Good blogs, lately. Like most Tiger fans, I am very excited about the upcoming football season, and have spent a lot of time reading about our team online over the past month. One thing that really bothers me, however, is that so many of our fans are extremely critical of our head coach. I may be in the minority, but I have made a few observations that indicate we are going in the right direction.

1). We are starting to be competitive with most of the top programs we play.
It was not long ago when we all would be ecstatic to beat FSU, let alone 3 out of 4 years. Also, wins over Texas A and M, Miami, and Tennessee would have been unlikely during the mid to late 90s.

2). The quality of our depth is still very average compared to the top teams in the acc. I know star rankings often miss the mark, and a lot of good players come in under the radar, but the average star ranking of our team is still below 3 (as of this spring) and that is an improvement from last year, which was an improvement over the year before that. Basically, we have been pretty competitive without a lot of high profile recruits. Is it crazy to think this coaching staff will get us over the top in the next couple of years given they have been so close the last two years and our talent level has improved?

3). Luck. I hate to say it, but a lot of success just comes down to luck. Two years ago we lost James Davis in the middle of the season, and lost to Georgia Tech by a point. If he us healthy then we probably win that game, which changes the whole season. Last year we lost our top two starting linebackers basically before the season started, as well as several other key players. If either Anthony Waters or Billie does not get hurt, then I think we would have defeated BC, MD, and probably USC. The fact us those guys were hurt and we lost the games, but one has to agree we had some bad luck with injuries. Should we blame a coach for bad luck?

4). The administration has not yet completely gotten behind our football program. This may be a stretch, but consider the following...it took them almost 5 years to start on the west end zone project. Those are five years our coaching staff did not have that tool to bring in recruits. Since it started, we have improved immensely in our recruiting efforts. Furthermore, the west end zone is still not finished. Certainly we will get more high profile players once that project us complete, or even after they finish the second phase.

Also, the coaching staff has had to deal with the AARC, which ultimately kept us from signing Dwight Jones, Jo Jo Cox, and probably many more top players. Hopefully that problem us fixed, but I am sure this has been an issue for several years, which has not helped. I would also add that the administration did not give TB a contract extension, which I am sure is an issue with a lot of recruits. How can our coaches be effective recruiters when their future is uncertain?

5). Finally, I have a lot of optimism based on the fact that so many of our assistants had the opportunity to leave and make more money and they did not. If they did not think we were moving in the right direction, and did not enjoy coaching our team and being a part of the Clemson family, then I don't think they would have stayed just to make less money. Actions speak louder than words, and the actions of Rob Spence, Dabo Swinney, and Ron West speak volumes to me regarding our head coach and the direction of this program. Call me crazy, but I get the feeling we are in for a big season.

Go tigers!

Since it is the spring and summer months and real football is still a few months away I haven't really spent much time on tigernet recently other than a short glance over the board occasionally. I do however like to read your blog each day especially on email Friday's. Now I have to be honest, I wasn't real pleased how the football season ended last year, especially the USC and bowl game (but especially the bowl game!!!) However, I still see some people are STILL all over Bowden for whatever reason. The resounding complaint from most of these people is that Bowden needs to have his feet held to the fire once again to prove himself. I have to wonder where are the people, besides me, who think our administration has SOME measure of culpability in our lack of success??? Why aren't they being held accountable for tying our coaches hands behind their backs when it comes to recruiting (because they sure aren't at USC or any other good program for that matter) why aren't they being held accountable for not having the facilities in place that TB wanted in December 1998?!?!?!?!?! Yes, December NINETEEN NINETY EIGHT!!!! TB was promised facility improvements almost a DECADE ago and is still waiting, ridiculous!!! We build an indoor facility that is supposed to be FOOTBALL only and make it a track facility!?!?!?! Are you kidding me!?!?!? TRACK!!!!! It seems some people think that the new seats in the WEZ somehow vaulted us to the upper echelon in facilities in the ACC, they couldn't be more wrong in my opinion. I do quite a bit of traveling to our road games and even places like Wake Forest and DUKE have shown more of a commitment to their football programs than our administration has shown. In certain instances and areas TB may have let down Clemson University but our administration has done just as much to hurt the football program if not more!! When are the facilities going to be finished? How much longer are we going to be in the LOWER echelon in the ACC (not to mention NATIONALLY) in football facilities??? When are people going to step up and start pointing fingers at our administration for their failures as quickly as they do when TB loses ONE game???

Just curious......