There was a bidding war for Tommy Bowden?

Wow. The next thing you are going to tell me is that people actually want to see the Spice Girls get back together. Oh, wait.

Reports indicated that Tommy Bowden was set to take over the Arkansas Razorback job late last night for over $2.5 million per year. That will probably end up being Top 20-type salary after this offseason but for now, it would have put Tommy in rarified air. Then, Clemson decided that they better counteroffer and voila…Tommy and Clemson agreed to an extension this morning. Details of the latest offer were not disclosed, but you can bet it is in the mid-2 range.

This was after Clemson had previously offered a prior two-year extension had been offered for an increase to $1.6 million annually.

This is the same guy who was on the hotseat after three consecutive late season collapses that cost Clemson a shot at the ACC championship game. This is the same guy who lost three or more conference games seven straight years in the ACC. The ACC!!!! The ACC, if you recall, is the conference with traditional football powers like Duke, North Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia Tech.

Bowden’s agent stated, “I deserve a raise.”

  1. South '06
    December 4, 2007 at 9:27 am

    What is it with Arkansas? I swear every time they are looking for a coach in any sport, they are used by like 20 coaches to get raises.

    That’s gotta piss fans off.

  2. HenryJames
    December 4, 2007 at 9:34 am

    How much is Leach making at Tech?

  3. BRAGGonUT
    December 4, 2007 at 9:51 am

    $1.6M for now.

  4. Redfoot
    December 4, 2007 at 10:59 am

    And you guys think there are about eleventy billion Stoops’ running around for us to pluck out of the air if we get rid of Mack? The truth of the matter is that there aren’t that many great coaches out there at any given time, and even fewer who are a) available b) a good fit and c) looking to make a move into a conference where they have to face off against Stoops every year to win a conference title. Get serious folks, this is the world we live in; wins don’t grow on trees. Many of you think Brown’s savior was Vince, but truthfully, it takes that kind of talent to win a championship. How many championships does Pete have without Heisman caliber players running his offense? No takers? That’s what I thought.

  5. kchorn04
    December 4, 2007 at 11:01 am

    Now the Clemson faithful can discuss both his possible firing AND his huge buy-out next year.

  6. Macanudo
    December 4, 2007 at 11:08 am

    “Get serious folks, this is the world we live in”

    Texas Football: Finishing 2nd to OU since 2000!

  7. Redfoot
    December 4, 2007 at 1:55 pm

    Like in the Nat’l Championship year Mac?
    And how many national titles is old Bob Stoops boasting, my friend?

  8. Stuck in MN
    December 4, 2007 at 2:14 pm

    “How many championships does Pete have without Heisman caliber players running his offense?”

    Well, let’s see, he has 6 total, so if you take out the years Palmer, Leinart and Bush won, the answer is 3. I suppose you could argue that in 2003, although Cletus White won, USC still had Leinart and Bush on the team, and therefore still had Heisman calibre players on the team. Perhaps the answer is 2. So I guess the answer is 2 or 3 more than Mack Brown has won without Heisman calibre talent.

    Want me to run the same calculations for Stoops?

  9. BRAGGonUT
    December 4, 2007 at 2:15 pm

    Redfoot, who are the “you guys…who want to get rid of Mack” specifically? I know it is fun to paint with a broad brush but what strawman are you swinging for?

  10. srr50
    December 4, 2007 at 3:32 pm

    I love heating up some buttered popcorn and sitting down to read about the clusterfuck of a coaching situation Arkansas has turned into.

    They make a buyout deal with Houston Nutt during the season, then when he beats LSU, they decide maybe he should stay.

    He says no thanks, takes a $3.5 million golden parachute and in less than 24 hours he is the new head coach at a Hog division rival.

    He then gets Frank Broyles to let him “borrow” three Arkansas assistants (who will eventually move to Oxford with him), to recruit for Ole Miss during this week.

    And now we watch Arkansas slip and slide down the hiring highway, begging for someone to take the job.

    Good times.

  11. Groundhog Day
    December 4, 2007 at 4:04 pm

    srr,

    Houston Nutt was a very underrated underappreciated coach. He is going to torment Arkansas and be very competitive in the tough SEC much like his Arkansas teams were.

  12. Flamingmonkeyass
    December 4, 2007 at 6:06 pm

    Macanudo: I’m going to ask the same question I’ve tried asking a few times already on the site (not to you specifically, but to other posters). Who can we get who will beat Bob Stoops? I can think of three coaches who’d I say could consistently outperform and/or beat Bob Stoops with some kind of regularity. Pete Carroll. Jim Tressel. Urban Meyer. And the last one is probably 50/50. None of them, as much as I’d love to believe they would, would part ways with their current gig to take over at the University of Texas. So who can we get? I’m curious to see what your answer is. Or for that matter, what anyone’s answer is because no one’s been able to give me a name yet.

    Look, I’m right there with you in terms of expectations for TEXAS. I’m just hampered by the realization that change for chage sake is as wise as Duane Akina’s defensive schemes. Especially when you’re talking about ousting a coach who is two years removed from a NC, and consistently wins 9-10-11 games. Convince me that there’s some football wizard out there just foaming at the mouth to take over the Longhorns and kick the shit out of ol’ Angry Bob and I’ll be the first guy in line to donate to the “sign Coach X” fund. I just don’t think he’s out there.

  13. srr50
    December 4, 2007 at 7:42 pm

    If anyone at Arkansas had half a brain they would hire Jeff Bower.

  14. Groundhog Day
    December 4, 2007 at 7:42 pm

    Flaming,

    Butch Davis and he would go to Austin in heartbeat. The talent he assembled at Miami was nothing short of unfair. The way I see it is we can keep winning in February and continue in the Fall. He will make some major noise at North Carolina.

  15. flamingmonkeyass
    December 4, 2007 at 8:14 pm

    Groundhog Day - interesting. You’re suggesting we hire the head coach of North Carolina? A man rumored to be able to out-recruit anyone in the country? Hmmm… Has there ever been a more appropriate screenname?

    I think Butch Davis would be a pretty good; but I think he’d be a good fit for the same reasons that Mack’s a good fit. If we could get Larry Coker with that deal I’d defintely consider it.

  16. Super
    December 4, 2007 at 9:15 pm

    Hell, I’d take Gary Patterson about now.

    Who’s with me?

  17. Unbiased Horn
    December 4, 2007 at 9:16 pm

    Why on earth would we want Larry Coker with that deal? Only one of those guys assembled a National Championship juggernaut. The other guy ruined one.

  18. flamingmonkeyass
    December 4, 2007 at 11:29 pm

    Larry Coker was an intergral part of those great Butch Davis’ teams. Coker is a hell of an assistant. As a head coach he blows. Kind of like Mike Stoops. Actually, how great would it be if we could somehow get the littlest angry Stoops to be our new DC? That’d be almost orgasmic. It’ll never happen though.

  19. Macanudo
    December 5, 2007 at 1:35 am

    As for the question of who…

    I’d take flier on one of the following. It can’t be any bigger leap than the one we took on Brown…

    Chris Peterson
    Jeff Tedford
    Jim Grobe
    Rich Rodriguez

    I know that several of those guys have had disappointing seasons but they are all relatively young (except for Grobe) and have all done a lot with less. Only West Virginia has risen to consistent top 10 prominence among these teams so maybe Rodriguez would leave his alma mater for a chance at the Texas job.

  20. flamingmonkeyass
    December 5, 2007 at 2:43 am

    Hey I respect that at least a couple of people have pitched out some names. But let me take a swing at those four just real quick:

    Chris Pederson - I agree he seems to be a pretty good coach; but he’s very offensive minded, and he’s still a relatively unknown commidity.

    Jeff Tedford - Really? The guy took the most talented team he’s probably ever had, a team that was right there in the middle of the year, and ended up with 5 losses. Hell Mack Brown can do that. And again, Tedford’s teams always seem heavy on offense, and not so much on defense.

    Rich Rodriguez - Well I guess we’ll see how Mr. Rodriguez does against Mr. Stoops come January. Again though, you’ve named a guy who has an incredible offensive scheme. A scheme I love because its basically the new wishbone, with an even better avenue for throwing the football available to it. But West Virigina’s problems this year are the same as last year’s and the year before. They can’t takle anyone. They can’t stop the run when they really need to. Isn’t that the sort of thing we’re trying to weed out? I’ll also say this, I don’t think Rich Rodriguez would come to the University of Texas. I mean he’s got a great recruiting base in the New Jersey/Penn/Ohio area; he’s got plenty of young talent, a manical fanbase that fills a deafening stadium, and the second best team in his confrence would probably finish 4th or 5th in the Big XII. And that’s with a much improved Big East confrence. Why would he want to leave a confrence where he can underperform and still go to the BCS for one where he’d have to contend every with OU?

    Now Jim Grobe intrigues me. Not sexually mind you, but from a football perspective. I suspect that Coach Grobe is trying to build something, and I know he’s turned down offers at other schools before; but I do believe that a job like UT would just be too tempting for him to pass up. He teaches fundamentally sound and physical defense, and he uses an offense scheme that’s actually very similiar to what we have in place now. Only, you know, with a successful short yardage attack (probably a result of the attitude of the players and coaches). I know the argument could be made that his team floundered towards the end of the season as well, but considering the gigantic bullseye that was thrust unexpectantly upon them, I thought they did a fairly remarkable job handling the pressure. Especially considering they’re probably about as talented as Texas Tech right now. I’d be very curious to see what Grobe could do at school with the resources of UT. Plus, you add in a recruiting knowledge and foothold in Florida combined with the natural success that would come in the state of Texas - and the potential recruiting pool would be disgusting. Of course, all that still doesn’t mean that he’d beat ou or Bob Stoops. Which means we’d still probably be in the same boat we’re in now.

  21. Groundhog Day
    December 5, 2007 at 5:05 am

    Flaming,

    I’m not sold on Rodriguez or Peterson. Grobe is a great coach, but don’t know what he would do in Austin.

    Another name, I would have thrown out is Tommy Tuberville. That guy can flat out coach. His teams play tenacious D, he hires great assistants and he wins despite playing second fiddle in his own state. It’s not as easy to win at Auburn as people think and he was robbed of a chance to play for a NC.

    I think it is realistic to think we could get him if we wanted to buy out his contract.

  22. Super
    December 5, 2007 at 8:38 am

    Patterson would all of those guys for breakfast and ask for seconds.

  23. Macanudo
    December 5, 2007 at 10:42 am

    Tedford had a shit ton of injuries on his team this year. Longshore was hurt or playing hurt nearly all season.

  24. utstudboy
    December 5, 2007 at 12:11 pm

    More news of Nutt and his assitants

  25. utstudboy
    December 5, 2007 at 12:12 pm

    From the link above

    “……….Nutt announced that five of his Arkansas assistants would be joining him at Ole Miss: offensive line coach Mike Markuson, tight ends coach James Shibest, safeties coach Chris Vaughn, offensive coordinator David Lee and defensive line coach Tracy Rocker. On Monday, the Monroe (La.) News-Star reported that Nutt had hired two assistants from Louisiana-Monroe, defensive coordinator Kim Dameron and secondary coach Ron Dickerson.”

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