(04-06-2012 07:01 PM)JustAnotherName Wrote:  Everything's nice and shiny at Clemson accept its records. It's a bit puzzling why Clemson hasn't done better, especially when South Carolina has usually been mediocre.

Honestly, there are several reasons.

Bobby Robinson was a long-term Clemson employee when he was named AD and being a long-term employee he got complacent. Being a product of the 1980's when we not only had the best football facilities (both stadium and support facilities) in the ACC and some of the best in the country he had the mentality that they were so far ahead of the rest of the conference that it would take decades for them to catch up. It didn't, and because he wouldn't change his mind we fell from way ahead to the point where Wake had better football facilities than we had. When Tommy Bowden was hired he quickly started harping on getting needed upgrades and Robinson refused to listen, other than a few cosmetic things with Death Valley itself.

During spring practice in 2001 another message board I was part of decided one Saturday if the players are training in the spring we needed to do the same so we went and tailgated at the practice field. One of the posters had contacts in the athletic department, made a few calls and we got to go in and watch the "closed" practices, and after practice Bowden and a couple players (their parents were message board folks who were tailgating with us) came over. He was very candid with us, saying we would not be able to compete until we did a compete upgrade of all facilities, including an indoor practice facility. Robinson "retired" in 2002, and we hired Terry Don Phillips away from Oklahoma State, who came in and immediately made facility improvements a priority, starting with the West Zone in 2004. The first and second phases were completed in 2009, and the results recruiting and on the field show it. The indoor practice facility, when completed, is the final piece of the puzzle.

The other problem is we hung on to Tommy Bowden about 3 years too long. Bowden accomplished what he was brought in to do.....turn the program around from the devastation that was Ken Hatfield and Tommy West, rebuilding recruiting ties, relationships with the boosters, etc. However it became clear that we would never win an ACC championship with him as coach. For whatever reason he only seemed to be able to get the most out of his players when his seat was at it's hottest. One additional problem he had was he was way too loyal to his assistant coaches, even the ones who simply did not perform. Jon Lovett, Jack Hines, and Rob Spence were all prime examples of that.