The Firing Line: Focus on Tommy Bowden

“The Firing Line” at Football Rumor Mill focuses on coaches around the country who are in serious jeopardy. The latest edition centers on Clemson Coach Tommy Bowden…

The same rites could have been administered to Tommy Bowden’s coaching career at the school. In fact, Clemson fans might want to begin passing the hat. They will need to pony up $4 million to buy out Bowden’s contract and send him on his way at season’s end. It is not likely Terry Don Phillips, Clemson’s athletics director, will make a coaching change at midseason. He often has said he waits until season’s end to make that call. For now, though, it appears Bowden is the program’s caretaker for six more games. – The State

The Tommy Bowden fan club arrived in a minivan and left in a Toyota Corolla. Times are tough, and tougher after a 12-7 loss Thursday night at No. 21 Wake Forest… We all got fooled again. Tommy Bowden’s Clemson teams do not win 12 games in a season, or 11 or 10. They win seven or eight. No more than nine. No fewer than six. We should have known better. But meet the new boss. Same as the old boss, for now. He is 9-for-9 getting Clemson teams qualified for bowl games. Fans of a lot of other college football programs will take that. A lot of Clemson people will not. – Post & Courier

Entering the season, it was tough to ID an obvious coach in danger of losing his job in the ACC. Six schools had made hires in the last two offseasons, Bobby Bowden and Frank Beamer probably should be able to dictate their own departures, Jim Grobe probably is near that status, Al Groh was last year’s league coach of the year and Ralph Friedgen’s contract made him reasonably safe barring a total freefall. As for Tommy Bowden, he had a fat new contract and his best roster ever. Clemson fans were already restless when the Tigers choked two weeks against Maryland. It can only be worse tonight. Bowden’s buyout is $4 million — it shrinks to a mere $3.5 million if he’s dismissed after Dec. 1 — so money might be an issue now that it seems pretty certain Clemson won’t win its first ACC title since 1991. But with the Tigers scuffling along as they are wont to do, perhaps it won’t be. – Washington Times

Thursday night was a great chance to watch Tech’s next ACC opponent: Clemson. They say Tommy Bowden always wins the game he needs to win to avoid getting fired. Thursday’s visit to Wake Forest was supposedly another one of those do-or-die moments. Well, it won’t be pretty around Clemson this week. The Demon Deacons won 12-7 and all but ended the Tigers’ chances of capturing the ACC’s Atlantic Division. Wake is 2-0, Clemson 1-2 in conference play. – Atlanta Journal-Constitution

It’s a 12-game season. Plenty of time for his Clemson football team to turn things around. His problem: At this rate, Bowden might not be around long enough to preside over a dramatic about-face. If a home defeat to Maryland didn’t warrant reaching for the panic button, then surely Thursday night’s 12-7 defeat at No. 21 Wake Forest did. – Post & Courier

This is Bowden’s 10th year at Clemson, and he’s never had a losing season, overall or in conference. But he’s never won an ACC title, and his teams inevitably stumble on the biggest stages. That’s not good enough at Clemson. Ask Ken Hatfield. The contract extension Bowden signed after last season? The buyout is a reported $3.5 million after Dec. 1, chump change when donors demand change. Conversely, Jim Grobe has lifted Wake Forest (4-1, 2-0) to heights unknown for the small Baptist school. Since enduring three consecutive losing seasons from 2003-05, Wake is 24-8 overall, 13-5 in the ACC. Grobe is a clever strategist and sound manager — his practice of mass redshirting freshmen was a masterstroke. But he and his staff also have recruited a caliber of athlete rarely seen in the Deacons’ program. – Daily Press

Tuberville to Tennessee?

Speculation has already begun about who will replace Phillip Fulmer when (if) he’s fired at Tennessee. Could Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville be on the shortlist? At least one columnist thinks so…

Is it almost time for UT athletic director Mike Hamilton to tell Fulmer thanks for the 1998 national championship, and the three SEC title game appearances this decade, and the 75 percent winning percentage, but we’ve decided to move in another direction?… There is no joy in this. The Big Orange Nation will never, ever find a more loyal, faithful head football coach than Fulmer, who grew up in this state, played for the Vols and recently gave the school $1 million to be used for something other than athletics. And you’d like to believe Fulmer could save his job by a means other than luring David Cutcliffe back to K-town for a third tour of duty as offensive coordinator, because that security blanket has flown. While Fulmer stands 1-3 for just the second time in his illustrious 16-year career, Cutcliffe is a shocking 3-1 as the new head coach at Duke. On second thought, maybe Cutcliffe should come back as head coach and Fulmer should stick around as offensive line coach… Beyond that, the more Fulmer looks like a lame duck coach in the eyes of the general public, the less likely he is to land the type of recruits he needs to return to a BCS bowl for the first time since the 1999 season. So let the rumors begin, Fulmer being jettisoned in favor of everyone from Jon Gruden, to Cutcliffe, to, possibly, Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville, who could somewhat escape the giant shadow of Alabama coach Nick Saban, as well as stick it to Auburn booster Bobby Lowder, who once tried to fire him in favor of Bobby Petrino. – Chattanooga Times Free-Press

People have been calling for Phillip Fulmer’s head all season since the UCLA loss, and even before that point after a string of sub-par seasons. Maybe UT doesn’t need a new coach. It just needs its veteran coach to return to what was working for him in his glory days. Get a better QB, a better offensive line, get back to a scheme that works for his philosophy and go out and play the type of Tennessee football that made Tennessee what it was when Manning left. – Jackson Sun

VIDEO: College Football Weekend Preview

ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit breaks down this weekend’s big games…