I am ashamed of some of the comments I have seen on this board today. Reminds me of why I don't often post anymore, but as one of the "Old Guard" of TigerNet... I won't stay quiet today.
Those of you looking for a new coach need to up your meds. The key to building success over the long haul is continuity. Playing "change the coach" every time you lose to your rival is the reason why programs on the rise stay in neutral. As a 'Bama fan... I have seen this happen. They just fired a guy who lost 16 starters off of a team that went 10-2 last year. Why???
Here are the facts... We are close. We are better than 100 teams in D1 and as good as 15 others and only measurably worse than a few.
Day in and day out I think we are worse than: Ohio State Texas Michigan Auburn Tennessee Florida Georgia (mebbee not this year, but... ) Virginia Tech USC
Any other teams we beat eight out of ten times. There is a certain group that won't be happy until we are on the above list, but that is tough sledding. Tommy has brought this program back to national respect. We may not be an OSU or a Texas, but people fear Clemson again... thanks to Tommy Bowden. NO ONE wants to play Clemson. Tommy inherited a program in shambles, and here is where we are today.
- Tommy graduates players. - Tommy runs a clean program. - Tommy behaves himself and is a great ambassador for Clemson. - Tommy beats USC... more often than not. - Tommy beats EVERYONE... more often than not. - Tommy goes to bowls. - Tommy admits when he is wrong and is willing to bring in help to address weaknesses (Spence, Swinney, Blackwell, firing his own brother in law, etc...)
We have ANOTHER top-notch recruiting class coming in and have talent stockpiled to the rafters from the last three. We have things great programs need: Size. Speed. Depth.
We fell victim to a BRUTAL schedule and a ton of injuries this year. Not a good combination, and it has NOTHING to do with coaching.
Bottom line... USC played their BEST GAME and had to rely on us to miss a field goal to win. We played one of our WORST games and were in it at the very end.
Wake up people. We have a great coach who is building our program up to national prominence. Who are we going to get that will do a better job?
I want to be a BCS team too... but even though we aren't this year, I see us making progress and I like what I see!