ACC: Clemson fires Bowden

Clemson quarterback Cullen Harper has been under pressure from opposing defenses all season, but the biggest blind-side hit on him came Friday when his head coach sacked him. Now, Tommy Bowden knows how Harper felt.

Just three days after announcing that Harper no longer was his starting quarterback, Bowden is out as Clemson’s head coach. Assistant head coach Dabo Swinney, who also coaches Clemson’s wide receivers, will serve as the team’s interim head coach for the rest of the season.

The Tigers, who host Georgia Tech on Saturday, entered 2008 as the favorites to win their first ACC championship since 1991. They had a top-10 ranking and visions of a BCS bowl game dancing in their heads, but they had their confidence shaken with a 34-10 loss to Alabama in the season opener. Clemson enters the second half of the season with a 3-3 record and just one win over Football Bowl Subdivision competition to its credit.

The pressure on Bowden increased dramatically after Clemson lost at Wake Forest 12-7 on Thursday night in front of a national TV audience. The Tigers had a bye week to prepare after a disappointing home loss to Maryland, but they put on a sloppy performance filled with offensive ineptitude, foolish penalties and mismanagement of timeouts.

Bowden told reporters the next day — even before talking to Harper, the ACC’s preseason player of the year — that he had decided to insert redshirt freshman Willy Korn as his starting quarterback. Bowden said he was making the change because his team needed more mobility at quarterback to offset problems created by its injury-ravaged offensive line, but the move seemed reflective of a desperate coach looking for a scapegoat while trying to save his job.

In the end, it failed.

Bowden, who received a contract extension after a 9-4 season in 2007, leaves with a 72-45 record in 10 seasons as the Tigers’ head coach. He never had a losing season at Clemson and guided the team to eight bowl games, but he also never won an ACC championship and couldn’t take the team to heights indicative of its talent. The Tigers lost fewer than four games in a season just once under Bowden, and that was a three-loss season in 2000.

Clemson got off to slow starts under Bowden each season from 2003-05, and each time Bowden answered questions about his job security by leading his team to strong finishes. This time — with great expectations unmet and his players reportedly tuning him out — he didn’t get an opportunity to save his job.

Scoreboard

Wake Forest 12, Clemson 7
Virginia 35, East Carolina 20
Georgia Tech 10, Gardner-Webb 7
North Carolina 29, Notre Dame 24
Miami 20, Central Florida 14

Offensive player of the week: Cedric Peerman, RB, Virginia

Bothered by a leg injury for the first month of the season, Peerman surpassed 100 yards rushing for the second week in a row. Not coincidentally, the Cavaliers (3-3, 1-1) won for the second week in a row.

Peerman burned East Carolina’s struggling defense for 173 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries. The 5-foot-10, 208-pound senior scored on sprints of 79 and 60 yards as his team raced out to a 28-6 lead in the first half. Peerman, who became the second player in school history to have two runs of at least 60 yards in the same game, also made a career-high eight receptions for 26 yards.

“I said it before, and I’ll say it again,” Virginia quarterback Marc Verica said. “He is the heart of the team. He makes everything go.”

Defensive player of the week: Derrick Morgan, DE, Georgia Tech

Morgan came up with a big play at the end of the game against Gardner-Webb, blocking Ryan Gates’ 43-yard field-goal attempt with 3 seconds left to preserve the Yellow Jackets’ victory. But Morgan also wasn’t bad earlier in the contest. The 6-foot-4, 270-pound sophomore finished the game with 10 tackles, four tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks as Georgia Tech limited the Runnin’ Bulldogs to 227 yards of total offense.

“He’s a monster,” said Georgia Tech senior defensive end Michael Johnson, who had 10 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks on the side opposite of Morgan. “We all knew that when he came in. He was the top high school player in the state [of Pennsylvania], so we knew he would be good. He’s been banging it up since he got here.”

Freshman of the week: Travis Benjamin, WR, Miami

Benjamin built on the breakout game he enjoyed against Florida State, doing damage against another in-state foe. The speed demon made two receptions for 34 yards, including a 25-yard touchdown in the first quarter, in Miami’s victory over Central Florida. Benjamin’s receiving numbers weren’t gaudy, but they were noteworthy in a defensive struggle in which the teams combined for 294 yards of total offense.

Team of the week: North Carolina

The Tar Heels hadn’t been ranked since 2001, and their last stay in the Top 25 lasted just one week because they lost their next game. UNC gets to hang around longer this time after beating Notre Dame for its first win as a ranked team since Jan. 1, 1998.

The difference in Saturday’s game — and UNC’s season so far — was turnovers. The Tar Heels, who lead the nation in interceptions (14) and turnover margin (plus-1.83 per game), came up with five takeaways against Notre Dame without committing a turnover themselves. That allowed UNC, which trailed 17-9 at halftime and was outgained 472-322 for the game, to record its first win over the Fighting Irish since 1960.

“Our kids have got a lot of fight and perseverance,” said Butch Davis, who improved to 9-9 as UNC’s head coach. “They just keep scratching and finding a way to win.”

Alas, not all the news was good for the Tar Heels. Already playing without starting quarterback T.J. Yates, who is out with a broken bone in his ankle, UNC lost senior wide receiver Brandon Tate for the season Saturday. Tate suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament and a torn medial collateral ligament in his right knee on a punt return in the first quarter, robbing the Tar Heels of their top playmaker.

Tate entered the week as the ACC’s leader in all-purpose yardage and third-leading receiver in terms of yardage. He ends his college career as the NCAA’s all-time leader in combined kick return yards (3,523).

Disappointment of the week: Georgia Tech’s offense

The Yellow Jackets played without starting quarterback Josh Nesbitt (hamstring) and backup Jaybo Shaw (concussion), but few were expecting them to have much trouble scoring against Football Championship Subdivision member Gardner-Webb. As it turned out, they scored barely enough to win. Georgia Tech rushed for just 79 yards, about 210 yards below its season average, as senior quarterback Calvin Booker struggled in the first start of his college career.

Booker, who at 6-foot-4 and 235 pounds isn’t an ideal fit to run the option, netted only 35 rushing yards on 19 attempts. He completed just 3 of 11 passes for 120 yards, although he did hook up with B-back Jonathan Dwyer for a 79-yard score.

Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson didn’t blame Booker for the team’s struggles, accepting much of the responsibility himself. The Yellow Jackets accumulated just nine first downs and finished with a season-low 199 total yards.

“It was a comedy of errors, really,” Johnson said. “It looked like a poorly prepared, poorly coached football team out there.”

Extra points

Wake Forest senior cornerback Alphonso Smith tied a record against Clemson en route to helping his team start 2-0 in ACC play for the first time since 1987. Smith recorded the 17th interception of his career, matching Ronnie Burgess (1981-84) and A.J. Greene (1985-88) for the most interceptions in school history.

Sophomore Shaun Draughn appears to have supplanted classmate Greg Little as North Carolina’s primary rusher. Draughn, who carried 17 times for 91 yards against Notre Dame, has totaled 200 yards on 36 carries in the last two games. Little, who has started all six games this season, totaled just five carries for 13 yards during that span.

In a competition of young players, redshirt freshman Robert Marve might be opening the door for true freshman Jacory Harris to get more playing time as Miami’s quarterback. Marve threw three interceptions against Central Florida and has been picked off seven times in the last three games. While Marve has tossed eight interceptions in 126 pass attempts this season, Harris has thrown just one interception in 56 attempts.

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