Goodbye, Tommy Bowden: Players and Fans React to Clemson Canning

It's bad enough that your team—predicted to be a top-five, ACC-winning cert, is at the moment sleepwalking its way to a 3-3 record. Even your father—a college football legend in his own right—can't rescue you (your team, Clemson, hasn't played Florida State yet)...particularly when you're upset by Alabama, lose to a not-very-good Maryland team, and you're outplayed by Wake Forest. So it's goodbye, Tommy Bowden.

And frankly, you deserved it. But CJ Spiller jumped on your grave, which wasn't cool.

"I'm shocked. We are 3-3 because we didn't make enough big offensive plays," Spiller told ESPN. "I'm shocked by our record and now I'm shocked that our coach is gone.

"I enjoyed playing for coach Bowden and I liked him, but in the end he was yelling at us to be leaders and it wasn't working. He did all he could to motivate us, but guys weren't buying into what he was saying. And he said a lot of the same things over and over again."

"He let the offensive coordinator [Rob Spence] run the show and we got away from me and James (Davis). I think part of the problem was when he benched (quarterback) Cullen (Harper). Some people wanted the offensive coordinator fired, [Bowden benched] the quarterback, and then he got fired." Yeowch.

And Cullen Harper? You stay classy, Cullen. You stay classy.

"It's what he deserved," Harper said in the same ESPN article. "Dabo Swinney is a fine man and will do an excellent job."

Later Monday, Harper added that Bowden "tried to motivate us but guys were off the bandwagon. There were things I disagreed with and that my teammates disagreed with. I didn't appreciate it when he would say some off-the-wall things about me to the media. I guess one thing I can say is he gave me an opportunity to come to Clemson and play."

And on your way out, Alabama fans would like to say goodbye: