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Legend [19610]
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I know a lot of people knock Hatfield but here is my story..
Jan 18, 2018, 2:51 PM
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In 1991 I was a third year Sophmore and Hatfield had just beaten the Chickens that day pretty handily.
I was with a group of friends, about 8 of us in Greenville that evening. We had stopped at an ice cream parlor, one of those sit-down dessert type places that were popular in the late 70's-mid 80's where they had a player piano and the waiters wore straw hats and arm garters..pretty cheesy. I don't remember the name of the place but it may have been Farrels.
Ken Hatfield walks in and we greet him with the usual "Good game coach..way to beat USuC." He came over to the table and says he was waiting till it was his turn to do a TV coaches recap on a local station. He was very friendly and left us after our brief chat.
Turns out he had come into the place and paid for every person in the place, and we did not find out till after he left.
So forgive me for not thinking of Hatfield as some big jerk. And just for contrast, Danny Ford cursed a group of us out for driving into driveway(not that I don't love Danny).
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All-In [40100]
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So a nice bad coach?***
Jan 18, 2018, 2:54 PM
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Legend [19610]
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He wasn't a bad coach...just an unmotivated recruiter.
Jan 18, 2018, 2:56 PM
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That was his real problem.
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All-In [44042]
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An unmotivated recruiter who was up against
Jan 18, 2018, 8:53 PM
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Clemson fans telling recruits not to come to Clemson.
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Letterman [275]
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Re: So a nice bad coach?***
Jan 18, 2018, 3:04 PM
[ in reply to So a nice bad coach?*** ] |
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exactly, helluva guy but not so much of a coach. The committee apparently has decided it needs a greater amount of incompetence
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Oculus Spirit [82039]
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TL;dr
Jan 18, 2018, 2:55 PM
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.
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Orange Blooded [2030]
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He can buy my ice cream, but not coach my
Jan 18, 2018, 3:01 PM
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Tigers. Just sayin.
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110%er [9106]
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Great guy. Average coach.
Jan 18, 2018, 3:29 PM
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I was at Clemson 87-91, so I was there for the Ford/Hatfield years. Met both a couple of times. Bottom-line for a football coach is W's, and while he did ok, he had some unacceptable losses and just wasn't who Clemson needed. Now, West was even worse ("Ok, so they didn't like the guy we hired after Danny, so let's find someone who talks like Danny and is the same type of guy and then he should win like Danny." HA!).
Good to have a coach now who is both a great guy AND a great coach. A rare combination, and a hugely successful one, both on the field and off.
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All-TigerNet [10824]
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Re: Great guy. Average coach.
Jan 18, 2018, 4:07 PM
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Amen! With Dabo, almost all of the boxes get checked off. KH did well through Clemson (at least won/loss), but then had a terrible time at Rice. Just the wrong moves by the Clemson administration. Hatfield probably had one of the best records of any college football coach from '83-'91.
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All-In [27374]
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Re: Great guy. Average coach.
Jan 18, 2018, 4:14 PM
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As I have posted before, my biggest complaint with Hatfield was some of his hires!
Bringing in Dickerson to coach the defensive backs helped turn us into a very average football team. The game against California in Tampa was one of the poorest performances I’ve witnessed by a Tiger team. We were pretty good until then but, after that game, teams saw what it took to beat Clemson and we were on a downhill slide
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All-TigerNet [10824]
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Re: Great guy. Average coach.
Jan 18, 2018, 4:34 PM
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You are right. Clemson over Illinois, great. California over Clemson, wretched. Such a huge difference in just 12 months.
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CU Medallion [58411]
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Average coach? He turned Air Force around and had them
Jan 18, 2018, 4:26 PM
[ in reply to Great guy. Average coach. ] |
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finishing in the top 15 within 5 years. At Arkansas, he finished in the top 15 4 out of 6 years. At Clemson, he was 32-13-1 with a 9-3 record in his last year. Despite his poor record at Rice, he may be the best, winningest coach they ever had. He was simply the wrong coach, at the wrong place, at the wrong time at Clemson. I never cared for Hatfield myself, but his record and accomplishments were far from average, however.
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All-TigerNet [10824]
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Re: Average coach? He turned Air Force around and had them
Jan 18, 2018, 4:32 PM
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Which should make all of us appreciate Dabo, Brent, Tony, and all the other tremendous Clemson coaches now. Dabo best coach in 2015, Brent in 2016, Tony in 2017. Who's it going to be in 2018?
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CU Medallion [58411]
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Amen to that!***
Jan 18, 2018, 4:37 PM
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CU Guru [1105]
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Re: Average coach? He turned Air Force around and had them
Jan 18, 2018, 4:47 PM
[ in reply to Average coach? He turned Air Force around and had them ] |
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Hatfield followed Bill Parcells at Air Force; Holtz at Ark; Danny Ford at Clemson; and Franks at Rice. All of them are now in the HOF, and he inherited a loaded cupboard of players everywhere he coached. When we hired him, I couldn't understand why the Ark people were so happy because he had a good W/L record there. I understood their feelings a couple of years later.
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CU Medallion [58411]
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Nope. Air Force was 3-8 under Parcells the year before
Jan 18, 2018, 5:27 PM
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Hatfield took over. They were 2-8-1 the year before that. The situation was much better when he took over for Holtz at ARK, but with a 6-5 record and 5th place finish in conference the year before, the cupboard was far from loaded. The fact that he had two consecutive 10-2 seasons 5 and 6 years later can't be attributed to Holtz. It's easy to hate on Hatfield; he replaced an extremely popular, beloved legend at Clemson under terrible circumstances; he was aloof in comparison and never fit in here, and struggled to recruit at the same level as his predecessor. I'm not claiming Hatfield was a great coach, and as I said, I never cared for him, but he was not an "average" coach by any means and was far from the loser many make him out to be.
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Orange Blooded [3839]
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CU Medallion [58411]
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Maybe - it had to be the right guy, and Hatfield
Jan 18, 2018, 5:28 PM
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sure wasn't it. The whole handling of Danny's departure and subsequent events was a total disaster.
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Head Coach [760]
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Re: Truth is we wouldn't have liked anybody after Danny***
Jan 18, 2018, 10:06 PM
[ in reply to Truth is we wouldn't have liked anybody after Danny*** ] |
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^^^^ this!^^^^ Plus another thing that ruined KH with Clemson fans immediately was the fact that in the first real game of his tenure he lost to Virginia.
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Orange Blooded [2218]
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his first yr. he didn't get a single recruit from Ga.
Jan 18, 2018, 5:59 PM
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"where Ford made his fame recruiting" instead he tried recruiting Texas where he got one player & I think he was from La.
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CU Guru [1019]
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Re: his first yr. he didn't get a single recruit from Ga.
Jan 18, 2018, 9:06 PM
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I heard the only game he got the team fired up was before pounding the Tar Heels one year he played 'Welcome to the Jungle' in the locker room.
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