Terry Bowden: Brother Tommy got what he deserved at Clemson
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Tommy Bowden had it coming when he was forced out on Monday as Clemson’s coach.
He didn’t meet expectations.
More succinctly, he didn’t cut it at Clemson.
This would have been just another blunt assessment by a media type if the media type making the case against Tommy Bowden wasn’t his brother, Terry.
You have to give Terry Bowden credit. He’s a college football analyst for Yahoo! and Rivals.com and he faced a very tough situation this week after Tommy resigned under heavy pressure after a team that started the season No. 9 fell to 3-3 with a loss to Wake Forest.
Here’s some of what Terry wrote:
It is at times like this when people wonder if you can be objective as an analyst. We are a close family, and Tommy and I are less than two years apart. We have shared bedrooms and little-league teams. We have fought with each other a little, and laughed together a lot... ...So, did Tommy Bowden deserve what happened to him Monday? Unfortunately, yes. He deserved it because he, of all people, knew what to expect when he got into this business. We grew up in it. He knew what to expect when he went to Clemson. He knew that no matter where you go, there is an expectation of success that must be met. After nine years at Clemson, he knew exactly what those expectations were and he knew they had not been met.
Wow. Imagine writing something like that about a brother or a sister.
Tommy might not have lived up to expectations in nine-plus years as Clemson’s coach, but Terry lived up to his role as an analyst. It was a tough week for the Bowdens, although it would have been worse had father Bobby’s Florida State team not rallied Thursday night to beat North Carolina State.
-- Chris Dufresne