Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2008

Players split on decision and timing

Hamlin and Davis express sorrow over move; Harper leads disgruntled camp

CLEMSON — The profiles of safety Michael Hamlin and quarterback Cullen Harper — defensive and offensive captains, respectively, for Clemson — appear back-to-back in the Tigers’ 2008 media guide.

Their opinions on Monday’s departure of coach Tommy Bowden and his replacement by assistant head coach/receivers’ coach Dabo Swinney, though, couldn’t have been more different.

Hamlin was disappointed by Bowden’s exit. Though Clemson athletics director Terry Don Phillips insisted the decision to quit in midseason was Bowden’s, Hamlin — who seemed unconvinced — favored his coach staying.

“They should’ve kept him, at least to the end of the season, not do it in the middle of the season,” he said. “It’s a distraction for the team.

“I kind of hate that it happened, but it’s someone else’s decision, not mine. It hurts, because since I came in, I spent the four years I was here with him. So it hurts.”

Harper, on the other hand, came across on the national scene as a poster child for player disgruntlement. Early in the day, ESPN.com quoted Harper as saying Bowden “got what he deserved.”

The senior, who was replaced by sophomore Willy Korn as the starter at quarterback on Friday, said late Monday that those comments had been taken out of context.

“You never wish that on anyone (and) coach Bowden is the reason I’m here,” he said.

But other comments were hardly a ringing endorsement for the coach.

“It’s a tough situation around here,” Harper said. “The season wasn’t going as expected, and people are not happy.

“Now coach Bowden and coach (Rob) Spence (the Tigers’ offensive coordinator) are out, but we’re going to rally around coach Swinney. We all respect coach Swinney; he brings energy and enthusiasm.”

ESPN.com also paraphrased comments from tailback C.J. Spiller that suggested Bowden had lost the ability to motivate the Tigers, who played flat in the second half of a loss to Maryland and stayed that way in a 12-7 loss Thursday at Wake Forest. Spiller was not available for comment Monday.

Whatever their opinion on Bowden prior to the morning announcement, Clemson players, by late afternoon, were calling his departure a part of his job and saying they were focusing on Georgia Tech, Saturday’s opponent at Memorial Stadium.

“We’ve just got to come out and get ready for Georgia Tech,” defensive end Da’Quan Bowers said. “Everything happens for a reason, and we didn’t do a great job.

“You’d hear about (Bowden) being on the hot seat, but I didn’t think it would happen like this. It caught some of us off guard, but that’s part of life. It’s a business.”

Hamlin called himself “shocked” at Bowden’s removal now, although he conceded he probably should not have been.

“It surprised me they would make that move in the middle of season,” he said. “They’ve been talking about doing it (firing Bowden) forever, basically, and they never did it. So when it happened, it kind of shocked me.”

Center Thomas Austin said Bowden addressed the team before leaving Monday.

“He spoke from the heart,” Austin said. “I have tremendous respect for coach Bowden. I’m sorry to see him leave. But there are some things you can’t control. We can control Georgia Tech this weekend, and then the other five games (left on their schedule).”

It remained for tailback James Davis, one of the first players to hug Bowden after his farewell speech, to issue the most eloquent statement about his feelings.

Asked if his coach’s departure hurt him, he stood for more than a minute, tears running down his face, unable to speak.

“Coach Bowden, he was always straight-forward with me, no matter what,” he said at last.

“I didn’t come back to school (for his senior year) for this,” he said. “Everything bad has happened.”

Reach senior writer Bob Gillespie at (803) 771-8304

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