Monday October 27, 2008

The Curse

The Curse
The “Sports Illustrated Jinx” has happened so many times that many believe in it. If Sports Illustrated shows up at your door then don’t answer.

There is strong evidence to support the “Madden Jinx”. How many years in a row did the player on the cover have a major injury and miss the entire season?

Now we may have the “Clemson Candidate Curse.”

I sat down this weekend to watch the potential candidates that have been mentioned in the Clemson coaching search and came to the conclusion that most are glad it was not a single elimination tournament.

Dabo Swinney lost in his debut the previous week but that was more of the norm for potential candidates during the Tigers’ open week.

Bobby Johnson of Vanderbilt is a Clemson graduate that has beaten South Carolina on consecutive seasons and was one of the hot names linked to the Clemson job. Vanderbilt was 5-0 with two wins over top 25 teams. A bad Mississippi State team burst the Commodores bubble in October. Saturday’s loss was the third consecutive defeat so his star has lost some shine. The last loss was to lowly Duke at home when the Blue Devils held Vanderbilt to seven points.

Jim Grobe beat Tommy Bowden in his final game as the head coach of the Tigers and with an ACC title ring, Grobe was atop the list of some Clemson supporters. At one point this season Wake Forest was 3-0 and ranked in the top 20. However, the Deacs have dropped three of four and are now 2-2 in the conference and 4-3 overall. They have looked bad in doing so. A bad loss at home to Navy set this in motion but this past weekend the Deacs threw the ball only eight times in a 16-10 loss to Miami. They only completed three passes despite having perhaps the top passer in the ACC. I think Grobe should thank his lucky stars that he was at Wake Forest this past weekend and not at Clemson because he has to answer to both Deac fans instead of fans who actually care about the sport.

Mark Mangino has turned Kansas around and the Jayhawks won a BCS game last season. Here is coach that had a great season at a basketball school to grab attention of some Clemson supporters. Most Clemson fans could overlook the loss to South Florida in September because they rebounded and the Jayhawks were 5-1 and ranked in the top 15. That was before Kansas gave up 108 and was outscored by 56 points in the last two weeks. I would not want to answer to that in Clemson.

Paul Johnson beat Dabo Swinney in his debut and at 6-1 some Clemson fans felt his high school offense was the answer. After watching Tech’s starting quarterback complete 4 passes until four minutes left in the game, I have concluded this offense could not go over well in Clemson. When you are heading into your ninth game of the season and your leading passer has completed 28 passes all season then questions arise.

Jim Leavitt is the only head coach South Florida has ever had but some Clemson supporters have him high on their list of potential candidates. He had the Bulls ranked in the top 10 in the country and some liked his intensity. That star is not quite as bright after South Florida dropped two of their last three games including an upset loss at Louisville Saturday.

Brian Kelly won two Division II titles at Grand Valley State and helped Central Michigan to a bowl game in his third season there. Last year he took over a bad Cincinnati program and had won 16 of his first 20 games at a basketball school. Some mentioned his name as a candidate at Clemson but this weekend his Bearcats gave up 30 second half points to drop a 40-16 decision to UConn.

Bud Foster is one of the few coordinators that Clemson fans would be satisfied with. The Hokies were 5-1 when Foster made a comment about the Clemson job. Since speaking on his candidacy, Tech has given up 58 points and lost both contests. In fact, four of Techs eight games this season the opponent has scored 27 or more points.

Tommy Tuberville has built a power at Auburn but some said he may be ready to get out of Bobby Lowder’s grasp. Tuberville says he wants to be at Auburn another 10 years but the Tigers have lost four of their last five.

Rich Rodriquez signed his contract Friday essentially taking his name out of the running at Clemson. Just to keep with the theme, Rodriguez lost to his in-state rival Michigan State on Saturday to drop the Wolverines to 2-6 in his initial season in Ann Arbor.

Will Muschamp helped Texas’ defense to a big win over Oklahoma State on Saturday and Gary Patterson helped TCU to a win over a bad Wyoming squad, so all was not lost among names being mentioned in the Clemson search.

I wonder if Bill Cowher and Lane Kiffin got beat on the golf course this past weekend?

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