So Tommy Bowden was in the news again this week. (editorial)

Aug 28, 2016, 12:29 PM

On his blog, he commented that Clemson and Florida State have recently proven to be as good as any team in America. However, inroads could still be made regarding more ACC wins against non-conference power five opponents. While it seemed he was talking about the remaining teams in the ACC not named Clemson or Florida State, he went on to choose the following stats. He said “Clemson (2-5) and Georgia Tech (1-6) have combined for 3 wins in 7 years versus their natural Power 5 rivals South Carolina and Georgia. Florida State is 5-2 versus their rival Florida in the last 7 years.” This quote sparked some lively board debate this week. Why did he choose to span Dabo’s full seven season coaching tenure? Why did he single out Clemson’s natural power 5 rival?

If you include Notre Dame, the Tigers are 11-10 against the power five non-conference foes they faced over the past seven year span. While not a dominant record, more recent trending shows sustained improvement over the last four years (9-4). It appears he chose the stat that placed him in the best light. In Tommy’s nine full seasons as Clemson’s head coach, the Tigers went 7-2(63-17 and 1st and 35 say hi) against the fighting Gamecocks from Columbia, South Carolina. To highlight otherwise, leads to a lack of on-field coaching success.

Bowden went 9-9 in nine full seasons against power five non-conference foes. He led the Tigers to zero New Year’s Day bowls, zero ACC Championships and allowed Wake Forest to attend an ACC Championship game before Clemson. If you analyze the non-conference competition in that 9-9 record, the historical quality of those programs pale in comparison to the opponents faced under Dabo’s tenure. Additionally, there is no question that South Carolina fielded a superior quality football team compared to that which Tommy faced.

There is no doubt that Tommy Bowden is a fine Christian man and performed many positive community services during his time at Clemson. He paved the way for the West End Zone project and championed facility upgrades that Danny Ford, Ken Hatfield, and Tommy West could not. He brought Clemson football out of is lowest performance doldrums since the early 1970’s and hired assistant coaches that led to better recruiting and performance successes which Clemson stills benefits from today.

It’s unclear why Tommy chose to highlight the stats he did. However, it is fair to say on-field performance is the ultimate measure. It’s unfair to hypothesize about the past and you can’t change historical outcomes. But it is safe to say, if you could give Dabo a 5-2 record against South Carolina we would be debating the finer points of where to place his bronze statue.

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Pretty nicely written, but when are y'all going to get of TBs throat?

My guess is that you who still berate the man had expectations he was going to be a better coach than his father and Bear Bryant combined.

We were becoming what USC is, and has long been. TB got us to mediocrity which was not an easy task. Not only, he didn't just hire Dabo, he nominated him as HC. that showed a pretty high degree of allegiance given what Dano has proven to be capable of.

The down years were Hatfield and West. Bowden provided the first rise our program enjoyed after far too long a period of going from great to terrible.

Now, with the success Dabo has provided, I'm not missing TB too much, but I don't hate him for leaving the program better off than he found it. Not only, if some of armchair coaches and sports journalists would get off his neck, he might not feel the need to cast himself in such a favorable light.

So Tommy Bowden was in the news again this week. (editorial)

jealous fool***

There's a reason why he hasn't been hired...

Re: So Tommy Bowden was in the news again this week. (editorial)

Re: Tommy Bowden- gave us Dabo- good

pride goeth before the fall....

no one doubts Dabo >> Tommy, not even Tommy.***

Re: So Tommy Bowden was in the news again this week. (editorial)

He should have trusted Dabo over Spence

He Hired Dabo - So he's good in my Book!

The obligatory praise of TBowden's contributions aside

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