ketelonelogic on 
Riggs on 
AParker on 
Chili on In a recent speaking engagement at the University of North Alabama (where his brothers Terry and Jeff are currently employed), former Clemson coach Tommy Bowden called his departure from Tiger Town a “dismissal.”
OK, so what?
Ever since the news hit, some fans have been making a mountain of this downtime molehill. I’ve gotten comments, IMs, and emails alerting me to this situation. OHMAHGAWD CHILI BUT HE QUIT AND NOW’S SAYIN’ HE WAS FAHRED!!!! OMGWTFBBQ!!!!!!
To rehash the situation leading up to Bowden’s separation from Clemson on October 13, 2008, go to this article from Paul Strelow over at The State to read up on that. On the same subject, Larry Williams of Tiger Illustrated takes Bowden to task in today’s post over on Rivals (membership required).
So, Bowden knew the pressure was on, and that he’d likely be forced out once the team was out of ACC Championship contention. He and TDP came to an agreement and Bowden was gone. The bottom line was that Coach Bowden wasn’t entirely forced out, nor does it seem that he flat out quit. You don’t pay $3.5 million dollars to a coach who just quit; that’s a buyout agreement. As Strelow said, it comes down to semantics. Who gives a fuck about semantics? Bowden’s gone, we’re still paying him, and we’ve got a new coach in town. I don’t see this a much other than something to fill the time until football season and a way for Clemson fans still bitter at Bowden to take some parting shots at him.
Move along folks, nothing to see here.
1chris simp
on Jul 15, 2009 at 12:18 pm:
I think the most important thing to focus on is that now we have a new energetic head coach who has brought in some fresh coaching talent and is trying to turn things around at Clemson. Who cares how, when, where, why, or what made this change occur, but we should instead be happy we have a coaching staff that is making the changes needed to win and contend in the ACC.
I think we have a lot to look forward to and shouldn’t look back.
2Lawtonfunk
on Jul 15, 2009 at 12:37 pm:
Thanks for nothing, Rob Spence.
3Willy Mac
on Jul 15, 2009 at 1:10 pm:
*Looks back*
SHIIIIIIIIIITTTT!!!
4Tom
on Jul 15, 2009 at 1:21 pm:
Of course the people who held fast to the lie would now say “so what, who cares?”
5Chili
on Jul 15, 2009 at 1:34 pm:
We held fast to the lie?
Regardless of your inability to post here without whoring your site and/or taking a shot at us, really, who does give a fuck? Does it affect you how Bowden views the situation in hindsight? Is it of grave concern to you?
6PenthouseTiger
on Jul 15, 2009 at 1:50 pm:
you said hash right after you said BBQ. now i’m hungry. jackass.
7Judge Jeff Davis
on Jul 15, 2009 at 3:15 pm:
I HOPE HE BURNS IN HELL FOR HIS COMMENTS!! I’m glad he’s GONE and we don’t have to listen to TAMMY BOWDEN cry anymore. “ALL IN 2010″ AND IT RHYMES!!!
8Chili
on Jul 15, 2009 at 3:31 pm:
Judge Jeff Davis is louder than your face.
RAAAAAAAANDY
9Joe
on Jul 15, 2009 at 3:37 pm:
I don’t see the big deal, everyone knew he was fired when he was given the 3.5 mil. dollar buyout. Its in his contract that if he is fired, he got the buyout, if he quit, he had to pay out the same amount.
10Tom
on Jul 15, 2009 at 4:05 pm:
It wasn’t just me, it was several commenters who pointed out the bullshit at the time and did so correctly. Of course then the choir came in and sang Tommy’s praises about how gracious he was in bowing out, etc, etc, etc.
Now it turns out that hey, the rational folks were right all along, but more importantly: Dabo Swinney was already selected before they even fired Tommy. Isn’t it important at all that the administration is completely full of shit? I mean am I the only one that’s concerned that they shoehorned in a WR coach to lead our team?
Add it up… two contract extensions to Bowden for doing absolutely nothing other than being Bobby’s kid, and then this? It’s very fucked up in my opinion.
11Chili
on Jul 15, 2009 at 4:08 pm:
The thing about Dabo already being the guy isn’t surprising, but it does show that the whole “coach selecting process” was a sham, and that in turn says a deal about our AD.
12Daniel
on Jul 15, 2009 at 6:13 pm:
Naming Dabo head coach in the way they did was really not all that different than how other teams avoid the interview process and name an assistant coach the successor in waiting. Apparently Dabo had won over the right people before Bowden lost his job and – barring a huge letdown in his interim stint – he was the guy. College coaching jobs are becoming more and more an inside job.
13Tom
on Jul 16, 2009 at 10:29 am:
I just get fired up because I feel like Phillips and Barker run our athletics programs like Vince MacMahon runs the WWE. They play the fans for fools yet for some reason people just can’t get enough. Meanwhile we’re banished to the basement of mediocrity.
14Willy Mac
on Jul 16, 2009 at 11:50 am:
The title of this post was an open invitation for Tom looking back at it… lol. Semantics, arguing, and Tom go hand in hand.
15PenthouseTiger
on Jul 16, 2009 at 12:29 pm:
before this post, i thought tom had actually given up reading block-c, how could i have been so stupid?
16Daniel
on Jul 16, 2009 at 12:46 pm:
To be fair though, I mean straight up, real talk (oops, I’m speaking Lalich again)…In some ways you can certainly say that our football program has really been wildly accepting mediocrity. Tom would probably disagree with me on this but I feel like our basketball team is excluded from the ‘mediocrity’ label just because of where basketball has historically been and where it is now. I agree with Tom though that Philips knows no matter what fans will show up to the football games year in and year out. I think Phillips thinks that if we can go 22-18 since the ACC expansion (source: Mickey Plyler blog) and not see dips in ticket prices then everything’s great.
17mflynn00
on Jul 16, 2009 at 3:39 pm:
put me down for “not caring”…he’s not our coach anymore, fired/resigned/combination, it doesn’t matter. he gets his money and hopefully, we get a better team
18JasonL
on Jul 16, 2009 at 9:29 pm:
“mflynn00 on Jul 16, 2009 at 3:39 pm:
put me down for “not caring”…he’s not our coach anymore, fired/resigned/combination, it doesn’t matter. he gets his money and hopefully, we get a better team”
Hellz to the yah. QFT, mutha fukka
19flaact
on Jul 17, 2009 at 10:50 am:
Thanks for nothing, Rob Spence.
20Lawtonfunk
on Jul 20, 2009 at 11:28 am:
@19, still makes me laugh.