CU Guru [1950]
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Tommy's extension was a no-brainer (Long)...
Nov 27, 2007, 5:22 PM
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Right now, it can be argued that Clemson has the brightest future of any team in the ACC, and perhaps the biggest reason for this is Tommy Bowden and the continuity of his staff. Contrary to popular belief among some on this board, we did not have the best talent in the ACC this season, and that is a direct result of poor recruiting seasons in 2003 and 2004 (due to the poor state of our facilities) when we brought in a grand total of one 4 star player and zero 5 star players according to rivals.com. In these two seasons Clemson ranked 67th and 53rd in the country in recruiting. During these 2 years BC brought in 2 top 25 classes and Va. Tech brought in 2 decent classes that included nine 4 star players. Even Wake had a better recruiting year than we did in 2003. There is a reason why Virginia Tech, BC, and Georgia Tech, the teams we happened to lose to, all had more All-ACC selections than us and that is because each team had more quality experienced players on their team. However, since 2005 Clemson has had perhaps the best recruiting in the conference and BC has not even cracked the top 35 once and was in the low 40s in two of those seasons.
Beginning next season, Clemson will finally be ready to compete for an ACC championship with no excuses. Had Bowden been fired or even not given an extension, the results could have been damaging for our program. Over his 9 seasons Bowden has established great relationships with many high school coaches in the state of South Carolina that has allowed us to not only beat out SC for the majority of the top recruits in the state, but also keep them away from out of state schools such as FSU, Miami, and Georgia. Had Bowden not been given this contract extension, these relationships mean nothing because there is no guarantee Bowden will be there for more than another season. In season's with coaching changes recruiting rankings are terrible (even Notre Dame who is currently #1 this season was #40 the year they fired Willingham) and there is no question that our rankings would have fallen as well. It is no coincidence that AJ Harmon finally said that he is 100% sold on Clemson on the same day that Bowden was given his extension.
Add to this the fact that there are no coaches out there that can even compare to the quality of coaches we currently have on our staff and this becomes a no-brainer. A head coach can only have so much impact on a game, but can have a much bigger impact on a program, and he has done a great job of running our program in my opinion. Almost all of the play calls are made by our coordinators, who happen to be highly regarded by just about everyone except for a few of the idiots on here (Rob Spence is ranked the 15th best offensive coach and Vic Koenning is ranked the 10th best defensive coach on rivals power rankings http://collegefootball.rivals.com/viewCFSE.asp)and our other assistants are all great recruiters and coaches as well.
Next season will be Clemson's year to finally break through and become the best team in the conference. Virginia Tech is off of the schedule, BC loses Matt Ryan and the majority of all of their other good players, Georgia Tech is a home game and they will be without Choice, and no other team really scares me all that much. Our offensive line can't be in much worse shape that it was at the start of this year and the added experience and the extra year in the weight room for a team that brings back more players than just about any team in the country should mean improvement for our squad.
I'm not saying that we will go undefeated because in college football today there is so much parity and, as seen this season, even the most talented teams like LSU and USC can lose 2 games in a season, but they won the games they needed to and they will in all likelihood still end up in a BCS bowl game. The best teams in the end always seem to rise up to the top and this year that wasn't us, but I believe next year it will.
If we do happen to lose a game early next season, I'm sure there will be people calling for Bowden's head again and I hope that is put to a stop by the people who run this board. There is no point in even discussing a coach's future until the season is over and it just makes the program look foolish, especially when the team turns around their season. I realize that there will always be people so stubborn that they will never be able to root for Bowden again, and if he does end up having success it will be because we are "winning in spite of him", but Bowden deserves a lot of credit for turning this program around. He may have hit a plateau because of our facilities, but now that we are finally on an even playing field, we will have a chance to finally field a team with experienced talent and there will be no excuse for why we cannot win an ACC title.
Book your tickets to the Orange Bowl now while you still can, because next year will be the best Clemson Tigers team in the last two decades and Bowden will finally get the credit he deserves.
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