Clemson, Auburn in State of Flux

Was there anything inherently wrong with athletic director Terry Don Phillips standing among the players and coaches during Clemson’s 21-17 loss to Georgia Tech in Death Valley on Saturday, just five days after the dismissal of longtime head coach Tommy Bowden? According to the fans and Phillips himself, no. “I have always come to the sidelines at some point during a game
 my entire career as an athletic director,” he said after the game. “(Interim) Coach (Dabo) Swinney came to the end of the team box where I was
 standing, I did comment about the holding against a Clemson offensive 
lineman on the fourth-and-12 play at the end of the game. That
 frustration was directed at the call, and not towards anything our coaching 
staff or players had done.” Understandable; however, it was a little too much of a Jerry Jones action. And perception, not reality, can hurt Clemson come December, although the reality appears to be nothing but positive. “The biggest thing I wanted to accomplish was unity, embracing some things, creating some pride in doing the little things right,” Swinney said. But what are head coaching prospects thinking? Particularly those who may already be top head coaches looking for a change of scenery? Do they see nothing wrong with their potential boss stalking the sidelines? Or would this situation make them uncomfortable and turn them away from considering Clemson as their new home? Your best head coaches, in all likelihood, want to be the Man on the sidelines. They command total control on game day, and having your boss alongside takes away from that. Who wants to work for a boss who’s right there all the time? Clemson is at a crossroads in its program. If it hires the right guy, Clemson will start collecting ACC titles. If it hires down (which it’s done since 1990), the program will be stuck in mediocrity for a while longer. For now, Phillips, despite his good intentions, should leave the sideline, let the coach do his job and focus on finding a long-term Bowden replacement. – RealFootball365.com

Yes, Auburn (4-3, 2-3 in the Southeastern Conference) is a program in flux. A team picked to win the SEC’s Western Division now has become a haven of uncertainty. Each day brings with it a new speculative tangent about coach Tommy Tuberville’s job status, closed-door arguments among the staff or imminent problems with the team’s recruiting effort. So how did the Tigers get here? The fall of former offensive coordinator Tony Franklin mimicked Auburn’s remarkable fall from prominence. Hired last winter from Troy University to install an aggressive attack, Franklin needed only two weeks to design a scheme good enough to win the 2007 Chick-fil-A Bowl. Coach Tommy Tuberville figured 15 spring practices and a summer of unsupervised-yet-structured workouts would enhance a system that already was a winner. He was wrong. – Montgomery Advertiser