Tuesday December 04, 2007

24

24
I don’t watch the Fox show “24” but I understand it is a great show. I think I am right when I say the entire season is based upon 24 exciting hours each season.

It might not be a national hit but I think the readers of this blog might be interested in having the last 24 hours at Clemson as a hit show.

For me it all began in the early afternoon yesterday when I got a phone call that claimed to know that Tommy Bowden and Arkansas were in heavy negotiations. I played it off until I received a phone call later in the afternoon/early evening from as great source saying things had progressed to the point where Arkansas felt they had their man.

From that time until 1:00 am I had phone conversations with every credible source I knew. I talked to college football head coaches, ACC and SEC assistant coaches, athletic department officials at ACC and SEC schools, assistant coaches and athletic officials at Clemson, national media sources and local media sources.

I did hear Tommy Bowden say in the press conference today that Arkansas did not offer him a job. I like Tommy and not calling him a liar here but schools and officials are pretty good about the “official offer” talk. They don’t want to embarrass each other but the fact is that almost everyone involved felt Bowden had decided to accept the Arkansas job.

At some point Tuesday morning Clemson upped it’s offer and Bowden changed his mind. This is cold-blooded negotiations at its finest. Bowden played hard ball and in the end got exactly what he wanted.

Now this is similar to what happened to LSU and Michigan with the Les Miles situation. Miles can deny it all he wants but Kirk Herbstreit is not an idiot and we all know that Miles told Michigan he was coming. At some point Saturday LSU upped the ante and he decided to stay. I felt bad for Herbstreit especially after Miles attacked anyone associated with the report. On Monday the Detroit Free Press newspaper reported the Miles camp agreed to take the job like Herbstreit had reported and again Miles attacked the newspaper. You can stick your head in the sand but according anyone that knows anything about the situation agrees that Miles took the job then backed out. At this point the schools and coaches have to find a way not to embarrass each other.

Looking back on the timetable and the decisions made by Arkansas, Bowden and Terry Don Phillips I can understand how intense things got.

Arkansas had not “officially” offered its job to anyone but had been turned down by Tommy Tuberville, Butch Davis and Houston Nutt. They were over a week without a coach and some big name schools were still looking for a coach too. Arkansas needed to make a name hire and soon. Their athletic director Jeff Long found a long-time friend in Bowden and negotiations began. Arkansas needed to make a hire soon and Bowden was their man.

An assistant at Arkansas and an athletic department official at Arkansas said the Bowden negotiations were over and it was a “done deal.”

I had talked on several occasions with the Clemson contingent in New York City Monday evening and Tuesday morning and they were aware where things stood with Bowden. Phillips wanted Bowden back and had made an offer but knew his original offer was much less than Arkansas’. Phillips had a decision to make, call Bowden’s bluff or up his ante.

Phillips could have called Bowden’s bluff and in my opinion Bowden was prepared to leave for Fayetteville, AR. That would have meant Clemson would then be in Arkansas’ shoes. Clemson would be the one chasing high-profile coaches who already had jobs and could use Clemson to leverage their school. He was also faced with the chance that Clemson could be publically turned down and the embarrassment of a long, drawn out affair.

Phillips decided to not enter the arena where he would have to get on planes and take endless phone calls from agents, coaches and media. He decided to continue with the building of the program under the current staff.

I feel confident Phillips:
1. Believes in the current staff and still thinks the program is heading in the right direction.
2. Knows how dangerous coaching searches can be.
3. Wanted to save Clemson time and maybe money of searching for its next coach.

That’s right, money. Like many of you I believe Phillips may have over-paid for Bowden’s services but in some ways he may have saved Clemson money. We do not know all of the details of the contract but it may be less than what he would have had to pay someone else to take the job. Also coaching searches are expensive. Schools have to gas up the school plane and jet-set all over the country in search of their man. Many times schools pay consultants to aid in the hire. It can be very expensive.

But the biggest expense is the price of perception. Reports had Bowden making as much as $2.7 per year for 5-7 years at Arkansas. Was Bowden worth $15-18 million dollars to Arkansas? Maybe or maybe not. How much more is he worth now that he turned them down and they are still coachless? The perception is that they are turned down again and this job is not a great job. Ouch.

There are some negatives to the new contract from a Clemson perspective. Maybe Clemson paid too much. Maybe there is still some dissention among some Tiger fans. I am sure the hot seat talk will follow Bowden his entire tenure at Clemson.

But there are also many positives. Stability is important. The program is still going in the right direction. Recruiting is going extremely well. The program has made strides especially in the last three years.

I talked to one Clemson assistant last night and he said, “I would hate to see this thing end here. We have made so many in-roads and have so many great relationships with high school coaches in South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia. It would be a shame if it ended now.”

I believe that and I believe the future is bright.

Bowden was the 38th highest paid coach in the country but Clemson is ranked 15th. He was the seventh highest paid coach in the ACC but consistently finished higher than that. So in many ways Clemson had gotten a bargain in recent years. The new contract should be more in-line with others atop the league.

Now Bowden heads into the homes of DaQuan Bowers, A.J Harmon and Marquan Jones with a little more ammunition. He will have a much stronger story to tell two highly rated prospects, Brandon Thompson and Spencer Adams, on their official visits this weekend.

The last 24 hours were a high stakes poker game. I know Bowden does not gamble but if he did he would have a hard time luring me into a game with him.

Editor’s note: The blog is posted later today because I wanted to hear the entire press conference so please accept my apology for having it up later in the day. Also the blog on basketball game day that I have written will be pushed back to Thursday. Thanks for your understanding.

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