A Can't Miss Hire

On November 19, 1998 Clemson Athletic Director Bobby Robinson fired head football coach Tommy West. West, who had been an assistant under Danny Ford at Clemson from 1982-1989, finished his 5+ years as the head man at Clemson with a 31-28 record.

During the coaching search that ensued, two names quickly rose to the top. One was a relatively unheralded defensive coordinator from a Southeastern Conference school. The other was a 44 year old head coach at a Conference USA school that had just completed an undefeated season and held a long family coaching lineage.

The Tigers were at a crossroads at the time. Coming off of the unprecedented success under Danny Ford (96-29-4) and Ken Hatfield (32-13-1), the West era represented a drop into mediocrity that the Tigers hadn’t experienced in more than 15 years.

Robinson, sensing the Tigers needed an infusion on offense, turned to the experienced head coach with the innovative offense and quirky offensive coordinator. That coach’s name was Tommy Bowden. The offensive coordinator that came with Bowden to Clemson from Tulane was Rich Rodriquez.

The defensive coordinator who wanted, but did not receive, the Clemson job in 1998 was Bob Stoops. He returned to Florida for one more year before being selected as the man to rebuild the Oklahoma Sooners. Within 2 years Oklahoma had won the national championship.

Meanwhile, back in Clemson Bowden and company struggled to a 6-6 record and a Peach Bowl loss in 1998. 1999 showed the Tigers race off to a 8-0 start before a heartbreaking last second loss to Georgia Tech ended the Tigers run and led to a 9-3 final record. It was a foreshadowing of events to come.

Rich Rodriquez left Clemson after the 2000 season to become head coach at his alma mater, West Virginia. Interestingly, Tommy Bowden is also a graduate of West Virginia. It’s not clear whether Bowden was interested in the West Virginia job or not, but nonetheless it went to the offensive coordinator with the innovative offense, not the experienced head coach.

After an initial 3-8 campaign in 2001, the Mountaineers took off under Rodriguez finishing first or tied for first in the Big East 4 of the next 6 years. Rodriquez finished his stint at West Virginia with a 60-26 record before being hired at Michigan in December of 2007.

Also, during December of last year Tommy Bowden finally became weary of the big expectations associated with Clemson and quickly became a hot name for two open jobs – Baylor and Arkansas. While Baylor settled on Texas native Art Briles, Arkansas was after Bowden pretty heavy and Bowden reciprocated. Bowden had one foot out the door and in fact had cancelled several previously scheduled engagements in the Clemson area for December in anticipation of becoming the new head coach at Arkansas.

Clemson AD Terry Don Phillips was in a precarious position. While Bowden did all the right things off the field, his teams continually fell short on the field. Sometimes agonizingly short, but short nonetheless.

Phillips decision was a difficult one. Keep the head coach that had built the current program, had a solid recruiting base, and a seemingly powerful team returning and pay the price, or look for a new head coach and risk losing some of the star players to the pros or transfer.

Phillips, as all AD’s do, had a “short list” of coaches he would be interested in if Bowden bolted for the Hogs. At the top of that list was a defensive coordinator at a Southeastern Conference school that Clemson was about to play in the Chik-Fil-A Bowl.

Ultimately, after consultation with Clemson president Jim Barker, Phillips decided to keep Bowden by offering him a new contract that included a $3.5 million dollar buyout.

The defensive coordinator that Phillips was interested in last December was Will Muschamp. Muschamp subsequently agreed to become the defensive coordinator at Texas.

After Bowden’s departure earlier this year Muschamp quickly rose to the top of Clemson’s list again. Texas, faced with interest from Clemson, Tennessee and Washington, agreed to make Muschamp the head coach designate at Texas and increase his salary to $925,000 per year.

In the last 10 years Clemson has had the opportunity to hire:

Bob Stoops
Rich Rodriquez (probably twice)
Will Muschamp

Each time, Clemson missed. The current job opening at Clemson may be filled by a big name coach or a no name coach. No one knew who Bob Stoops was when he was the DC at Florida. Tommy Bowden appeared to be the “next great thing” by leading Tulane to an undefeated season. Subsequently it appears that the true brains behind that operation was Rodriquez. Muschamp was thought of well enough to be named head coach in waiting at one of the top 3 jobs in the country after less than a year in Austin. Tommy Bowden is at the beach.

Terry Don Phillips can’t miss on this hire. It may be a no-name or a big name. But a miss here could set the program back 15 years and the descent into mediocrity will have begun.