Thoughts on Clemson head coaching hires

Mar 17, 2023, 3:34 PM

Full disclosure - I don't keep up with this stuff nearly as much as some of you all, or for as long as some of you have, but I been thinking....

I can't think of any big name head coach hires in any Clemson sport (other than maybe softball, which isn't nearly the big bucks proposition as basketball or football or even baseball). We've had some big name assistant coach hires in football, but I'm talking about head coaches. We often think to compare basketball's potential with football's recent success under Dabo, but Dabo wasn't originally hired to be a head coach. He wasn't even hired as an assistant. We caught lightning in a bottle with him. Same with Danny Ford. Of our two best head coaches, neither was originally hired as a head coach - both inherited it and eventually won the job.

Going backwards over football head coach hires, to the best of my recollection (b/c I don't feel like Googling it):
Tommy Bowden
Tommy West
Ken Hatfield
Charlie Pell (remember, Danny wasn't originally hired as a HC)
Red Parker before that?

None of the hires were particularly exceptional. Bowden came the closest, but couldn't get over the hump.

I'm thinking that there's something in Clemson athletics culture that makes them reluctant to hire the big names and rather go for the mid-range coaches and hope to have great success - with any sport (save softball, I guess). Relatively, compared to other basketball coaches, Brownell has done pretty well over the years. But, as we've all discussed add nausea, like Bowden, he just can't get over the hump and get any consistency going. He gets some big wins, but also the inexcusable losses. It's as though we don't want to LOOK like we're placing a big priority on athletics, but we're hoping to get those same results with average to upper-average hires, and then the public perception can still be a great academic institution (which certainly isn't a bad goal). But haven't other schools proven you can pursue both?

So my question is this - has a Clemson direct HC hire even been particularly successful? Or at their best, have they been a Brownell/Bowden?

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