Clemson finally fires Tommy Bowden after another disappointing start

Multiple sources close to Clemson University report that head football coach Tommy Bowden will be fired this afternoon. The university has scheduled a late afternoon press conference to make the firing official, but sources say that Bowden has already informed all of the assistant coaches and the team that he has been relieved of his duties. Dabo Swinney, who has been assistant head coach and wide receivers coach, will take the head coaching position for now and will lead the team in its final six games of the season.

Tommy Bowden has been the head coach of Clemson University for almost 10 years and over that time he has compiled a record of 72-45. The win/loss record is pretty good, but especially recently the team hasn't lived up to lofty expectations and that has had many fans calling for the firing of Bowden. To many college football fans it has appeared that Clemson has been unable to go very far in the last couple of years despite having a great deal of talent on both sides of the ball. This year the team was pegged at #9 in the preseason polls, but has already fallen to 1-2 in the ACC and 3-3 overall. A 41-10 drubbing at the hands of Alabama to start the season was just a sign of how far off Clemson was from those lofty expectations that had been set for them going into this season.

Reaction to the firing from some of the Clemson players paints a mixed picture. Quarterback Cullen Harper, who was benched in their most recent game, said "It's what he deserved." Clearly Harper and Bowden didn't get along too well! Running back C.J. Spiller said that he was "shocked by our record and shocked that our coach is gone." Spiller went on to say that when Bowden benched Cullen Harper recently it simply made things worse.

Clemson fans have certainly been calling for this move for the last couple of years, so I would expect there to be a lot of happy Clemson Tiger fans today. Bowden has done a great job recruiting top notch talent to Clemson, but he has seemed to have problems getting that talent to play together as a team and meet the expectations that everyone has for them.

While some of the players say they are very surprised at the news of this firing, it is hard to be terribly surprised that Bowden was relieved of his duties as head coach. A consistently under-achieving team that seems to have some major chemistry problems generally leads to the head coach being sent packing, and this situation turned out to be no different.