ketelonelogic on 
Riggs on 
AParker on 
Chili on 
RELIEF BOOBS ACTIVATE
Hey Autobots, it was a long day of following news reports about the coaching change and [self congratulatory spiel] we’re pretty happy to say we remained on top of the situation and got out the news as soon as it happened [/spiel].
TB AND TDP PRESS CONFERENCE
In a 5:15 PM press conference yesterday, Terry Don Phillips made it clear that Bowden was not fired, but stepped down after the new mandate was laid on him that he would be fired once the Tigers were mathematically eliminated from Atlantic Division contention. A half million dollars was lobbed off the buyout and Tommy walks away with $3.5 million.
TDP essentially stated what Ron Morris says in his article, that Coach Bowden did everything right but win – the major point of contention being that he had yet to win his division, much less the league title in 9 1/2 years. (Though it must be noted that Morris is trying to take Clemson to task for firing Bowden, but the losses to inferior teams and failing to make the ACCCG while BC and Wake rolled into it are huge, huge issues that he sort of ignores)
Coach Bowden spoke briefly, his statement is below, as reported by The State. We’ve taken our fair share of shots at Bowden, but the time for that is pretty much over. He left Clemson better than he found it, he coached with class, ran a clean program, and showed a lot of character by showing up for the closing press conference. We wish him all the best in whatever endeavors he pursues from this point on.
“(Athletic director) Terry Don Phillips approached me this morning, and we agreed that this is the best solution for the direction of the program. Clemson has been very good to me and my family. Both of our children are Clemson graduates.
“I appreciate the opportunity Clemson University gave me and the support of the administration while I was here. I also want to thank all the players and coaches who worked so hard for this program the last 10 years. I wish Clemson University nothing but the best in the future.”
Image from the Post &Courier
Larry Williams has more info on this particular presser in this post.
Here’s a take on the players’ reactions to the coaching change.
Matt Hayes of The Sporting News on five reasons Tommy Bowden is out.
DABO’S PRESS CONFERENCE
Here’s some info from Coach Swinney’s presser last night. There will be some coaching shifts. Most notably, Swinney and QB coach Billy Napier will handle playcalling. Several graduate assistants will move onto the field. GA Mike Dooley moves to TE coach, GA Jeff Scott (Brad’s son) will work full time with WRs, and video GA Derek Riley will move on field to be a defensive grad assistant.
Yes, EKR fans, Korn is still the starter for GT.
Some choice quotes from Swinney:
“I believe in Willy Korn.”
On what he told the team: “If you can’t do this, this, this, and this, pack up your locker, and get out. We’ll honor your scholarship, but if you’re on that practice field, you better be all in.”
On what he’s most worried about: “The main thing I’m worried about is running down the hill. I’ve never done that since I’ve been here – I’ve been the captains’ coach out on the field. I’m jacked up about that. I’m gonna rub that rock twice.”
Bart Wright of the Greenville News has an article on his impressions from the press conference, which seem pretty positive.
WHO’S NEXT
Just as a new coach is settling in, speculation runs rampant on who will be the coach in 2009.
Spencer Hall of EDSBS and The Sporting News has a list over at TSN, and gives us a shoutout as well. Thanks for that.
Larry Williams has a couple choices over here, they seem to be more informed than the TSN takes, which is understandable since Clemson is LW’s specialty.
They both mention:
- Lane Kiffin, formerly of the Raiders, though Williams hadn’t heard anything specific on him.
- Will Muschamp, BOOM!, who we are personally in favor of.
- Dabo Swinney, interim coach, who is on a 6/7 week audition for the job right now.
Williams also throws in:
- Jim Grobe, Wake Forest HC, who would also be a great choice, IMO.
- Oklahoma DC Brent Venables, TDP loves southwestern guys.
- Bobby Johnson, Vanderbilt HC, who I think is a great coach and a Clemson guy, but maybe a tad too old and wouldn’t provide enough of a spark. My gut tells me Clemson is higher on this guy than I’d like them to be.
Hall mentions two guys I don’t think are on Clemson’s radar:
- Skip Holtz, who had a flavor of the month appeal before faltering this season. The fact that he coached at Sakerlina for his dad doesn’t garner him any support among Clemson fans. Plus he wouldn’t give me a discount on my Sakerlina Football Camp payment when my A/C unit broke in my dorm room. So, there’s that. (Summer heat in Columbia after 16 hours of drills, FUN. I went to Clemson, Furman, and other football camps too, so piss off)
- Todd Graham, Tulsa head coach. I don’t know much about this guy, but this is the first I’ve heard his name mentioned. I’ll keep an eye on him in this search.
RECRUITS LOOKING ELSEWHERE
As is bound to happen in a coaching change, especially one as abrupt as this one, some recruits have decommitted and are looking elsewhere. Both guys mentioned in this Sporting News article have been known to have backed off their commitments for a while now, and rumors had spread that they were dropping the Tigers as long as two months ago. Sporting Gnomes were on this yesterdee. Some people get all up in arms about this, and while both guys who decom’td were highly ranked guys, I could give two fucks if a 18 year old changes his mind. He’ll probably change it a number of times throughout the year. We’ll get some recruits, we’ll lose some recruits. We’ll make it.
MORE ON CULLEN’S COMMENTS
Cullen Harper has taken a ton of flak for his comment that Bowden “deserved” to be fired yesterday. Harper was understandably pissed after being scapegoated last week. His dad also fired off some parting shots at Bowden. Harper has some more comments in this article in the Greenville News. He says his main beef with Bowden was CTB’s penchant for taking things to the media before dealing with him personally.
“From a personal standpoint, I think that a coach should always deal with issues about the team with the team first,” Harper said. “I think there are just some things that belong inside the locker room. It’s unfortunate that I never got a chance to talk to Coach Bowden about the situation.”
“I wish the best for coach Bowden, and I hate it had to come to this,” Harper said. “But we’re 100 percent behind coach Swinney and we’re still believing. We’re going to do our best to turn this thing around.”
The article has some more insight on different players’ takes on Bowden’s resignation.
1Lawtonfunk
on Oct 14, 2008 at 10:36 am:
I think I just read the whole blog, but after that picture I am merely left with a strange desire to go out in my motorboat.
2Tolley jenkins
on Oct 14, 2008 at 10:54 am:
In the future, more boobs tag usage. K thnx.
3edbo
on Oct 14, 2008 at 10:59 am:
Extreme Knockers Report
4Clem
on Oct 14, 2008 at 11:01 am:
sorry…couldn’t get past the relief boobs. Ahh young college women….memories
5JasonL
on Oct 14, 2008 at 11:03 am:
The question at the end of the year is how many games does Swinney need to win in order to be considered for the HC position?
If he wins all of them, does he get a free pass and then become the new HC? That’ll be very odd.
6Tom
on Oct 14, 2008 at 11:29 am:
My favorite part of the Dabo interview was when he talked about poker on ESPN and said from this point on he was all in. I made a T-shirt for him: http://www.antibowden.com/2008/10/show-support-for-dabo-get-your-all-in-t.html#links
7Willy Mac
on Oct 14, 2008 at 11:41 am:
Chili and I were discussing that during the interview last night… “Man I love dem koer shows!” Lol.
8GOCAMS
on Oct 14, 2008 at 11:45 am:
There is a plethora(sp?) of DSOT material regarding the next coach out there. Hope you guys have time to get on that. Great job on getting all the info out.
9Chili
on Oct 14, 2008 at 11:47 am:
I wouldn’t wear that shirt if it was made of kevlar and I was about to go before a firing squad that only took chest-shots.
10Tom
on Oct 14, 2008 at 12:10 pm:
well suit yourself ;-)
11Willy Mac
on Oct 14, 2008 at 12:11 pm:
By “koer” I mean “koer”, not “poker”… cause… Dabo likes… koer?
12GOCAMS
on Oct 14, 2008 at 12:12 pm:
testing gravatar
13Tom
on Oct 14, 2008 at 12:14 pm:
oh and don’t hate ’cause you didn’t think of it first, haha
14Chili
on Oct 14, 2008 at 12:15 pm:
GOCAMS it’ll take a bit to kick in. Hey, there you go.
Also, WDWE WDWD?
15GOCAMS
on Oct 14, 2008 at 12:52 pm:
Wow, I thought I might get that by you. Personally, I’m a bigger fan of WDWD, but I didn’t think anyone would get that username. I stand in awe, sir.
16Chili
on Oct 14, 2008 at 12:55 pm:
WDWD is my faaaaav. I learned a couple of things from HIST 100: History of Higher Eduction and Clemson.
17Kyle
on Oct 14, 2008 at 1:39 pm:
Todd Graham is riding that Gus Malazhan train that Arkansas rode for a year. Here’s all you need to know about them right now:
http://www.cfbstats.com/2008/leader/national/team/offense/split01/category10/sort01.html
http://www.cfbstats.com/2008/leader/national/team/offense/split01/category02/sort01.html
http://www.cfbstats.com/2008/leader/national/team/offense/split01/category01/sort01.html
http://www.cfbstats.com/2008/leader/national/team/offense/split01/category09/sort01.html
18Kyle
on Oct 14, 2008 at 1:43 pm:
OK, I think my previous post got eaten.
Todd Graham is the guy that took in Gus Malazhan after Arkansas canned him along with Houston Nutt. Their offense is tops in the country in yardage and scoring. 5th in passing and 10th in rushing I believe. I already lost the link I just tried to post, but you should be able to go look it up easily.
19Chili
on Oct 14, 2008 at 1:58 pm:
Your comment got caught up in the filter b/c of all the links.
20Kyle
on Oct 14, 2008 at 3:17 pm:
Ah, my bad.
While I’m making comments, that “I’m All In” shirt is Tennessee orange on my monitor. Blech.
21Tully
on Oct 14, 2008 at 3:33 pm:
WTF IS WDWE AND WDWD
22Chili
on Oct 14, 2008 at 3:35 pm:
YOU WISH YOU KNEW!
23huj
on Oct 14, 2008 at 3:46 pm:
I hope their national search isn’t more hot air. 5 years ago CU conducted a “national search” for a replacement for Jim Phillips, only to go with interim-announcer Pete Yanity. Hopefully this will be a true nationwide search.
24Chili
on Oct 14, 2008 at 3:51 pm:
I like Yannity. Now, Will Merritt…. ugh.
25JasonL
on Oct 14, 2008 at 4:10 pm:
Will Merritt is an assclown. Hate listening to him.
I miss the 5th quarter show with Don Munson.
26Bingo
on Oct 14, 2008 at 4:52 pm:
Pete Yannity is awful. Can’t stand listening to his nasal, yankee voice call games or give intervews. Lets let him stay w/ channel seven and stick w/ the 5:00 news.
27Willy Mac
on Oct 14, 2008 at 4:56 pm:
Are you kidding? My weekends wouldn’t be complete without “Orange in the endzone”. Pete Yannity is a great announcer and has done well taking the reins, especially given the circumstances.
28edbo
on Oct 14, 2008 at 5:23 pm:
Yeah,it took me awhile to get used to him cause I’d listened to Jim Phillips so long. I think he’s great now. Merrit DOES suck. they need to put somebody like Levon Kirkland in there. Talk about crackin skulls and stuff.
29Beer and trepidation
on Oct 14, 2008 at 6:45 pm:
Pete sucks it out the brown blind eye. Will’s voice sounds like he’s always about to yak…he’s like Jabba the Hutt without Luke Skywalker’s hot sister all chained up and shit.
Both are, however, much better than Todd Ellis.
30Wacko Jacko
on Oct 14, 2008 at 6:50 pm:
Apologies if I missed it but I am craving an Extreme Korn Report. I realize a lot of shit has gone down, but the Demi-God himself has been named starter at least for this game, and the masses need an EKR.
31Willy Mac
on Oct 14, 2008 at 9:41 pm:
Beer and Tre….. erm…tbiam. TB is gone. Stop posting here.
32GOCAMS
on Oct 14, 2008 at 10:22 pm:
Ever noticed how Ellis gets so freaking jacked when Captain Munnerlyn gets some action? “OOOOOOOHH!!! Big hit from CAP-tan MURRRRR-lynn!!!”
He uses his Macho Man Randy Savage voice when he says “Murrlyn”. Weird.
33DwightClark87
on Oct 14, 2008 at 10:43 pm:
For $3.5 million, I would walk out on stage at a Rolling Stones concert, in front of a sold-out crowd filled with Hell’s Angels and tell them that the show was cancelled, there will be no refunds and we are all out of beer. I’m sure it was humiliating and disappointing for Bowden, but holy shit. $3.5 million? TDP has my respect for calling Tommy’s bluff. “Here’s your money. Now getdafugout.”
Pete Yannity is at his best when he’s not on camera. On camera, he seems fidgity and weird, like Joel from MST3K. Will Merritt is a chore to listen to and hasn’t really progressed any since he started…what? Six years ago? What about replacing him with one of the Perry brothers? The Fridge’s GI Joe figure could do a comparable job.
34Bingo
on Oct 15, 2008 at 9:36 am:
Pete is the worst…period…anyone who likes him, must be related.
35Chili
on Oct 15, 2008 at 9:39 am:
Maybe we aren’t related to him, we just have a different opinion than you. Wow, imagine that.
36TigerSACK
on Oct 15, 2008 at 10:09 am:
I actually like Pete Yanity. Ate breakfast with he and his friends at College Park, MD a couple years ago. He won me over with the first-ever, “Orange on the Runway” over the speakers of the plane when we landed at DC-Dulles Airport. That shit got me ready to hit a fucking terp fan in the mouth before the game. Up there you better demand respect or beer cans get tossed your way (empty ones)