Bowden vs Brownell (resources and support)

Mar 10, 2023, 1:11 PM

Another lie was posted by JK on another thread:
Bowden coached at a football school with resources and support that most ACC schools didn’t have.
Bowden had many advantages, where as Brownell has many disadvantages.
The two situations and coaches couldn’t be more different.

As you can see below that wasn't the case at all.

Per Cris Ard 7/22/2016

From 1999-2004 Clemson ranked dead last in the Atlantic Coast Conference in football facilities spending, yet in that span Bowden managed to take home ACC Coach of the Year honors twice. But while Bowden's staff lifted the program's recruiting, also averaging eight wins a season and dominating arch-rival South Carolina, the Tigers' drought of conference titles would continue under his watch.

When Tommy Bowden began his first season in Clemson in 1999, the Tigers had not won 10 games in a season since 1990. The Tigers had not won the Atlantic Coast Conference championship since 1991. Not only was Clemson no longer nationally relevant, but the Tigers were just coming off a 3-8 campaign, the program's worst showing since 1976.

Ultimately Bowden was able to improve the product on the field, winning nine games in 2000, 2003 and 2007. But it should be noted that for six of his nine-and-a-half seasons as Clemson's head coach, the program would rank dead last in the ACC in football facilities spending (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004). In fact in 2004, the dressing room Bowden's team used in Death Valley was essentially the same facility Danny Ford's team had used in 1989.

Bowden sought advice from all of Clemson's former living head coaches in late 1998 upon taking the job, including Tommy West, who immediately told him to stay on Clemson's administration for a facilities push. As readers will see later in this interview, I ask Bowden what he wants to be remembered for as the Tigers' head coach. But before the coach can answer, his wife, Linda Bowden, chimes in and simply states, "He should be remembered for helping get the West Zone off the ground because they (Clemson's administration) were in no hurry to get it."

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Clemson doesn't care about basketball....as evidenced by Brown-L getting 14 years.

Re: Bowden vs Brownell (resources and support)

Really? You're going to zero in on Wake/Duke? Yes even they spent more on facilities. Take a look at this excerpt

Ard. Talking to some of your assistant coaches at that time, they seemed to think that you were getting beat up on the recruiting trail because of the lack of facilities. They really felt like this impacted your ability to recruit at a higher level.

Bowden. "Oh, it did. It did. But once we got it approved, I felt we had it addressed. It was just a matter of could I hang on until it got finished. Because I used pictures to show recruits for so many years. Now, can you hang on until these things are completed? People you recruit against are pretty smart. When kids left our campus, they'd go on recruiting visits to Auburn or South Carolina and they were asked, 'Did they show you those pictures again at Clemson? They've been showing them to prospects for years.'

"It got old. It just started to get old. It definitely affected us."