THE PROS (AND CONS) OF DITCHING TOMMY BOWDEN

Tommy Bowden: Can we lose him, or do we need to hang on to him?

With the rumor mill running full steam, I thought that this would be a perfect opportunity to dig up the dead horse called "Fire Bowden" from the garden out back and give it a few more whallops. I've thought about it for quite sometime now and have never actually put my thoughts, hopes, and worrying into a meaningful statement. What I have done in the past is merely state an honest opinion on the Tigernet from time to time and two things happen: 1) I get an earful from the retard nation that lives on that washed up board; 2) The mods of the board delete the thread after a few minutes, even though it doesn't violate any of their rules. That's something that happens a bit far too often when folks stray off of the beaten path over there. Anyways, without further ranting, here we go:

The Cons

- First and foremost, if we can boot Bowden his coaches will more than likely follow suit. They are a really tight staff and it is my belief that they will follow him through thick and thin, even if that means going to a new school and starting all over again.

- There is one thing that Bowden has got that we almost can't afford to lose and that's the ability to recruit well. Either we can't afford to lose that or it's going to be a really hard task to replace his ability to seal the deal and convince recruits to don the orange and purple. Following from the first statement, we can't afford to lose the recruiting abilities of his assistant coaches, mainly Swinney and Blackwell.

- We lose image. Let's face it... TB isn't a bad guy. He's not crazy. He's not out of control. He has a firm grasp on his team and program. He has a good relationship with his higher-ups. He doesn't really cheat (from what we know). He doesn't run his mouth. He doesn't trash people. He's just a good, upstanding person.

- It's a hefty buy-out still. I forget how much exactly (if someone wants to help me out in the comments section), but it's more than we can afford to give up. It's a well known fact that we're kind of pressed for money. Now that we're in the hole because of the West End Zone, we can't buy him out anymore. Even if a couple of rich trustees stood up and fronted the money, that would be money that would be of better use if it were put into the WEZ fund.

- Not only would we miss out on his/his coaches recruiting skills, but theres a chance that if we can can him, he could convince the recruits he's currently after to jump ship with him, decommit, and play for him in different colors down the road. I don't like to think of the next CJ Spiller NOT playing for us. On top of that, there's a possibility that he could pull an Urban Meyer and convince some of our current stunners to go with him where ever he would go. A lot of his players are still pretty loyal to him, even after the whole Reggie Merriweather incident at last year's Sakerlina game.

- Lastly, I don't know how grounded his daughter is in the local area, but if she followed daddy's money trail, oh what a loss that would be to the freshmen at Clemson. Even though she's all graduated and learned up and gone, it'd still hurt the local perv population pretty bad. I mean, c'mon, you've seen the picture... yeah you have... Although, hotties like that are a dime a dozen in the south so she could be easily replaced.

The more desperate Tommy gets for wins, the more sideline fireworks to expect.

The Pros

- Season ticket sales as well as IPTAY donations would see a rise. I'm sure that there's a few people out there that cancelled their tickets and donations because they got sick and tired and it's their little way of telling Clemson what they think. Unfortunately, Clemson could care less about a few donations and tickets here or there. They're still making bank. But a little extra couldn't hurt.

- It gives us a chance to get a better coach to excel where Bowden failed. Said coach would also inherit everything Bowden has built here at Clemson. Take for example the University of Florida. A few years ago when they had Ron Zook, they were in constant turmoil and were up and down. In comes Urban Meyer, a coach who is just as good, if not better at recruiting than Zook. He's definitely a better coach. Now they're wearing a brand new set of National Championship rings... *sigh*. I don't even want a Natty, just give me A championship to brag about. C'mon, pretty please?

- A lot of our athletes and recruits will stay put and ride this thing out because of the Reggie Merriweather incident at the USC game. They'll figure, "Here's a guy thats willing to ride me like a horse for a couple of years, then just toss me to the side of the road to fend for myself at the end of my career even though I've given so much to him, the coaches, and the program."