CLEMSON FOOTBALL

Clemson featured in Ch. 1 of Tommy Bowden's new book


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Former Clemson head coach Tommy Bowden's new book "Winning Character" was released on September 1. The book begins by detailing how close Clemson came to winning the division on two occasions.

They say there’s a fine line between winning and losing. Let me tell you just how “fine” the “fine line” can be.

When the smoke cleared on the last week of the 2005 college football regular season—my seventh as head coach at Clemson—we missed claiming the ACC Atlantic Division title by one win.

Make that one point.

Following hard, back-to-back home losses to #17 Boston College (in overtime) and #13 Miami (in triple overtime), we had just begun clawing our way back into contention before dropping a late October game at Georgia Tech.

Final score, 10–9.

We had been inside their 10-yard line with less than six minutes to play, first and goal, trailing by four. Freshman wide receiver Aaron Kelly had run back the first kickoff return of his career 81 yards to give us the short field. But when Charlie WhitehurstCharlie Whitehurst
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’s third-down pass was deflected at the line of scrimmage, incomplete, we decided to kick a chip-shot field goal to pull within one point.

Turned out to be a good call. Our defense held well enough to give us two more chances to score in the final minutes, one that died on a failed fourth-down attempt, less than ten yards out of reasonable field goal range, the other on a last-second interception. We were that close.

And even though we responded the next two weeks with blowout wins over Duke as well as my father’s eventual ACC champion Florida State to close out the conference schedule, we could never overcome that one-point loss in Atlanta from mid-season. When it was all said and done, when the games were all played out, we were one point away.

Then came 2006—when we not only missed clinching our division again by one point, but by one extra point.

We had come into our week two rematch with Boston College ranked #18 in the country, and we established the lead early, going up 10–0 by the end of the first quarter, only to be caught from behind when they returned the second-half kickoff for a touchdown to tie the score at 17. Unfortunately that wasn’t their only long kick return of the afternoon, including a thirty-yarder midway through the fourth period that gave quarterback Matt Ryan ample field position for a game-tying drive. (We certainly weren’t the first—and probably won’t be the last—to learn from that mistake with him.) Before we knew it, we were facing yet another overtime affair—our second straight against BC in two consecutive years.

Read the rest of Chapter one here

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Subject (Replies: 41) Author
spacer Football Update: Clemson featured in Ch. 1 of Tommy Bowden's new book
Crump®
spacer Re: Football Update: Clemson featured in Ch. 1 of Tommy Bowden's new book
Tiggershark
spacer I believe is entitled,"The Best Way to Pick Grass and Look
Filo Betto
spacer Ignorance.***
tigerdrummer®
spacer "A History of Almost Finishing"...***
SOLOS®
spacer Hey, my wife should write that book.***
Greenr®
spacer About you?***
SOLOS®
spacer This is the story of Tommy's career at Clemson
ChemETiger97
spacer The more I hear from the PLAYERS, the more I appreciate...***
SOLOS®
spacer Was 2006 the year we ran that stupid reverse on the goalline
IPTAY FAMILY
spacer when did our o-line ever garuntee anything***
henry
spacer That sports show he is on is arguably the worst sports show
josephg®
spacer He is not real good on tv
74TIGER
spacer He wasn't a really good coach either.***
Judge Keller®
spacer yeah, hate to say it but it 's hard show to watch
CU_Drew
spacer and his tupid little grin is so fake....he is just not a
ragtop
spacer I really don't understand the hate for Bowden.
tigerdrummer®
spacer You're right but 10 years without an ACC title,
josephg®
spacer He owned USuC though. IMO Bowden's downfall was his
tigerdrummer®
spacer Dude, not hard to "own" USC when they were TERRIBLE.
nkickha
spacer This is the best USuC has EVER been. I promise you,
nkickha
spacer Re: I really don't understand the hate for Bowden.
74TIGER
spacer that had alot to do with VicKoennig's scheme too
El Tigre 1
spacer and he didn't relate to the Clemson family and didn't even
ragtop
spacer Re: I really don't understand the hate for Bowden.
Candyman2
spacer Re: Football Update: Clemson featured in Ch. 1 of Tommy Bowden's new book
thewallass
spacer I'd like to see him own how unprepared those 1-point loss
clemson_alum
spacer You're absolutely right. He was "one play away" in games
joeyb®
spacer You'd think Clemson has Alabama's notoriety
PalmettoFace®
spacer Averaged 8 wins a season, 7-2 against USuC.***
tigerdrummer®
spacer I want more than an 8 win season and a second tier bowl!!***
ragtop
spacer I want to beat USuC on a consistent basis as well.***
tigerdrummer®
spacer To be fair...
kiggity
spacer Re: Football Update: Clemson featured in Ch. 1 of Tommy Bowden's new book
BerlinSPY73®
spacer Originially, but TB opted to take it out.
Tiger95
spacer I remember Frank Howard joking that he retired,....
Candyman2
spacer Clemson better not be just one chapter of that
Stamos
spacer You're crazy, TB is the reason we are who we are today
El Tigre 1
spacer "One Play Away: The Tommy Bowden Story"
wildblulou®
spacer Re: Football Update: Clemson featured in Ch. 1 of Tommy Bowden's new book
Orpride
spacer Re: Football Update: Clemson featured in Ch. 1 of Tommy Bowden's new book
ClemsonSoldier®
spacer Re: Football Update: Clemson featured in Ch. 1 of Tommy Bowden's new book
Motor City Bengal