• Connect with us: Subscriber Rewards  |  Report News  |  Mobile  |  Get News by E-mail  |  Twitter  |  RSS Feeds  |  Place an Ad  |  Classifieds | Contact Us
• Customer Service

Trouble in Tigertown

Posted 10:06 p.m., September 29, 2008

It's easy to overstate and overreact in the wake of an exasperating loss. Fans, media, whoever.

I read somewhere yesterday that perspective is the first casualty of defeat, and that's true now more than ever in this pervasive knee-jerk culture.

Clemson has suffered plenty of debilitating losses under Tommy Bowden, and most fans have managed to recover thanks largely to the fact that Bowden usually finds a way to turn things around.

I get the inescapable feeling, though, that things are different after Saturday's ugly home defeat to Maryland. As a longtime, loyal fan told me earlier today: "You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube."

The toothpaste left the tube for a lot of folks Saturday, and I'm not talking about the lunatic fringe that's called for Bowden's head after just about every loss the last few years.

I'm talking about the rational folks, the people who love Clemson. People who, before Saturday, defended Bowden and supported him.

The post-Maryland sentiment from these people can best be summed up like this:

Tommy is a good man. He represents the university well. He graduates his players. He's recruited well in recent years and has the program in very good shape. But he's taken this thing as far as he can take it, and it's time to make a change.

As costly as Saturday's defeat might've been to Clemson's hopes of finally winning the Atlantic Division and advancing to the ACC title game, the far bigger casualty might've been his loss of a large part of his fan base.

Upsets happen in college football. Last weekend alone told us that this wonderful game is as wacky and wildly unpredictable as it's ever been.

I think reasonable Clemson fans understand that. But what they don't understand is how a team can look so thoroughly dominant for one half, and so inept for another.

They saw a Maryland team that looked fairly average come in to Death Valley, play a mistake-prone game and leave with a victory.

For the 30th time in the last few years (slight exaggeration there), they saw a touchdown called back because of a penalty. They saw a litany of other mistakes cost their team the game.

This wasn't like the Alabama debacle, when the Tigers looked ill fit for the big stage and were completely manhandled by a better team in a 34-10 defeat. That one seemed bad enough.

Saturday was simply the latest in a long line of games in which critical errors -- some would say boneheaded errors -- sealed the Tigers' demise. The fumbled punt by Jacoby Ford. The lost lateral on the screen pass. Not enough men on the line of scrimmage. The late hit by Xavier Dye.

Bowden's answer to this is to simply work hard at eliminating those mistakes. His reasoning is, why reinvent the wheel when there are only a few errors to correct, only a few points separating Clemson from a victory?

But the more this goes on, the more that reasoning wears thin. And man, has this been going on for a while.

Remember the 10-9 loss to Georgia Tech in 2005, when a touchdown was called back because the Tigers didn't have enough men on the line of scrimmage?

Remember the game at Boston College in 2006? The missed extra point in double overtime? The inability to cash in on a first-and-goal from the 3 in the first overtime when a touchdown would've meant victory?

How about the 13-12 loss to Maryland in 2006? Remember that touchdown that was called back because -- stop us if you've heard this one before -- not enough men were on the field on a 4-yard touchdown run by James Davis?

Last year's loss at Georgia Tech? What was it, nine dropped passes and four missed field goals?

And yes, last November's numbing home loss to Boston College with a trip to Jacksonville on the line. The Tigers allowed 17 fourth-quarter points and lost because someone broke containment and allowed Matt Ryan to venture outside the pocket … because someone busted a coverage on the same play and allowed a long touchdown strike … because someone dropped a perfectly thrown pass at the end.

The more these "little things" add up, the more the blame should be directed toward the coaches. Preparation is a part of the game, and whose job is that? And if the players aren't capable of translating that preparation from the practice field to the game field -- well, who recruited them?

There's been a lot said about the play-calling against Maryland. A lot of folks think the coaching staff abandoned the running game. Others think they should've made more attempts to go downfield. But it’s pointless to get bogged down in the details of one game when the discussion is about more than that.

Thinking broadly, I've got some reservations as to whether Rob Spence is suited to be a coordinator at this level. He has a good scheme in theory, but it seems like he gets way too overwhelmed on game days. It's almost as if he prepares too much and then goes into a shell during tough situations. He seems like a scared play-caller right now, and I'm sure a lot of that stems from the offensive line. But when a mentality of fear is felt by the players -- and there’s reason to believe it is -- you have problems.

.

But back to Bowden:

Fans -- and I'm talking about the fans who have actually supported the program with their hard-earned money -- aren't happy because they've done just about everything asked of them in the last few years.

They were asked to pony up more money for facilities upgrades, and they did it. And how much of their dough has been devoted to increased salaries for Bowden and his assistant coaches?

Last offseason, fans were asked to give more so they could get better seats. Well, most of the fans in those better seats ponied up, too. That means there are a bunch of fans who've spent a lot more money for the same old seats they've always occupied. And in a lot of cases, they aren’t the most desirable seats.

When Bowden agreed to a contract extension last December after a serious flirtation with Arkansas, it was a blessing for his financial future but a potential curse for expectations.

The conclusion on the part of a lot of fans -- and probably some in the administration, too -- was:

"Well, he'd better not have any hiccups now."

When Terry Don Phillips and Bowden sat at that podium and said the Tigers were this close to championships, that everything was in place to win the ACC and land in the BCS, the stakes were raised.

When Clemson's administration came forth with the contract Bowden sought, rewarding the coach more for potential than for production, it helped create the nasty situation we're in right now.

What does the future hold for Bowden? I tend to think that, after the ugliness that occurred Saturday and in Atlanta, he needs to get to the title game to keep his job. But I'm not certain of that. And I don’t get the feeling that Phillips himself is certain of that.

What I do feel comfortable in saying is that Bowden has lost the benefit of the doubt from a lot of fans who once so graciously offered it.

And that ain't good.

LW