Yo-ho-ho and a Bowden in the running
Generally when a coach is fired, it seems the team that axed said coach often looks for the opposite of what it had.
If you had a player’s coach, the fans want a disciplinarian, and vice versa. If you had a finesse offensive coach, you go for a physical, defensive guy, and vice versa.
If you had a pirate-loving, audacious, alternative punishment-endorsing, free-wheeler, you want … openly conservative and religious, publicly guarded Tommy Bowden?
According to a report by Don Williams of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, it is possible Bowden could be Texas Tech’s replacement for Mike Leach.
Now, it sounds like this match is a ways from happening.
Bowden is among the list of about five candidates, and he may be below former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville, who apparently is slated to interview Wednesday.
But it would be interesting to see if Bowden could come close to matching Leach’s success at Texas Tech, seeing as Lubbock doesn’t exactly have a reputation as a desirable destination. And that job doesn’t figure to get any easier if Gary Patterson sticks at TCU and/or Texas A&M upgrades its coaching situation after the 2010 season.
So much for Bowden being satisfied walking the Panama City beaches.
If the Texas Tech gig doesn’t work out, here’s betting Bowden would push hard to be considered if South Florida releases Jim Leavitt.
10 Comments to “Yo-ho-ho and a Bowden in the running”
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Clemson Beat writer Paul Strelow blogs about Clemson University athletics.
I couldn’t believe how many Carolina fans on this site were calling for USC to dump the ole ball coach and hire Leach.
Say what you want about Mike Leach, I wouldnt want to be the guy replacing him @ Texas Tech
I bet cost conscious Texas Tech can get T. Bowden cheaper than Tuberville.
And Rob Spence could replace Leach’s pirate!
Off the subject, I can’t believe how Ga Tech struggled to move the ball against Iowa. Guess it goes to show me that the ACC really isn’t much of a football conference. Right now, it might not compare favorably to the Mountain West. Moreover, from what I read, Iowa fans outnumbered Tech fans by more than 2 to 1 last night. The Orange Bowl might be getting a little nervous about its long-term deal with the ACC if it has to rely on a non-ACC opponent to fill its seats.
Kirk,
That’s ridiculous
1. Iowa is a good football team. The only two games that they lost were because there quarterback was hurt
2. Iowa had a month to prepare for Georgia Tech’s option offense. Every team that beat GT this year had at least an extra week to prepare (Miami, Georgia, and Iowa). Part of the difficulty of playing against GT is it is a unique offense. Extra preparation time is HUGE
3. It is widely known that the ACC does not travel well, aside from Virginia Tech, Florida State, and Clemson (UNC has the potential as well). Iowa is their state’s flagship school with a much larger student body than GT (more students=more alumni). Of course they are going to travel well. The Orange bowl knew this when they signed the deal.
4. Aside from Florida, most of the SEC has struggled in their bowl games. USC lost to Connecticuit. LSU lost to Penn St. Auburn needed overtime against Northwestern. Does that make the SEC a weak conference too?
5. Georgia Tech was ranked 9th in the country. Iowa was ranked 10th. Is the result really all that earth shattering?
John –
1. Iowa may have lost only 2 games but it beat Northern Iowa by 1, Michigan and Michigan State by 2, and Arkansas State by 3. How many bowl games did those teams play in? They really were pretenders for the Big Ten and National Championship crown.
2. As for extra time to prepare, one could argue that Clemson (and, hey, I’m a Tigers’ fan as my daughter attends) had two bites at the apple and performed much worse defensively the second time. Had I been coaching (and this is no crack at Dabo Swinney, whom I like), I would have devoted 50 percent of the previous week’s practice (leading up to the USC game) to prepare for the much more important ACC Championship Game. The issue of extra prep time can’t be used to justify a performance in which Clemson failed to force GT to punt once (yes, I know that Clemson did not punt, either).
3. I just think the Orange Bowl may reconsider having the ACC as permanent host of the bowl when the next contract is renegotiated given the poor attendance of those schools. The Big East is a BCS conference member but its winner floats to bowls. Don’t be surprised if that is the ACC’s fate next go-round.
4. If I were to rank major college football conferences for 2009 from top to bottom, here is how mine would look: 1, SEC; 2, Pac 10; 3, Big Ten; 4, Big 12; 5, Big East; 6, Mountain West; 7, ACC; 8, WAC.
How would others rank them?
5. Just hate to see the ACC conference champion defeated by the second or third best team from another conference. Sure Clemson, FSU and Va Tech won their games but all were against mid-level teams – hard to call their wins a “statement” for the ACC.
No way Texas Tech hires Tommy Bowden. Bowden proved for decade (and Dabo added a footnote) that Tommy is a mediocre coach who is incapable of winning a title. No way Texas Tech hires him. No way any decent school hires him. I’d be surprised if USF even stooped that low. Maybe a school like Memphis would hire him. I kinda hope that TT promotes Ruffin McNeil. He seemed like a heck of a good guy in the post-bowl interviews (though not much stage presence).
Paul Johnson’s triple option doesn’t work well when decent opponents have more than a week to prepare. Consequently, PJ’s GT is 1-4 against FBS teams that had more than a week to prepare, and PJ’s D-1 teams (Navy and GT) are 2-6 in bowl games, with Navy’s only bowl wins coming against a 6-6 CoSt, & a 7-5 UNM. GT is 11-3 this year but 0-2 against FBS teams that had more than a week to prepare. Statistical aberration? I doubt it.
Look at the games where FBS teams had more than a week to prepare for GT’s option. Last season, LSU had 4 weeks to prepare for GT and whupped GT 38-3. UNC had 2 weeks to prepare for GT and beat GT 28-7. This year, Miami beat GT 33-17 with 11 days to prepare. And Iowa smothered GT’s offense with 44 days to prepare. One exception… Last year, UGA had 2 weeks to prepare for GT and lost, but rivalry games are always unpredictable (like this year when underdog UGA whupped GT with only one week to prepare). That’s 1-4.
It’s probably worth noting that GT struggled to beat Wake in OT, and that Wake had faced Navy’s similar option attack just 2 weeks earlier. Coincidence?
I think PJ/GT will continue to contend for the ACC title (because most ACC teams will only have a week to prepare), and GT will continue to lose most bowl games (and games where good opponents have more than a week to prepare). I think PJ knows this, and so I think you’ll see GT refrain from scheduling any good teams on opening week (when teams have all summer to prepare).
Like I said… no way Texas Tech would hire Tommy Bowden. They went with Tubberville. Much better choice.