Maryland beats #20 Clemson

Clemson coach Tommy Bowden will likely be on the hotseat again after his team underachieved at home once more on Saturday, this time in a 20-17 loss to the University of Maryland. While historically Bowden has taken heat due to unrealistic expectations by the Clemson faithful, this year it’s certainly justified. Entering the season ranked in the Top Ten, Clemson has lost twice before the first of October with both coming at their increasingly less fearsome “Death Valley” home field.

For Tiger fans, the formula was all-too-familiar—overconfidence combined with lack of focus and poor execution. Clemson got the game off to a decent start, and opened up a 17-6 halftime lead. From that point, it appeared that the Tigers were of the opinion that they could just coast to victory. Maryland had other things in mind, however, and the Terps thoroughly dominated the game in the 2nd half. In particular, the Maryland defense came up big in holding Clemson scoreless after halftime and limiting their rushing production to a mere 31 yards (after allowing 204 in the first half). Meanwhile, the Terp offense ripped the Tigers listless defense for 215 second half yards.

Tommy Bowden has done a number of things “right” during his tenure as Clemson head coach, including dominating the in-state rivalry against South Carolina. One thing he hasn’t done is play well when the team is nationally ranked, and particularly at home. Memorial Stadium was at one point one of the toughest venues in the country for opposing teams—hence the sobriquet “Death Valley”. During the Bowden era? Not so much—this was the 7th time in 10 seasons under Bowden that a ranked Clemson team has lost to an unranked opponent at home.

Clemson has next weekend off before a big nationally televised game on Thursday 10/9 against Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, NC. Wake will also be smarting from an upset at home, as they lost Saturday to Navy. The following Saturday (10/18) they’ll play Georgia Tech at home. Maryland heads to Charlottesville to play the University of Virginia next Saturday before a bye the following weekend.