Children of the Korn

Well, each and every season since Tommy Bowden arrived at Clemson he found a way "out". Out of trouble. Out of messes. Out of hotseats. Living in upstate SC is interesting at the moment. I can promise you that most Clemson fans have Bowden fatigue from going through this year after year. The Clemson faithful I work with have "formally" detached from the team emotionally. They'll watch a game (maybe), but they no longer invest anything more than a casual interest. They're tired of it all.

When fans are in one of these spells, there never looks like any other way out other than a new head coach. This year is probably the worst of them all.......... or at least it seems that way because they are in the midst of the spell. However, expectations have never been higher. Bowden himself said this was the most talent he's had at Clemson.

So what's Bowden's "out" now? Well, he's placed his bets, and it's the old "play the back-up QB" bet. Of course Clemson's backup QB is Willy Korn, the SC golden boy with the golden arm, followed in high school for years by state faithful. It was assumed he would be handed the reigns from day one, but it never happened as Cullen Harper showed his experience and then had a great junior season.


Harper hurt his shoulder prior to Clemson's bowl game last year and just hasn't seemed the same guy since. Some will say he was never accurate beyond 20 yards and lived off the dink-and-dunk. Regardless the reasons, he'll be watching the first snap from the sidelines a week from Saturday.

Will it be the desparate elixir Bowden needs? GT / Clemson games are almost always close battles. Why would this year be any different. One of my Clemson alumni co-workers says it is different this time.... that's Clemson's "broke".... "it's been tilt since the 2nd half of the Maryland game".

I'll believe it when the final whistle blows. Until then, anything can happen, and it typically does in this series.

................. and of course I believe we have another game THIS Saturday first, right?