Penthouse to Outhouse

A week ago, if you told me I would post supporting JL, I would have laughed in your face. He is wound too tight and lets his emotions override his intellect. He needs to get in the dugout and out of the third base box. That being said, I had the opportunity to tour the West End Zone, the golf facility, and the baseball complex this past week. The West End Zone is plush with more amenities than I imagined, as is the golf clubhouse. The baseball facility is a dump. JL's office, which he shares with Pep, Lecroy, and Johnson is no bigger than my bedroom closet. One small desk with a telephone looks more like a janitor's office than a coach with a top ten winning percentage. We lost two recruits who had been life long Tigers to the dirtpeckers because of facilities. Pancake and Montgomery. There is a campaign to build a new facility for the players that is about $1million dollars short right now. The project goes in for architectural review next week. Time for all of us to man up a send in a pledge to: IPTAY,ATHLETICS MAJJOR GIFTS, PO BOX 1529, CLEMSON,SC 29633, ATTN: BOB MAHONY. Also, our field is in dire need of resurfacing to be more appealing to recruits. Let's quit complaining and get out our check books to become part of the solution. Go Tigers!!!!!!

deleted

Rock Defender [53]

TigerPulse: 90%

Posts: 35

Joined: 11/30/98

Fly in the ointment ... our decline and usc's climb started

Jun 23, 2012, 11:53 AM

over 10 years ago when our facilities were a lot better than theirs, when our facilities were seen as very good. In fact, their facilities sucked till they recently started using the new minor league facility.

Also, some of usc's best players are and have been kids that grew up loving Clemson and would rather use our outhouse than their penthouse, but Jack blew them off.

Do we need better facilities? Yes. And they are on the way.

That, however, had nothing to do with getting embarrassed by usc in Omaha back in 2002 with the best team we ever put on the field. The next few days, SC sportswriters wrote about and compared how Jack handled his team and how Tanner handled usc in Omaha, particularly the nights before our two games with usc.

There was an article in he Charleston Post-Courier about 10 years ago by either Ken Burger or Sapakoff. It compared Tanner/Jack, the two programs, coaching styles, and how they recruited, ran their programs, style of play, etc. It showed two polar opposites, but at the time both were being very successful.

Leap ahead 10 or so years and we suck and they are hands down no doubt the best program in college baseball. Clearly Tanner's style is far superior to Jacks. Tanner took over a bad program in the hardest baseball conference and built a powerhouse. Jack took over a powerhouse in the 2nd best baseball conference and let it decline.

Ten years ago when we played usc in Omaha little did we realize that it was two ships passing each other. One at its peak about to decline, the other rapidly on its way up. Jack took over a program built by Wilhelm. He maintained it with the help of great assistants - Paw, Sully, and Corbin - but now that he has had a series of more mundane assistants the program has suffered.

The combination of Jack's abrasive high pressure coaching style, combined with controversial and questionable recruiting philosophy, and absent great assistants, have led to the decline of the program. Take a good look, this is how our football program under Dabo will perform. We'll be good as long as we have great assistants, but suck with poor hires or during transitions.

The golf team is another perfect example of this. We were the most consistent program in the country and were a fixture in the top 5, top 3 really, but lacked that elusive title. Soon as we got it we abandoned the core philosophy that made us so good. Penley thought he'd take that exposure from winning the championship and use it to recruit the best kids from across the country. I supported it. I thought, hey, if we are this good with kids only from SC and nearby areas like Savannah, Augusta, ATL, and Charlotte, how good can we be if we bring in the best kids from the entire country. But I was wrong. Penley admitted he was wrong and went back to the original formula. Unfortunately, despite a lot of great individual talent, the damage was done and we are not close to where we were. We didn't even make the finals this year, first time since Penley first took over. With equal or better talent, why has the program slipped?

It's because talent alone doesn't win and there is a difference in a kid coming to Clemson from California or Florida, (be it baseball or golf) and a kid that grew up in Aiken or Rock Hill. A kid with no connection to Clemson, versus a kid that grew up dreaming about being a Tiger. I use to think talent was talent. I was wrong, as was Penley. Hopefully Jack will figure it out too, but doubtful at this point. We need new blood. A young fresh excited HC. We need Paw, Sully, or Corbin.

flag link

military_tech

thumb_down

thumb_up

is that you BOB?***

Re: Penthouse to Outhouse

Re: Penthouse to Outhouse

Re: Penthouse to Outhouse

wow, i was just joking with you. I know Bob. He knows how to spell.***

Agree --- but at the moment all my funds are tied up helping

Heyyy wait a minute. Is he in Nigeria? He pomised me a cut!!***

Re: Penthouse to Outhouse

Re: Penthouse to Outhouse

But that alone will not make a program a winner. If it did

Fly in the ointment ... our decline and usc's climb started

Re: Fly in the ointment ... our decline and usc's climb started

Great post***

Thoughtful and artculate post - worth a read.

Re: Penthouse to Outhouse

TigerBoard POTD