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Athletic Dir [1159]

TigerPulse: 100%

Posts: 801

Joined: 1999

Re: I would where that shirt tomorrow. Question:

Jul 13, 2018, 12:17 AM

Like all good Clemson fans, I was very upset when Danny was fired, but it was done, and I thought that Hatfield was a good hire at the time. He inherited 21 players who went on to pro ball, and I really wanted him to continue Danny's success. In my 70 years as a Clemson fan, I have never bad mouthed a coach or player; I have always wanted them to be real winners. But, a coach is fair game after he leaves while former players are always Tigers.

I talked with Hatfield several times at Clemson meetings in Charlotte, and he never gave me a straight answer to a question. After he left one conversation, my young son commented, "Dad, his answers had nothing to do with your questions."

IMO the best designed play of his Clemson tenure was the little flip pass over the line against Illinois in the bowl game that Howard Hall took for a long TD. Hatfield never ran that play again, and I asked him about it a couple of years later. His answer was that he didn't have fullbacks who could execute the play, and I told him that Howard Hall was there, and he executed the original play. His excuse was that Howard Hall was injured some. (Hall actually played a lot those 2 years but was not effectively used.) Hatfield said that they would probably use the play with Emery Smith the following season, but he didn't.

His last season at Clemson was similar to SC's 2017 season; a deceptive record with about half the wins being pure luck. It was evident that our football program was a shell of what it was when he arrived. Clemson fans knew that it was time for him to go, and I was one of them.

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Calhoun2® said:

I always felt like his hiring was the administrations way of punishing the football program and fans for supporting Danny. Hatfield was just a self-imposed 3 year probation with a 50 scholarship reduction.

Well said. I felt that way too. The administration felt they needed to break down all vestiges of fan support for Danny Ford and the football program he had built. A house divided and a house demoralized cannot recruit and compete with contemporary programs like Bobby Bowden's Florida State.

Comments were made about concentrating on academic reputation of the University. However, Losing to Virginia and being embarrassed by FSU in the early 1990’s does not improve the US News and World report rankings of your chemistry department or English department.

By the time Hatfield left, the great Clemson defenses of the late 1980s, early 1990s, were a shell of what they once were. A few great players sprinkled in, but overall the talent and depth was thin.