Clemson Parts with Tommy Bowden; College Football Community Goes "Eh"

It’s been a rough couple of weeks to be a Tiger nationally.

Memphis lost their mascot, TOM II, to cancer this week just days after losing a tough one to Louisville, 35-28.

Missouri was poised to possibly become the No. 1 team in the country, but collapsed against a hungry Oklahoma State team and are now facing a possible two-game losing streak after tomorrow’s trip to Texas.

LSU got flat-out blasted by the Florida Gators in a national prime time game, 51-21.

Auburn fired offensive coordinator Tony Franklin six games into the season and then went out and lost to Arkansas.

And now, we have Clemson parting ways with head coach Tommy Bowden in his 10th year of service to the school.

Look, Tommy Bowden arrived at Clemson knowing what the expectations were going to be. I don’t think he could be that naïve, considering his father and brother were both head coaches in the South.

And he failed to deliver an ACC championship, even before the league swelled to 12 teams.

Yes, the Tigers went to bowl games eight of his 10 years. But that wasn’t going to be good enough.

And considering the talent on this team on offense, the expectations were high.

Granted, I didn’t think Clemson was going to win the ACC this year. I picked Wake to win the division, actually. But I did not expect the team to be 3-3 at this point either.

I feel like the tone for the season was set on Clemson’s second snap of the season, in my opinion.

Alabama led the game 3-0 with 9:43 to go in the first quarter. Cullen Harper’s pass on first down was incomplete.

On second and ten, Bowden gave the ball to true freshman running back Jaime Harper.

Fumble recovered by Alabama. Game over.

I understand that Bowden promised Harper the first carry of the game. It might not have been the best decision, though, when you have two stud running backs in CJ Spiller and James Davis, both of whom appeared to be used inappropriately by former offensive coordinator Rob Spence.

Now, I’m not saying that that play caused Bowden to lose the locker room. But it is also apparent that there was tension in the locker room, if you take former starting quarterback Cullen Harper’s words as truth. It may not have been mutiny, but there was definitely a division amongst the players.

It appears to an outsider that Bowden failed to rally this team and be a leader to these young men. And that falls squarely on him.

My only problem in this instance is with the timing.

Considering that there was a bye week coming up after this Saturday’s game versus Georgia Tech, why not wait until after that game to resign/get fired?

Granted, this was already team turmoil, but this dismissal comes at the worst time possible and can only serve as a distraction.

Of course, with that being said, watch Clemson pull off the upset and serve as the final verdict for Tommy Bowden’s tenure.