Tommy Bowden out at Clemson

The news that Tommy Bowden is out as coach of the Clemson Tigers isn’t particularly surprising.  The team had been underachieving all season, losing in decisive fashion in their opening game to Alabama and never really showing much improvement.  What is strange is the timing and circumstances surrounding the move, as well as the utter train wreck of a program that Bowden left behind.

Bowden had been on the hot seat for most of the season, which isn’t exactly news.  He’d been all but fired back in 2003 following an embarrassing 45-17 loss at Wake Forest but staged an improbable turnaround to not only save his job but to win the ACC coach of the year.  After the Wake Forest loss, Bowden’s Tigers began to play like a team possessed as they decisively beat #1 Florida State, North Carolina and cross state rivals South Carolina by a combined score of 169-35.  That was followed by an upset victory over Tennessee in the Peach Bowl.  All told, the season earned Bowden some breathing room at Clemson via a contract extension.

He continued to have success at Clemson, but was never able to reach “the next level”.  His teams were noted for their talented personnel, but also for their chronic underachieving and failure to win an ACC title in 10 years at the school. His tenure at Clemson really fell apart quickly after the opening loss to Alabama.  The Tigers won the next three games—two against 1-AA/FCS opposition—before losing the next two contests to Wake Forest and Maryland.  These losses were close, with the Tigers losing the two games by a combined 5 points.

According to Clemson athletic director Terry Don Phillips, he scheduled a meeting with Bowden on Monday with the intention of having a “heart to heart” with him about the future of the program.  Bowden surprised him by offering his resignation as he explained with these somewhat cryptic comments:

"There wasn't a gun to his head. He put it on the table for the sake of the program. I agreed."

 

Bowden issued the following statement:

"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."

Clemson’s biggest problem this season has been their inability to make plays on offense, but there have been serious questions throughout Bowden’s tenure about the character of the players he recruited.  Some incredibly classless comments by deposed starting quarterback Cullen Harper and his father (below) underscored the character deficiencies that so often plagued his teams:

"I'd call it karma. I thought it needed to be done. I think anytime a head coach or someone in a leadership position starts to place blame on his coaches and players, it weakens their respect on the team. His past experiences have shown he's done that."

Ironically or not, it was Harper’s shoddy play that was in large part responsible for Clemson’s offensive struggles and their mediocre start.  Harper was benched following the Wake Forest loss in favor of sophomore Willy Korn and has responded like a punk to the decision by crying to the media and having his parents do so as well.  Running back C.J. Spiller accurately summarized the problem at Clemson and with the type of players that Bowden recruited:

"I'm shocked. We are 3-3 because we didn't make enough big offensive plays. I'm shocked by our record, and now I'm shocked that our coach is gone. I enjoyed playing for coach Bowden and I liked him, but in the end he was yelling at us to be leaders and it wasn't working. He did all he could to motivate us, but guys weren't buying into what he was saying. And he said a lot of the same things over and over again.

Bowden’s undoing may have been his expectation of leadership from a team that lacked the character and mental toughness to do so.  Assistant head coach Dabo Swinney will take over the team for the rest of the year, but it’ll take a wholesale overhaul of the program to solve the systemic problems at Clemson.