Friday October 03, 2008
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Friday October 03, 2008
Friday E-Mail Bag Note: I received about 200 e-mails this week and obviously can’t publish each one. I have included e-mails from a wide variety of opinions and the ones that had a unique question or take. Thanks for understanding that this week I have to be selective because obviously I can’t put all 200 on here today. Also thanks for all of your e-mails this week. Hi Mickey! I know of your stance on TB and I tend to reluctantly agree. Let me say that I am not an expert or a coach of any kind of sports, however, I would ask you to help me understand (or ask TB) why on earth at the beginning of the fourth quarter didn't he put Korn in (for at least one series) because Harper was not exactly on target? I know this is looking back and second guessing, but other teams use two QB's when one is having a rough time. It gives Harper a chance to collect himself and actually see the defense from a different perspective and it give Korn more real game experience. THANK YOU and May God Bless you and Ryan and your family. Go Tigers!!!!!! Alex, Hey Mickey, Adam, Mickey, Read your blog from yesterday, and trust me, I know how you are feeling. The Maryland was bad, hard to stomach, tough to take – pick any adjective you want and they seem to fit. However, I was one of the few Clemson fans that was not ready to jump off a bridge or call the season a complete loss. Why? Because, as so many people have said since the loss: "We've been here before." But instead of talking about the losses, I am talking about with our backs against the wall. We have been in this spot before we knew about a coach named Tommy, we've been here with him, and we'll be here again. And with our backs against the wall, that is the time to shine as Clemson supporters and fans. This is the time when we show the college football community what we are made of, and what separates US from Gamecock fans. Yes, the loss was awful. The second half was painful to watch. And you had every right to call for change on Monday's show and blog. You are a faithful supporter of the university, it's your right. But here is why I was not quite at that point – we have been here before, and Bowden and this staff have shown the ability to rise from adversity. Add to that the fact that Wake lost the same day, showing how vulnerable they are, and how early in the season we are, and I realized fairly quickly that we have a long way to go in this thing. Remember, these players are kids, and they have the fragile psyche of kids. They have to believe in their coaching staff to put them in the right position to make plays. And to have EVERYONE questioning those coaches that they have to listen to undermines anything that Tommy or Spence or Brad or Dabo do in an effort to get the most out of these kids. Granted, we have the right to question, but after game FIVE? If I remember correctly, and I do, we knew that if we could get through the Wake Forest game and still have a legitimate shot at winning the title, we should be happy because it would take time for the O-Line to gel, for the linebacker babies to learn their way, etc. Despite the injuries and despite the shuffling, the line took a HUGE step forward last Saturday. The injuries are healing, and this looks like a line that can become more dominant as the season goes along. Isn't that what we wanted, to stay afloat while these guys got their legs under them? Note – we are afloat. Win next Thursday at Wake Forest, and I think we will, and all will be right with the world again. The division title still within reach, a trip to the ACC Championship a certain possibility, and a win on the big stage will probably give this team the confidence it needs to come out and run the table. I have a good buddy that I play a lot of ball against, and he runs his ALL the time. I beat him, or my team beats him, and his confidence never wavers. He starts the smack talk again, and a lot of the time, he backs it up. I have wanted so bad this week to hear ONE Clemson fan call up the show, and call the Deacons out. I called up a friend who is a Deacon graduate first thing Monday morning, and said "Congratulations, buddy. You now have a group of wounded Tigers coming up to your place and they are in a corner. Good luck with that!!! I think next Thursday will be VERY successful if you stay within 20 points. They are going to come up there, and our young but now battle-tested line is gonna hit you right in the mouth, and our young defense is gonna chase your slow kids down and put the battering on them." That is what I want to hear. That is what James Davis and Thomas Austin and Cullen Harper and Stanley Hunter and Chris Chancellor need to hear. Time for Clemson to be CLEMSON, not the other whiners in the world. Time for us to be Perry Tuttle in the end zone at the Orange Bowl, time for us to be William Perry picking up opposing running backs and slamming them into the turf, time for us to be Rod Gardner breaking Gamecock hearts, time for us to be Chad Jasmin scoring AGAIN in Williams-Brice….you get the picture. This administration is not going to do anything with Bowden during the season. We KNOW that. I am not a sunshine pumper, but any negative talk right now affects recruiting and affects our players already here. If the season ends, and we have not reached our goals, then out he goes. I will be gladly be the first one to put my foot on his backside and PUSH. But for now, watch out Deacs, cause we're hurt, and we're wounded, but we're getting better and we're coming for YOU. Day of reckoning is a week away. Maryland is history. Done with. Now all our attention turns to what is important – Wake Forest and beginning our championship run. After all, it's still early. David David, Mickey- DT, Hey Mickey, My first year of school at Clemson, and first REAL introduction to college football, was Tommy West's last year. The shootout with Florida State, where we lost by just a touchdown, has had me hooked ever since then. I love Clemson, Clemson football, and Tiger nation in general. For the most part, Tommy Bowden has been "the coach" since I've followed Clemson football. I don't remember the "great years" of Ford and the ACC titles, very few memories of Hatfield. All my friends have followed Clemson from birth, it seems like. Consequently, they have been anti-Bowden since losing to Ga Tech after going 8-0 in '99 or 2000. I've been defending Bowden for many, many years. I've met the man, and I like him personally. After the Wake Forest game in '03, I couldn't defend him anymore. That loss made me very angry, and I was calling for his job along for my friends. We then went on the streak of beating SC badly and beating Tennessee in the Peach Bowl. I was ashamed of my knee-jerk reaction, and promised myself that I would never again get that emotional after a bad loss. Things have improved over the years, and we've been 1 win away from an ACC championship game the last 3 years. But something has happened to me...I've become de-sensitized to the losses. I expect to lose a certain number of games. I expect us to look bad against certain teams. I expect to see the defense buckle under pressure. I expect the offense to look predictable. And I've become complacent with the ineptitude. I promised myself I wouldn't call for Tommy's job after a bad loss. But I can't help but read your blog and agree with everything you've written. I can no longer argue with my friends. I'm not so much concerned with the actual losses as much as I am concerned with the way we lost. Looking at the schedule today, I do not think we will have a better record than last year, and it could be a real struggle to reach 8 wins. I know we can do better. I know we should be doing better. I know we deserve better. My suggestion for an open week blog is to look at our players currently enrolled at Clemson, and our current commitments, and determine which ones might leave if we change coaches. I know much of this would depend on who the replacement would be, but it could be an interesting discussion. Just some of my thoughts, Mickey. Guess I needed to vent, too. Keep up the good work on the blog. Mark Mark, Mickey I'm very glad to hear that Ryan is improving and we will continue to keep him in our prayers! It's so encouraging to see how the Lord has used this trying time to draw you closer to Him!!! Go Tigers and God bless - David David, Hi Mickey, I read your blog on "Give Dabo a Chance" and was reminded of an earlier email I sent to you about coaching decisions. Tommy Bowden is a good coach and runs a good program as far as wins, bowl games, recruiting, graduation rate and player character. I question whether he can be a great Coach based upon his past history of coaching decisions. My question to you, with your blog as background, do you believe that Clemson's Head Coach makes correct decisions, i.e, does not get out coached? I realize it is easy to be a Monday morning quarter back but it seems Clemson fans can be a Monday morning quarterback more often than other Division 1 schools. Bigatiger Bigatiger, Hey Mickey, Keep Bowden for recruiting and program stability purposes and hire a new offensive coordinator (from inside or outside the staff); someone who can bring new life to the pathetic "screen happy, go nowhere" offense we have right now. After all, that's the only problem we have, is it not? Recruiting is superb, the defense is solid, and the special teams are much improved. So why throw all that away and start over? Just hire a new offensive coordinator (or promote a new coordinator from within the current coaching staff) who can utilize the enormous amount of skill we have on our roster. After all, who wants to become like Nebraska? -- You fire a tenured coach who never has a losing season to hire a "savior" named Bill Callahan who turns the program into the laughing stock of college football. Nebraska is still feeling the effects of that decision today. They are nothing more than a coaching carousel. Is that what we want? Thanks. Sincerely, Beau Beau,
You are a great Clemson man and I always enjoy reading the blog; however, I think that your call for the coach's head is a bit pre-mature. First, we have a lot of football left, and the loss to MD does not by itself take us out of the race for the Atlantic title. Second, the number of injuries and the positions where we had the injuries has almost unfolded as the worst case scenario for this team. Before the season, I would have said that we could not afford to have a bunch of injuries on the offensive line. Well, where have we had most of the injuries? Many of those players should be back for the trip to Winston Salem, and I think that will make a big difference. I will also throw this thought at you...Coach Bowden can deal with the pressure, as he has proven he can do so on many occasions. In fact, he might even do better under pressure. The players and the assistant coaches, however, may not be able to deal with the pressure as well. Maybe they will be more relaxed and will be a little looser now that the pressure is on Coach Bowden and not them? The transformation of the team in 2003 after the WF game was nothing short of miraculous, so maybe we can see that again this year? It sure would be nice. Hugh Hugh, Mickey – Jim, Do you really have the faith in the Clemson University administration (President and BOT) to actually go out and get a top coach that we deserve??? I have absolutely ZERO faith that they would do that, the ONLY thing they care about when it comes to Clemson football is $$$$$$$. As long as that is coming in at a reasonable rate they couldn't care less and right now it seems to me it is coming in better than that so why should they care? Right now Tommy Bowden is the perfect coach for them, he wins just enough for them to say their is no reason for a change, he graduates players (which is important) and for the most part they stay off the front pages of the newspapers unlike that other school in South Carolina. But they have ZERO commitment to Clemson University being a championship level program. It hasn't changed since January 19th, 1990!!! Like you said it is going to take a lot of expensive funerals for Clemson University to change its stance. Right now who do you honestly believe would come here given how we treat the football program? Our facilities are NOT the best in the ACC, not even close, heck they STILL aren't even finished! That SCREAMS of a lack of caring on the part of the university. We still have that ridiculous AARC, which in its current form does not exist at any other school in the country. What do you think Alabama fans would have done if a group of professors and academic people told Nick Saban that Julio Jones was not going to be accepted because THEY thought he couldn't graduate? Then a year later he signs with LSU. The thought of not having Tommy Bowden right now is almost as depressing as keeping him. I can only imagine who they'd bring here, I thought the day Ken Hatfield was hired was a dismal day I can only imagine how I'd feel on the day of the press conference to announce Bobby Bentley (as Rico suggested) as the new head coach. I will say this, if they hired him it would be my last day going to a Clemson football game!!! They are already going berserk with the amount of money they are charging because they supposedly want to win a championship. Well, they are going to have to prove to me they really want to win one before they get another dime from me. Until that happens this may be my last season, which really hurts for me to type and feel at this point. I just turned 39 and have been going to Clemson football games since I was 8, that's 31 years and people like Jim Barker and that poor excuse of an Administration have made feel like this. It is time to for Clemson University step up. You can blame Bowden for a lot but one thing you cannot blame him for is that at least he wants to win here at Clemson, which is a heck of a lot more than you can say for the administration at the university!! Steve Steve,
The Brad Hughes All-State Insurance Agency
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Beau is right that Bowden & staff (except for Spence) have recruited well and run an admirable program—except for winning the big ones. If Bowden had hired a great OC after Rodriguez left, Clemson would have won a few ACC titles, Bowden’s mediocrity would be masked, and most fans would be content.
Spence has great stats if you include putting 70 points on cupcakes like C-Mich. (Big deal. Even E-Mich put 48 points on C-Mich.) But all too often, Spence fails against tough teams. (e.g. 3 points vs GT). Spence is not competent to be a BCS conference OC. He doesn't stretch the field. No balance to his predictable run & screen offense.
Barker & TDP won’t fire Bowden after the season because it would be political suicide after granting him a $4M buyout a few months earlier. But they will FORCE Bowden to fire his buddy Spence in order to placate fans and keep the money coming. That might not be so bad— unless the rest of the ACC improves enough to offset our OC upgrade.
Posted by Razzmatazz on October 03, 2008 at 02:07 PM EDT #
I agree with Razz above! Spence is a "Proctorizer". He keeps playing one qb who are either average, and they get worse and lose all their confidence, or he plays an injured one (Spence did not even know Harper was injured in Alabama game) until the qb loses all his confidence. That way of mismanaging quarterbacks is hurtful to the qb and to the Clemson Tigers. Demote Spence or get a seperate qb coach and give Korn a chance! Harper would have been better served to sit out those three easier games and so would have the Tigers!
And if Korn is not given a chance, I hope I am wrong about Cullen, and he comes back to the player he was last year. COME BACK, TIGERS!
Posted by captron on October 03, 2008 at 02:35 PM EDT #
Yeah… Harper was never a dual-threat or scrambler, but he was very good passing last year before he hurt his shoulder in the BC game. And he used to be willing to run for the first down (or touch down) when needed. However, since he hurt his shoulder diving for a TD in the BC game (and since his new shoulder injury) he just hasn't passed well or been willing to lower his (sore?) shoulder and run for the chains. It must be too hard to bench himself (or for the coaches to rest him) when he's trying to make the NFL.
I don't think the coaches had it in them to play the more talented, dual-threat Korn over their senior captain QB when they had the perfect opportunity to rest Harper and season Korn (yum) against lesser teams. Now it’ll be even tougher to throw Korn into the fire (yum) against the good teams. So hopefully Cullen can get healthy and return to form.
I wonder if Harper's shoulder injury is why Spence hasn't been calling medium/long passing plays.
Posted by Razzmatazz on October 03, 2008 at 04:56 PM EDT #
Razz.. good points, but I don't think it's an "unwillingness" to play Korn as much as it is a "willingness" to go with what they know works. Harper has yet to be the reason we've lost. If all we had on the sidelines was Wade and Parker this year, most of us wouldn't even be thinking about replacing Harper. He isn't the reason we're where we are. And we are only speculating about his arm. It may actually be that Spence doesn't trust our OL to protect our best QB and doesn't want to risk
injury or a fumble in the backfield.
It's more likely that the reason we don't throw down field in a game is because we don't practice it in scrimmage. It really could be that simple, couldn't it?
Call me silly, but I'm still of the belief that coaches know more about their players' abilities than we do, and will always play the safest bet.
Just my 2 cents...
Posted by RU4GOD2 on October 03, 2008 at 05:45 PM EDT #
RU,you make some good points, but if the coaches know more about their players' abilities than we do, what makes them think that other great coaches we play against won't figure out Spence's play calling? You must keep them guessing if you want to move the ball. Bowden/Spence's problems have always been not adjusting to what the other team does. Doing the same methods and expecting different results is just asinine. QB bad arm or not, throw Korn in to keep them all guessing.
My added $0.02...
Posted by El_Tigre95 on October 04, 2008 at 12:08 AM EDT #
I'm sorry, but you people still defending TB need to wake up. We've seen this BS since 2003, some of us saw it as early as 2001. How long is long enough? He's been @ CU longer than any ACC coach but Beamer & Daddy! He's the longest tenured coach in D1 to NOT play in a BCS bowl game!
Changing coordinators is NOT the answer. That's you TB lovers way of buying more time! He has already had 3 OC's & DC's. TB has veto power over every play called by Spence. It's TB's responsibility to hire/fire, approve game plans, approve recruiting objectives, etc. TB is the common denominator over all 9 years.
After 10 off-seasons we still don't have an above average offensive line. Never have!! This staff is incapable of making adjustments. Fails to teach fundamentals (how else can you explain all the TD's we've had called back for illegal procedure & inability to simply line up properly on the line of scrimmage). Fails to motivate. On n on n on!!!! Year after year after year!!
Posted by flatiger66 on October 04, 2008 at 12:48 AM EDT #
I saw and talked to my old high school coaches tonight, all Clemson grads/fans/IPTAY, and to a man they all agreed TB should have been fired in '03. They think the guy is a joke, and these guys have all been coaching for over 20 years!!
Razz, "winning the big ones" ??? LOL! Whatever!! TB can't beat anyone but cupcakes!!! Look at our record, when ranked, playing unranked BCS teams, esp @ home!! In BIG games his record is even more pathetic! It's LONG past time for TB to go!!
I hope you TB lovers & fence sitters don't get paid to make decisions at work, because you obviously can put aside personal feelings and be objective and chose what's right!!!!
Posted by flatiger66 on October 04, 2008 at 12:50 AM EDT #
Flat: I don't know why you're yellin' at me. I've been calling for Bowden to be fired for the last few years. You're bemoaning the problem. I'm predicting the political outcome.
Posted by Razzmatazz on October 04, 2008 at 02:33 AM EDT #
flatiger66: Please read and understand a post before replying to it. Your reply to Razz makes no sense.
Posted by PokerTiger on October 05, 2008 at 09:34 AM EDT #
Nebraska hired Solich before Callahan...
Posted by Big Case on October 07, 2008 at 09:47 PM EDT #