Georgia Sports Blog FanShop

October 13, 2008

Tommy Bowden Fired at Clemson


Dadgumit

TheState.com says they have the story cold, and Tommy Bowden has been fired at Clemson. Others confirming the story are CUTigers.com and the TigerIllustrated.com. (ht - IronDawg on the links). Add ESPN to that list now as I'm typing this up. Dabo Swinney will take over as interim head man for the rest of the season.

And thus ends one of the great loveless marriages in the history of the state of South Carolina. I realize that Bobby Johnson of Vanderbilt is a Clemson alum, but so what. Vandy will struggle to post seven wins this season. The Tigers aren't going to hire a guy that has only won 1/3 of his games at a BCS school.

I have no idea who they'll pursue, but I'll be shocked if its Johnson.

Before this news, I thought Clemson would roll over and play dead against Georgia Tech this weekend. Assuming GT had a healthy Jaybo Shaw or Josh Nesbitt, I was anticipating a three TD blowout. (Yes. I saw the G-Webb box score). Now, who knows. Teams respond in weird ways after their coach gets fired.

Update: Swinney has fired Clemson Offensive Coordinator Rob Spence. Spence was in a race to the death with Tony Franklin at Auburn for Worst Offensive Coordinator of the Year. This is another negative for Tech, and a positive for Clemson.

PWD

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Something tells me Fulmer will be available soon....

Anonymous said...

Will Muschamp is going to be a popular guy at schools that wear orange, that's what I think.

Unknown said...

Clemson strikes me as the sort of school who will try the exact same thing again and hope for better results. I think they'll go with Tommy Tuberville. He's the Bobsy twin of Tommy Bowden. They look alike. They coach alike. They'll both be available at the end of the season.

Anonymous said...

Johnson is old, i cant see them going in that direction. I think clemson and UT go after somone young like muschamp or lane kiffin.

Anonymous said...

Muschamp will obviously be bantied about. Chris Peterson of Boise St will be popular, especially for someone like Tennessee who needs a person willing to recruit the West Coast, Lane Kiffin fits that same mold and will be a popular name. I'm not sure if Chris Hatcher has done enough at Ga Southern to get his name on the radar and I can't think of any OCs or DCs within the SEC that appear like major candidates other than perenial "candidate" Charlie Strong. With Clemson open, Tennessee possibly soon to follow, maybe Penn St opens if Joe Pa has a year he can retire on, there could be some very high profile new coaches next year across the country.

Anonymous said...

Terry Bowden to Tennessee is my prediction . . . sounds like a long shot but he was on the short list for Arkansas and Ole Miss last year.

Anonymous said...

Another Bowden disciple canned, I wonder if he will go back and work for daddy as well.

Jesse W.
http://www.churchofcowherd.com

Anonymous said...

Terry Bowden and short list go together in so many ways.

Anonymous said...

how is he fired but not fulmer? lol

Anonymous said...

Lane Kiffin? I do not see Kiffin coming to the SE. Think Orgeron.

Arizona, Syracuse, Washington to me seem all likely to have openings. Arizona and Washington would seem to be places where a coach can do well. UW has a lot of money; Arizona is--well Arizona. It will appeal to a lot of SoCal kids. I really thought Stoops would do well there.

Syracuse--gonna have to find someone that can recruit NE and can find the diamonds in the rough. Or resurrect Ernie Davis (I highly recommend "The Express" although some scenes bring back sad memories of the racial divide in this country while at the same time reminds me how far we have come).

As for Clemson, it will be interesting. Clemson fans have a distorted view of where Clemson stands on the national landscape (as have UGA fans in the past). While UGA has had several runs (including the Richt era) of top 10 finishes, Clemson has never been that consistent. Check out both the pre-season and post-season rankings.

Clemson fans need to reset the threshold for success and aim to win their division regularly first.



I would never have guessed that Clemson would fire Bowden during a season. The quote from Cullen Harper says a lot about the situation--and to me a lot about Cullen Harper. I wonder if Cullen's dad will tell him that it is not class to say such things at least not while the situation is still hot.

Anonymous said...

It's obvious that Cullen's dad will not say any such thing to his son if you read Jeff's comments on espn.com. Very unclassy and disappointing for an old Dawg.

Once that orange gets in your blood a little, it's hard to get it out. No matter the situation, I hate to see Jeff respond that way.

Go Dawgs!
Beat Vandy!

Anonymous said...

Take that Dwayne Allen.

Have fun losing.

Anonymous said...

Clemson will get what they deserve. Not much.

Anonymous said...

are there any uga coaches we should worry about with any of these openings? I feel that Bobo is pretty new to the game but Martinez could hear his name called?

Anonymous said...

If they want Louisville coach Steve Kragthorpe, I'll be more than willing to help him pack!

Anonymous said...

So I've heard Tammy was fired and that he stepped down...which is it?

Anonymous said...

Amazing how that Alabama game totally floored that team. I realize it shook us up when we lost to Bama but the Dawgs are getting it back together and will redeem themselves even with a young line.

Makes me real appreciative of Coach Richt and the entire coaching staff at UGA

Anonymous said...

Cullen is NOT the type of guy that he is coming across to be with this quote. Keep it in context of all of the hype coming into the season and then getting benched. Now with that fresh on his mind he said something he should have said, absolutely. But just keep it in context.

Anonymous said...

Unless Danny Ford comes out of retirement, I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss Bobby Johnson. Like Spurrier who won at Dook; I don't think there is a better coach at getting more with the talent than Johnson.

IMO,the Rock Petters have a 50/50 chance of doing better or worse with firing Bowden.

Anonymous said...

THE most underrated coach in America is Turner Gill.

As Clemson keeps getting turned down, keep that name in mind.

SteveODawg said...

Do you think that this will have any affect on Richt's son staying at Clemson?

Anonymous said...

Stay classy Cullen Harper.

JasonC said...

While I have long considered Tommy Bowden to be an underachiever at Clemson, I don't know if this was the right move RIGHT NOW.

His two big strikes are that he hasn't won an ACC title in an era when FSU and Miami have been pretty week, while Wake and others have capitalized. And IMO, his offenses have been pretty soft and inconsistent.

I think a better decision would have been to fire Spence, who I don't think is that good and his showings against Bama & Wake are great examples. Now, maybe Clemson asked Bowden to fire Spence and he refused, so they canned both of them (I don't know). But maybe the admin saw that he was losing the team (re: Harper's comments)... not just games, and they felt they had to do it now.

I personally would like to see Muschamp go to Clemson, so he wouldn't resurface at an SEC opponent. Or if we could help Martinez get the Clemson job and bring in Muschamp that could be a winner also.

Anonymous said...

I doubt UGA would spend the $$$$ on Muschamp. Texas pays very, very well.

Plus I do not see it as a good career move when he can 1) stay at Texas and 2) be on the short list for many HC jobs and 3) if he did come to UGA, then UGA would be looking for a new DC after one year as I doubt Muschamp would be around long.

I firmly believe that continuity is a key asset in a long term successful program.

Muschamp to Clemson would be interesting. He would be a Tiger for the 4th time in his life (His high school, Darlington, LSU, Auburn are the other 3).

Anonymous said...

I doubt UGA would spend the $$$$ on Muschamp. Texas pays very, very well.

Plus I do not see it as a good career move when he can 1) stay at Texas and 2) be on the short list for many HC jobs and 3) if he did come to UGA, then UGA would be looking for a new DC after one year as I doubt Muschamp would be around long.

I firmly believe that continuity is a key asset in a long term successful program.

Muschamp to Clemson would be interesting. He would be a Tiger for the 4th time in his life (His high school, Darlington, LSU, Auburn are the other 3).

 
Copyright 2009 Georgia Sports Blog. Powered by Blogger Blogger Templates create by Deluxe Templates. WP by Masterplan