Wednesday April 09, 2008

The Rebuilding Year

The Rebuilding Year
Expectations are a coach’s worst nightmare. Jack Leggett is an example of that and there is little doubt that he has created a monster.

Leggett has become a victim of his own success as I have received e-mails and phone calls complaining about the Clemson baseball program. Even the local talk that is usually excited about Clemson baseball is down about this team and about the future.

While I understand the frustration that comes with this rebuilding year and a current five game losing streak, I also understand why it has happened and how it has happened. I also understand that Leggett should not be above criticism but above excessive criticism.

I understand those that want to get on Leggett a little bit about this season because of the expectation level is so high. But I also understand the crowd that supports Jack because he has earned the right to rebuild.

This five game losing streak is the first of its kind since April 4-10, 2001 when Clemson lost a game to Winthrop, three games at Florida State and one to Coastal Carolina.

If the Tigers lose tonight at South Carolina it will be Clemson’s first six-game losing streak since April 23-May 8, 192 when Bill Wilhelm’s team lost a game to Virginia, one to North Carolina, three to Alabama and one to Auburn.

Clemson has suffered only four losing streaks that lasted more than six games. In 1921 and 1952 the Tigers dropped seven in a row. In 1957 Clemson lost eight in a row but the school’s longest losing streak on the diamond came in 1919 when the Tigers lost nine in a row.

The Tigers have not had a losing season since 1957 when they went 6-12. The next year they hired Bill Wilhelm.

So it is easy to see why some fans don’t like the current streak because it is so rare. However, you have to understand and consider why it has happened. The cold, hard facts of college baseball indicate that this has to happen to every program eventually. The surprising part of the Clemson baseball season is not the fact that they have a losing streak and are under .500 in the ACC. Instead, the surprising aspect is that it has taking so long for this to happen. The last time Clemson ended the season with a losing record in the ACC was 1972.

This morning on my radio show Chuck Kriese came by and spent about 45 minutes on the air discussing his 33-year career as the head men’s tennis coach here at Clemson. Kriese is retiring at the end of the season and today is last home match as the Tigers face South Carolina at 3:00PM at the Hoke Sloan Tennis Center. During the interview Kriese talked the difficulty in today’s environment and how he had so much respect for his peers at Clemson like Trevor Adair, Bob Pollack and Jack Leggett. Kriese mentioned that college baseball coaches have the hardest jobs in all of college athletics.

In the sport you have only 11.7 scholarships and you have to split your numbers among so many players. Throw in the major league baseball draft where high school signees can opt to go pro instead of attending college. The colleges know what to expect from many of their signees but you can never tell and often times kids will surprise you.

Also you have the top players in your program leaving after their junior seasons with the major league draft because they lose leverage if they stay to play as a senior.

Leggett’s program has been hit on both sides of the draft. Last year Clemson had 11 players drafted. In the past his high school products have also been hit hard through the draft so it should not be a shock that this baseball program faces a rebuilding year. Again, the surprising part is that it has taken this long.

One last factor that I have not considered until recently is the academic environment and the costs involved in attending Clemson. I know a lot of you have read about the lawsuit facing Clemson concerning the big tuition hikes and I am not here to debate either side of the suit. However, it is fair to consider the effects of tuition increases on athletics. When you look at the increased cost of attending Clemson it has to have a negative effect on the non-revenue or Olympic sports. Most of the men’s sports have to give partial scholarships in most cases because of the NCAA limit for each sport. Men’s tennis gets 4.5 scholarships but uses between eight and ten players. Baseball has 11.7 but uses over 30 players. Soccer, golf, track and field and other continue to have to divide their scholarships up to field teams.

This is a bigger factor after the tuition hikes because if a baseball player is offered a half scholarship ten years ago it might not cost his family more than a couple of thousand dollars a year to send their son to Clemson to play baseball. But if he is an out of state kid now a half scholarship means the family will have to pay $10,000-$15,000 per year for their son to play baseball at Clemson.

The major league baseball draft isn’t going away and that is a reason why every school has suffered some rebuilding years in the past. Name a college baseball program that has not had a down year in the last ten years. You will have a hard time finding one.

But baseball could help the sport if they increased the scholarship totals to 15-20 per year. Also Clemson could help out their non-revenue sports if they gave a waiver to out-of-state student athletes for in-state tuition.

Clemson’s tuition hikes came a little more than five years ago and name the non-revenue ACC titles Clemson has won since the hikes. Men’s golf has a couple, baseball has one, soccer has one, outdoor track has one and I may have missed one somewhere.

This is not a statement for or against the tuition hikes but you have to consider the factor when you look across the board and the effects it has on each athletic team. Other factors have contributed in each sport but either Adair, Pollack, Penley, Leggett and Kriese are not as good as they once were when they were winning championships and they all declined across the board or things are tougher at Clemson today.

All things considered, Jack Leggett has earned the right to rebuild.

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