Grading our coaching hires

Jul 3, 2010, 1:21 AM

On a boring Friday night, when it seems like everyone I know is out of town, I have been thinking about the hires that our administration has made in my lifetime, or since I started following Clemson sports, which dates back to 1987, when I attended my first football and basketball games for the first time as a youngster. I will give our athletic directors/presidents the following grades for the following hires, and these only pertain to football, basketball, and baseball, because those are the only sports I really keep up with. Since this involves three Clemson sports, I am putting this in the forum of the most popular sport we have, which is football.

Jack Leggett B+
I have to be a little tougher on Leggett than the others I am about to mention. Leggett is the only coach here, besides Hatfield, that walked into a situation where the program was already established, and already had good players. Leggett has continued the success Bill Wilhelm had. Making it to Omaha at least once every five years is something a lot of college baseball programs cannot say. But unfortunately for Leggett, if he ever leaves Clemson without a CWS title, many will only remember him for 2002 and 2010. I hope we win a CWS under Leggett, because it would be a shame for him to only be remembered for 0-4 against South Carolina in Omaha, and not all of the good he has done for our baseball team. But I think if he can ever win a CWS at CU, then those bad memories from him will quickly disappear. They may always be in the back of people's minds, but if he wins a CWS, then at least that will be his legacy, instead of two nightmares in Omaha.

Ken Hatfield F-
He completely ruined a program that was on the national scene when he took over, and within four years was recruiting against SoCon teams for players. That’s really all that needs to be said about him.

Tommy West C-
West was not a horrible coach, and he did not walk into a good situation like Hatfield did. He was brought in to clean up Hatfield's mess, but after a 3-8 season, even though most of the losses were close, 3-8 is 3-8. Had he gone 6-5, he may have kept his job another year or two.

Rick Barnes A-
This was a good hire, and Barnes brought a lot of excitement to Clemson basketball. You have to put your hatred towards him aside, if you have any, and grade what he did while at Clemson. It’s hard to respect him because he ran to a school to avoid playing Duke and UNC every year. He obviously was not up to the challenge. My best memories of him are the sweet 16 in '97, and the way he turned the Clemson/UNC games into a bitter rivalry. There were nearly a couple of all out brawls that took place between Clemson/UNC under Barnes, not just between the players, but coaches as well. Being a UNC hater, I enjoyed the hate we had between us while Barnes was coach.

Larry Shyatt F-
This had to be the worst coach in any Clemson sport in the history of Clemson athletics. Only one good memory was when his team upset number one UNC in 2000. I do not think UNC basketball recovered from that loss until they hired Roy Williams. They were never the same again until Williams took over. But despite that, I still give him the worst grade possible. And thank you, Larry, for having to be our coach when I was a student. Besides that one fluke win over UNC, I had to endure watching teams like Wofford, Winthrop, Western Carolina, Yale, Wisconsin Green Bay, and many others beat us.

Tommy Bowden C+
Like West, Bowden was not a horrible coach, but not a great one either. He was given plenty of time just to do one simple thing, win an ACC title. My best memories of Bowden will be his domination over South Carolina, 63-17, Bowden bowls, and the fact that he never had a losing season. Worst memories are the roller coaster rides he put all Clemson fans on. Like beating Miami on the road one week, and losing to Duke the next. Obviously he was not capable of getting the players up for every game.

Oliver Purnell A-
If I am going to give Barnes an A-, then I should Purnell as well. Barnes did not walk into a great situation at Clemson, but he also didn't walk into cleaning up a program that, prior to him, had the worst Clemson sports coach ever. Having to rebuild a program where he had to clean up all of the Shyatt, and a program that does not have any history to brag about, and taking them to three straight NCAA tournaments, would even be a tough task for Dean Smith, Coach K, or John Wooden. And unlike Barnes, I don't think Purnell left because he was running from the tobacco road bias. I think he left because he felt he had done all he could do here. But, we will likely never know for sure. He should have left in a better manner than he did, he at least owed that to his players, but, I have heard reasons that he was upset with Clemson that many are not aware of. My friend met Billy Napier a couple of months ago, even had lunch with him, and spoke with him for quite a while. He said Billy Napier told him this: And I think he said it was before Purnell went to see the final four, but not positive about that. Purnell walked into his office one morning and found a note on his door, and it said that Clemson would no longer pay for Purnell's wife's plane ticket, and Purnell was very offended by it. And I know, I heard this from my neighbor's son's friend's cousin's wife's dog. I have no proof this is true, but my friend would also have no reason to lie. Perhaps Napier himself heard that as a rumor, or misunderstood something that was said.

Dabo Swinney N/A
Swinney has not been here long enough for us to see what he can do with HIS player’s, not any of Bowden’s. But, if I HAD to give him a grade right now, it would be in the high B range. Had he not lost to South Carolina, I would put it in the low A range The 2008 season could have turned out to be a disaster. We came into that year with a top ten ranking, but were taken to the woodshed by ‘Bama in the Georgia Dome in game one. Tommy Bowden resigned early in that season, and the team could have easily just given up on that year altogether. You have to give Swinney props for keeping that team focused, and beating up on our arch rival, and going to a bowl game. In his first full year, he won the division we are in, and took us to within a couple of minutes of being in a BCS bowl game. I personally still think we should have found a way to beat GT late in the fourth quarter of the title game. At this point, our defense had seen GT’s offense for 8 quarters in the same season. After seeing them that many quarters, you would think we would have found a way to stop them just once. I know the refs did not help, but I still think we should have found a way to win, especially since we had already seen GT that year. Losing to our arch rival in our home away from home is not something Clemson nation is used to seeing. I bet Swinney does not want to be the first Clemson coach to lose to the coots two years in a row in 40 years. We will start seeing what Dabo is made of in his second full year, with no CJ Spiller, Jacoby Ford, or Kyle Parker(I am assuming). If he beats our arch rival, and wins 8 games or more this year, that will be quite an accomplishment, considering the players we lost. And with Swinney being an Alabama grad/former player, I have to wonder if beating Auburn will be more important to him than beating SCAR. I hope that is not the case, every Clemson coach should know beyond a shadow of a doubt that beating SCAR will be more important to our fans.

Brad Brownell N/A
Has not coached his first game at Clemson yet. He is walking into a pretty good situation. Not great, considering we lost big Booker, but still pretty good.

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Well, I wasn't exactly sure how many times Leggett had made the CWS while at Clemson, so I guess you do have a good point on that one. I followed Clemson baseball in the nineties, but for some reason I did not heavily get into it until the 2000s. I just cannot remember Clemson or South Carolina fans getting that heavily into baseball until the early 2000s, and I have been following Clemson sports since '87. Maybe I am wrong about that, but in the nineties baseball was a sport that I would find out the results of the next morning in the newspaper whether we had won or lost. The internet has a lot to do with things now, and maybe had the internet been around in the entire nineties like it has in the 2000s, I would have kept up with baseball better.

I think it was back in 1996 or 1997, that both Clemson and South Carolina had good basketball teams, and both made it to the NCAA tournament in the same year. I think that's the only time that has ever happened. I remember going down to Columbia for the Clemson/SCAR basketball game that year, and it was very intense. Much more so than CU/SCAR basketball games are now. Clemson made it to the NCAA tournament that year as either a 4 or 5 seed, and got upset by, I think Western Michigan in the first round. South Carolina made it as a number two seed. They went 15-1 in SEC regular season play that year, being the dominant team in the SEC. But number 15 seed Coppin State knocked them out in the first round. I remember telling a good friend of mine back then that if Clemson and SCAR keep this basketball success up every year, then this basketball rivalry is going to become bigger than it's ever been before.

I can't remember when SCAR hired Ray Tanner, and I do not even remember who their coach was before Ray Tanner. But in the early 2000s, especially 2002, baseball became the second biggest rivalry in this state, ahead of basketball. No sport will ever be bigger than football, but in the past ten years, baseball in this state has really taken off.

As far as grading Leggett, I think he deserves an A, because making it to Omaha is the equivalent of making it to the final four in basketball. But you have to admit, Clemson nation just absolutely does not accept losing to the Gamecocks, especially when something big is on the line. A coaches success at Clemson is going to be measured by wins, championships, and beating the Gamecocks. Do I think that is fair? No, but the average Clemson or South Carolina fans, at least the ones I have met, look at the success of their coach by what they have done against their rival. Does anyone honestly think Tommy Bowden would have been here for ten years had it not been for his success against the Gamecocks? Bowden was on his way out the door in 2003 after that Wake game, I have no doubt in my mind about that. Then he beat FSU, but had he lost to South Carolina, especially by a huge margin like he did against Wake, I still say he was out the door, despite beating FSU. Taking that 2003 team down to Columbia and putting 63 points on the scoreboard is absolutely what saved his job, despite the outcome of the bowl game against Tenn. There is no way Clemson would have fired a coach after he humiliated our biggest rival. I remember driving home from Columbia that night, listening to sports talk shows about the game that night, and even Kornblut said "no way Bowden loses his job now, no way they can justify firing him after this."

But, back to Leggett. Yes, I think he deserves an A, but losing to South Carolina in Omaha, with a national title on the line, will never be forgotten, just like 63-17 will never be forgotten. When I thought up these grades I was thinking what the average Clemson fan's opinion would be, not necessarily just mine. Our rivalry with South Carolina is way too bitter, and I wish it wasn't that way. I have heard fans from both sides say that they would rather be 1-11, and beat South Carolina or Clemson, rather than 7-5 or 8-4, and lose to them. I do not feel that way, but you would be surprised at the number of people who do.

And I have to completely disagree with you that Hatfield should be as high as West. Ken Hatfield ruined a program that was on the national radar, Tommy West did not. Tommy West was brought in to clean up the mess that Hatfield had created. When we went 3-8 in 1998, that was probably one of the best 3-8 teams ever. We lost five games that season by a touchdown or less. That means we lost five games that we were competitive in, and could have won. That team finished 3-8, but was capable of finishing 6-5 to 8-3, had a play or two gone our way in those five close losses. It's not like that team got blown out every game by 5 or 6 touchdowns. The very next year Tommy Bowden came in, and we played the second toughest schedule in the nation that year. There were three teams that finished unbeaten in the regular season that year, Marshall, VT, and FSU. Clemson was the only team in the country to play all three of them. And Clemson nearly beat them as well. We lost to Marshall and FSU by three, and the VT game was close, until they scored a couple of late touchdowns in the last couple of minutes. That game was in doubt with under five minutes to play. And Bowden was playing with Tommy West's players that year.

Grading our coaching hires

Re: Grading our coaching hires

I'd give Bowden a grade of

Re: I'd give Bowden a grade of

Re: I'd give Bowden a grade of

Agree. Good not great. For me that's a B.***

Where do you get making the CWS once every 5 years for

Agree big time on Leggett--what a great coach

I agree.....especially on Coach Leggett.....any grade less

Re: Where do you get making the CWS once every 5 years for

Re: Where do you get making the CWS once every 5 years for

Re: In all fairness, Bowden deserves better than that.***

Leggett: A. Bowden: B+. West: D.

Re: Grading our coaching hires

Never had a losing season. At least worth a C- on that alone***

CTB- a C or C plus

Re: Bowden and Leggett

I'd give Bowden a B+

I would have to give Hatfield a G.***

The results relative to Hatfield may rank as F, but I'm not

I will have to admit

Giving Hatfield an F is way too harsh.

Re: Giving Hatfield an F is way too harsh.

Dabo will be no better than a C+ when all is said and done..

DB

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