Clemson's AD Must Read This Blog [Rumors And Rants]
Clemson Fan Crying Over Bowden [The Sports Point]

Consider the following: Clemson has not won an ACC title since 1991. The coach then was Ken Hatfield. Prior to Hatfield Clemson won five conference titles and their only national championship under Danny Ford. Things have really gone downhill since Ford was forced out at Clemson in 1990. Some would argue that Ford was successful because he cheated, but he was cleared by the NCAA of those allegations. Which probably means he has money and a good legal team. Regardless Clemson has won 18 conference championships in the ACC, plays in front of 80,000 fans, and has a fairly fertile recruiting base given their location. But that location is also surrounded by other large programs: Georgia, Florida State, South Carolina (arguably), Tennessee, and now, with Butch Davis, North Carolina. So where does Clemson really rank in the college football pecking order? It's not a top 25 job. But where does it rank between 25 and 40? And who can they get to replace Bowden?

One early candidate? How about Tommy Tuberville? Auburn fans are ready to kill him after losing to Arkansas and the failed Tony Franklin experiment. Not to mention the fact that Nick Saban has now arrived in Alabama to receive sainthood and Auburn has never showed great loyalty to Tubs. Leave Auburn after winning six (and potentially 7 in a row) over Alabama, and you'll probably become an even better coach in retrospect. Meanwhile you could take over a talented Clemson team in a weakened ACC and probably win a championship in the next three years. Could Clemson switch one Tommy for another one? If they don't go after Tuberville, then they shouldn't look much farther than Vandy's Bobby Johnson—a proven winner in the state at Furman, who is a hell of a coach and has managed to win in the SEC. Anyway, there's a couple of names to think about as theses coaching messes/searches play out.

Meanwhile, at least Tommy Bowden got a 2007 raise from Clemson after flirting with the Arkansas job. Maybe he should have left Clemson then. Because, for a variety of reasons, Clemson fans have never warmed to him. After snatching his job from onrushing defeat, time after time, at long last Wake Forest took him down. Clemson probably acted now because if they hadn't Bowden would have found a way to pull out another 8 or 9 win season before things were all said and done—his team opened as favorites over Georgia Tech. In the end 8 or 9 wins wouldn't cut it at Clemson. We'll see whether someone else can get above that hurdle.

Bowden fired at Clemson after 3-3 start [ESPN]

From The Sporting Blog and That One Guy That Likes College Football:

This situation may be worse than prior years for numerous, equally damaging reasons. Clemson was picked to win the ACC, their roster boasted easily cited glossy talent like James Davis, C.J. Spiller, Cullen Harper [who was just benched... -ED.] and Aaron Kelly, and there was even preseason talk of BCS bowls for the Tigers. Then, once the team ran face-first into the wood chipper of Alabama in week one on national television, Clemson began a slow, inexorable collapse, most disturbingly on the offensive side of the ball.

Clemson lost to Wake Forest Thursday night, 12-7. And this is after losing the week before to Maryland, who, to be fair, is fucking horrible. At least when Michigan has talent, they typically use it, and unlike the team wearing orange, their future is bright.

Meanwhile Jim Grobe and Wake Forest try to rebound from a 24-17 loss to Navy that knocked them from the ranks of the unbeaten. Unlike Bowden, Grobe has actually won an ACC Title (2006 victory over Georgia Tech) and in the past two years has taken Wake from a perpetual doormat to the BCS. In 2006 Grobe was the national coach of the year. Wake is coming off back-to-back 11-3 and 9-4 campaigns, and a win over Clemson would go a long way towards ensuring that the 2008 campaign is going to be as successful as the past two seasons. But danger looms in the Clemson Tigers— a team that's probably as unpredictable as any team in college football over the past decade. Knock off Clemson and Wake remains the only undefeated team in the Atlantic Division. What's more they'd have the tiebreaks over Florida State and Clemson, meaning they'd probably only have to get to 5-3 (6-2 at most) to advance to another ACC Title Game.

Don't you get the feeling that Clemson fans are going to look back on the past five years of the ACC—a time when Miami and Florida State are both as impotent as they'll ever be—and wonder how the hell they didn't manage to win a single ACC Title? This is the kind of failure that becomes even more grating the more years that pass. Because Miami and Florida State aren't going to be this bad forever. Meanwhile, Clemson keeps plodding along. Here comes another chance at staying alive in the ACC race. Beat Wake and you've made the inevitable late-season collapse even more painful. Lose now, and Bowden's gone forever. Right? Choose wisely Clemson fans, choose wisely.

Well, not so much "kicked him off" as "took his scholarship." Why? What did McElrathbey do to deserve this? He must have robbed a bank or something. Nope: Bowden just recruited too many running backs.

"He said something about how they weren't going to renew his scholarship," said [Clemson tailback James] Davis, who has known McElrathbey since their high school days in Atlanta. "It really surprised me. But there's a lot of stuff you can't say. It's something I guess everybody has to learn to live with."

"We're pretty good at running back right now," coach Tommy Bowden said.

The worst part is that Clemson, which basked in all the great publicity from McElrathbey last year, tried to keep this quiet or, worse, imply that it was McElrathbey's decision. (It was Davis who blew the whistle.) Quite charming.

The Truth Comes Out: Clemson Ran Ray Ray [The Wizard Of Odds]