Friday October 10, 2008

Eulogy by ClemsonPoker489®

We are saddened to report the passing of the 2008 Clemson Tiger football season. The season died on October 9th, 2008, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The cause of death was a malignant growth of offensive ineptitude. The Tiger football season is survived by several hundred thousand mourning fans. In lieu of flowers, the survivors ask that you send new coaches. The memorial service will likely be dragged out over the next 2 months.

Perhaps a bit melodramatic. After all, the Tigers aren't mathematically eliminated from contention for the ACC Championship Game. Theoretically, Clemson could win the remainder of the games on a suddenly daunting schedule, and Wake Forest could drop three games to conference opponents. Realistically, however, Clemson will be lucky to make a bowl game, any bowl game, in 2008.

How did it happen? How did this team fall so far so quickly? Injuries played their part. The offensive line is patchwork at this point in the season. Mostly though, the season is lost due to what seems to be an irreparable rift in the team. The coaching staff seems to have "lost" the players. There is no fire, no intensity, the players don't seem interested in saving the coaching staff from what is looking like sure dismissal.

(Insert Game Recap Here)

Normally, I'd recap and break down some specific successes and failures of the game just played. However, Thursday night game son ESPN are hard to miss, so I wouldn't be telling you anything you don't already know. The offensive line made plenty of holes...for Wake DL to run through. Davis had no room to run, Spiller was hurt early, the WRs were rendered irrelevant by one Cullen Harper. Speaking of...

It's Time

Nothing can be lost now by playing Willy Korn. Cullen Harper looks like the ghost of Will Proctor out there. Throwing balls high, looking lost, getting happy feet, and avoiding contact at all costs. Again on Thursday, Harper ran out of bounds voluntarily on a third down. This type of decision is indefensible from a football stand point. I've written about it before, and will continue to hammer the point that third down is your LAST CHANCE as an offense to stay on the field. Harper's poor decision making has contributed greatly to the third down woes of the Clemson offense. Korn, if he played, could gain valuable experience for next year. It could be the difference between a good and great season in 2009, heck it could be the difference between a poor and decent season in 2009.

2nd Half Timeouts are INDISPENSABLE

Even before this era of new clock rules, 2nd half timeouts were valuable. Now they're priceless. Perhaps the most damning indictment of the coaching staff on Thursday was the fact that Clemson was bereft of timeouts with 12 minutes left in the game. With those timeouts, Clemson can punt and play defense with 4 minutes to go in the 4th quarter, instead of being forced to attempt two long shot fourth down conversions. In the second half, it is often better to take the delay of game penalty and adjust to the longer down and distance than it is to waste an early timeout. Even if the penalty kills that particular drive, you still have those precious timeouts, which in a close game can make all the difference in the world.

The $2 Million Dollar Elephant in the Room

I normally attempt to avoid coaching issues in this space. I don't think that this is the correct forum. Most know my position on this coaching staff if they read the boards. However, neglecting to mention Bowden and this staff at this point is akin to writing about World War II and avoiding any mention of Pearl Harbor. The context would be severely lacking. With Clemson's ACC hopes circling the drain, I don't think anything can be gained by allowing Tommy Bowden to finish the season at Clemson. On the other hand, a head start on the coaching search would guarantee that we have first pick over other teams (Washington, Syracuse, perhaps Tennessee) that will be looking for a new head man after 2008. This could be the difference between making a great hire, and simply a good hire. It could be the difference between getting Will Muschamp, and getting Bobby Johnson. There's nothing wrong with either choice, but Muschamp would bring the needed fire and intensity to the Tiger football program. He's not a proven commodity, and there is always a risk factor in hiring new coaches, but to allow the program to continue on it's current path is to passively contribute to it's down slide.