have been better. You don't get a contract extension and a 2.5 million dollar buyout while being a mediocre coach and failing to win your conference by being honest, and Bowden is the master at manipulating public opinion.

Still no 10 win Seasons

2008-01-01T20:00:00.000-05:00

Clemson lost to Auburn last night in the Peach Bowl (yes, I refuse to call it by any other name) by a score of 23 to 20. On the surface, it would appear to be a hard fought game against two crappy teams that couldn't perform on offense, and that's exactly what it was. Our players tried hard, but our coaching is just so inept that the game looked more like two donkeys fighting over a turnip than a real ACC vs SEC college football game.

The sad thing is, we still didn't get to 10 wins this year and we had one of the sorriest schedules in the land. I don't know the specific numbers but we played only 3 quality teams all year, and we lost to all three. We also threw in a bonus loss to Georgia Tech, just for good measure. I sure hope we don't have to live with this through 2014...

News Tidbits

2007-12-17T12:48:00.001-05:00

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?

RichRod takes over at Michigan

2007-12-17T12:27:00.000-05:00

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.

The fleecing of Clemson continues

2007-12-04T20:19:00.000-05:00

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.

Dear God, Please Let This Be True

2007-12-04T00:04:00.000-05:00

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!!!

Site Redesign

2007-12-03T23:48:00.000-05:00

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

Anybody got any design comments?

Contract Rumor

2007-12-03T21:41:00.000-05:00

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.

This is what happens...

2007-12-01T17:02:00.001-05:00

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.