CLEMSON, S.C. - He is covered in bacon and blue cheese - at least that is how a burger named in his honor at the Tiger Town Tavern is served - but considering what envelops Tommy Bowden's life in this bucolic Southern town, a little grease and dressing doesn't sound half bad.
There is, after all, a probing black cloud that seemingly moves with Bowden's every step, critics at every turn of the head, bloggers at every click of the mouse. Other coaches at major college football programs can probably commiserate - it is the landscape of our times, after all - but in many ways, Bowden has been living this daily existence for nine seasons at Clemson, and there are those who think it should stop.
"Tommy Bowden is so outstanding for what he does for kids," said Vic Koenning, the Tigers' defensive coordinator. He chooses his words carefully, speaks softly, but with conviction.
"My No. 1 goal [as a coach] is to help Tommy Bowden get the credit he deserves. He needs to get so much more credit than he does."
A victory in tonight's Atlantic Coast Conference Atlantic Division showdown with Boston College would go a long way toward accomplishing that.
Then again, maybe it won't.
Center of attention
With vibrant colors providing fall foliage that would make a New Englander proud, the drive down I-85 and over Highways 153, 123, and 93 is a comforting one, made even more so by what is at the completion - a slow ride through an idyllic college setting. On this cool, blustery, late fall day with leaves falling at a furious rate, the activity is quiet inside the shops along College Avenue.Even at the Esso Club, the lunch crowd eats with not the least bit of commotion.
It is called the Esso Club because it is a small restaurant where an Esso gas station used to sit on a road that seven decades ago served as the main throughfare between Atlanta to the south and Greenville to the north. Shortly after the 21st Amendment went into effect and Prohibition was repealed on Dec. 5, 1933, the owners of the Esso Club obtained a beer license, and the good times have been flowing ever since.
Clemson football is the focal point for much of that entertainment, and when you stand inside the Esso Club, you can breathe, touch, and virtually taste a way of life. Autographed hats hang everywhere, and nearly every inch of wall space is adorned with photographs glorifying a football heritage that dates to the presidency of Grover Cleveland.
Game 1 was played Oct. 31, 1896, and Clemson thrilled the folks in the upstate locale by beating nearby Furman, 14-6. Thus was born a public's passion that has never wavered, and nowhere is that on display any more than at the Esso Club, where T-shirts emblazoned with "The Club Where 5,000 of Your Closest Friends Come to Tailgate" are a hot item.
Just don't snicker at the number, because when it comes to Clemson football, there's no embellishment. They may call Memorial Stadium, the home of the Tigers, "Death Valley," but it will be tonight what it is for every home game - a live and raucus place, complete with 86,000 or so screaming fanatics clad in orange. Though kickoff won't be until 7:45, the Tiger faithful had begun showing their support as early as Thursday with a steady stream of RVs pulling into parking lots near Memorial Stadium.
By midmorning today, perhaps eight hours before kickoff, "there'll be motor homes as far as you can see," said Koenning. "Maybe it's not quite as dramatic as Nebraska, where they drive for four hours, but season ticket-holders here probably have to drive two hours, so they make a day of it."
The sight of these daylong tailgating parties and the awe-inspiring vision of some 86,000 fans will ignite the emotions, said Koenning, at which time he and his fellow coaches will remind their players "that this is why you've come to Clemson."
But of course, there always is a flip side to any equation, and at Clemson, the enthusiasm that generates excitement for players and coaches can also be transformed into an obsession that makes life miserable.
Popularity crisis
That is why Koenning shrugged when asked how big is the home-field advantage for the Tigers, who are 5-1 at Memorial this season, a gaudy 240-93-7 (.716) in their history, and consistently working a schedule that favors games here (34 home games, 24 road games since 2003).Yet "four weeks ago," said Koenning, "it was good for us to go on the road."
That's because the Tigers had lost at home to Virginia Tech, 41-23, their second consecutive defeat, and though they had opened the campaign with four wins, the natives weren't happy. While this area would never be considered big-market in terms of media attention, the passion that exists within Clemson football comes through loud and clear when things are not going well, and at 4-2, the coaches could feel the drums beating.
Beyond that, Bowden conceded to reporters that his worst fear was "that [my team] would believe all the negative stuff written."
A home game against a soft, nonleague foe, Central Michigan, halted the losing streak, 70-14, then back-to-back road wins at Maryland (30-17) and Duke (47-10) seemed to quell the storm. When the Tigers returned to Death Valley and thrashed Wake Forest, 44-10, it got the folks downright delirious. A four-game blitz in which the Tigers had outscored their opposition, 191-51? An 8-2 overall record? A 4-2 mark in the ACC to set up a date with BC, with the winner receiving a spot in the league championship game Dec. 1 in Jacksonville, Fla.?
At the Esso Club and other locales, they were toasting a success they have been begging for since Bowden arrived on the heels of a 3-8 campaign in 1998. Three times Bowden has led Clemson to second place in the ACC, but never has he won it. This year, the Tigers have a shot to change that.
But while Koenning can't deny that "we've been spinning the chamber here for a month," he cringes when tonight's game is labeled a winner-take-all affair.
"I don't see the game in those terms," he said. "In my estimation, our first game of the year against Florida State [a 24-18 win over a team coached by Bowden's father, Bobby] was hugely important. Last week vs. Wake Forest was hugely important. Winning at Maryland was hugely important. [Tonight] is hugely important, but that's because Coach Bowden has been knocking on the door since he got here. To his credit, he's had his teams there."
It's just that he hasn't gotten all the way there. At least, not like Danny Ford did.
Driven by Ford
In the jubilation of an ACC championship season in 1978, Clemson coach Charley Pell announced he'd be leaving to take the job at Florida. No reason, then, to have Pell coach in the Gator Bowl, so the keys to the 10-1 Clemson machine were handed off to a 33-year-old assistant who had played his college football under the legendary Bear Bryant at Alabama. Pretty good pedigree there, and Ford soon scratched his name into Clemson folklore.Three years later, with a team built around players such as William "The Refrigerator" Perry, future New England Patriots Johnny Rembert and Rod McSwain, Terry Kinard, Perry Tuttle, kicker Donald Igwebuike, and running back Kevin Mack, Clemson stunned Mike Rozier-led Nebraska in the Orange Bowl to complete a 12-0 season and win its first national title.
So beholden were the Clemson faithful to Ford that NCAA sanctions in 1982 leading to a two-year probation period didn't bother them. Nor were they upset when more violations were revealed at the end of the 1989 season. But when Clemson officials concluded that Ford's time was up, that a housecleaning was in order, well, that was too much for them to handle. A candlelight vigil was held during that tumultuous period, thousands of Ford supporters prancing through azalea bushes to lobby the school president on the coach's behalf. It didn't work, because Ford was given a $1 million settlement and Ken Hatfield was roundly booed when introduced as Clemson's coach for 1990.
Walking tightrope
Hatfield stayed four seasons, giving way to Tommy West, who put in five. While the Tigers' 63-41-1 record and six bowl appearances in that nine-year period may not have pleased diehard fans, the cultural change to the landscape thrilled many within the university. Clemson coaches applied a greater emphasis on education, and that has only escalated in the Bowden era, the Tigers consistently cited for having a high graduation rate.He has done so, said Koenning, in an environment that hasn't always been conducive. Always, it seems, his job is on the line. In 2004, Clemson started 1-4 and Bowden appeared all but fired - then his team won five of six. A year later, a three-game losing streak included the unthinkable in these parts, a loss to Wake Forest, but just when a posse was being formed, the Tigers won six of seven. Things were going swimmingly in 2006, then Clemson lost four of five at the end of the season and the bad taste was carried over into 2007. Fortunately for Bowden, the Tigers rolled to a 4-0 start. Unfortunately for Bowden, back-to-back losses to Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech gave the bloggers and the website folks - there is something called dannyfordisgod.com, just to show you the element with which we are dealing - fueled the eye of a hurricane that always seems to swirl around him and his program.
"Here we go again. The season's over," Bowden told columnist Ron Morris of The State, shrugging his shoulders at the almost annual unrest among some Clemson diehards.
With a four-game steamroll, Bowden's Tigers have quieted the critics, though Koenning concedes it may be impossible to ever silence them. But it is less suffocating than it was "four or five years ago when all you heard was 'Fire Tommy, fire Tommy, fire Tommy,' " said the defensive coordinator. "Imagine how tough it was to recruit then."
Koenning points to a roster dominated by freshmen, sophomores, and juniors - particularly on defense - and insists, "That is what happens when [the school] showed a commitment to Coach Bowden."
Unacceptable drought
What remains a seductive lure are those nuances that form the heart and soul of Clemson football heritage. The caravan of motor homes that begin to arrive days before a game. The sea of tailgating parties hours before kickoff. The famed "Howard's Rock" that is touched for good luck by each and every Tiger before they set out on their entrance to Memorial Stadium with the legendary "running down the hill" into an arena where some 86,000 fans await."I don't think I will ever be in a louder place than Clemson," Florida State quarterback Chris Rix said in 2001, which only added to the legend of Death Valley since Memorial Stadium opened in 1942. Eleven years later, the Tigers became part of the Atlantic Coast Conference, and while the roars have been deafening in games against Florida State and Miami, South Carolina and Virginia Tech, tonight they figure to be even more so. That's because tonight, as much as Koenning tries to say otherwise, the importance is not lost on the Clemson faithful.
The Tigers are 16 years removed from their last ACC title, the longest drought in school history, and to people whose lives are seemingly tattooed with the famous orange pawprint, that is an interminable period. They are starved for a change of fortune. Koenning probably senses that, but he is a football coach, so he brushes aside the peripheral stuff that consumes fans and applies his tunnel vision to the only thing that matters: the next game, in this case a BC team that presents a defensive challenge.
"When you're so good at quarterback," said Koenning, offering praise to BC senior Matt Ryan, "it can become grass basketball - you just play pitch and catch. That's been their success. So we have to stop the run. If they run the ball, we are in for a long day."
Bowden has had a lot of stretches in which it's been one long day after another. His 68-40 record and .630 winning percentage at Clemson somehow aren't good enough. You don't have to look far for evidence that more is expected of the Clemson coach. The menu at the Tiger Town Tavern, for instance. Its sandwiches are described in great detail, and regarding the one named after the Clemson football coach, it reads:
"Bowden is looking for a winning tradition like our 'Bowden Burger.' Let's hope he finds it soon."
Six exclamation points are used for greater emphasis.
