Bowden as bad as Beamer The shady de-cruitment of T. Nelson E-Mail This Article by Brian Heard Staff Writer Feb. 2, 2005 In a soft, good-ol-boy Southern drawl Tommy Bowden looked Tony Nelson in the eyes and told him if he accepted a scholarship offer to play football at Clemson University, he expected the 17-year-old Northwest High rising senior to honor the commitment -- he didn't want any players in the program without honor. The key word is "players." Apparently, the coaches aren't held to the same standard. Four weeks ago, four weeks before national signing day (Feb. 2), Bowden, 44-29 in six years as the Tigers head coach, had one of his assistant coaches call Northwest head coach Randy Trivers to rescind the scholarship offer Nelson had honored, reveled in, for seven months. Welcome to big-time college football recruiting -- at its ugliest. The courtship It's May 2004, and just as he does every spring, Northwest head football coach Randy Trivers is busy sending out tapes of his players to college coaching staffs, trying to give his boys as much exposure as possible to better equip them for the recruiting wars ahead. He gets an enthusiastic call back from Clemson defensive coordinator John Lovett, who is responsible for recruiting the Mid-Atlantic region for the Tigers (the 1981 national champions). Lovett makes his way from the South Carolina "up country" to the burgeoning national capitol suburb of Germantown. He's interested in star Northwest quarterback Ike Whitaker, a name high on many recruiters' wish lists since he was a sophomore. But while he's in town, Trivers makes sure he sees tape on Nelson, a sparingly recruited rising senior, whose power and speed make for an intriguing blend of smash and dash. Trivers tells Lovett Nelson (5-foot-10, 205 pounds) has grown a couple of inches and put on 20 pounds since last fall. Lovett wants to meet him, and when he does he thinks he's found an undiscovered gem, an increasing rarity in the ever more intricate recruiting game. He runs home to South Carolina with the big news. In early June, Clemson wants Nelson to come down to make an unofficial visit. He and Trivers make the trip. They get the grand tour: big lunch, Memorial Stadium (better known as Death Valley), The Hill, Howard's Rock, the training facilities. Nelson works out for the coaches, as well, and is timed twice at 4.4 seconds in the 40-yard dash at the school's indoor track, and makes a big impression on running backs coach Burton Burns, only reinforcing the impression on Lovett. Bowden, too, watches and likes what he sees. He makes a scholarship offer. The marriage "We felt really good about everything," Trivers said. "They really liked [Tony] and let him know how much they wanted him. I think Tony was very impressed. I don't think he wanted to go through his senior year with a college decision hanging over his head." With Trivers' advice, and after speaking with his parents, Nelson committed to Clemson soon after the offer was made. The only other school in the running was Marshall. And so the summer and a good portion of the fall passes in honeymoon, harmonic bliss. The soft-spoken, easy-going Nelson shares with family and friends his optimism for the future at Clemson, following the Tigers' tumultuous 2004 season through an early-season slump (1-4 record) to a scintillating finish (6-5 final mark), including a victory over highly ranked Miami (Fla.) and in-state rival South Carolina. Stories in the newspapers and on TV say, "Clemson-bound Tony Nelson". Best part is Northwest is on a run to the Maryland state Class 3A title. Nelson is a crucial element, playing both offense and defense for the Jaguars. But amid the jubilation, there's cause for concern. In late November, during the latter stages of the state playoffs, Trivers gets a call from Clemson whip linebackers/rovers coach Thielen Smith. He says he's en route to Germantown and that Lovett, after his third season at Clemson (his 25th as a college coach), has been fired (despite the fact the Tigers have improved their defense markedly during his two years as defensive coordinator). Smith will arrive shortly and wants to make sure Nelson and Trivers know the Tigers still want Nelson badly -- after all, they've recently completed their season averaging 107.5 yards per game rushing, the fewest since the program began keeping records in 1938. "Tony told him, 'Don't worry, I'm still coming,'" Trivers said. "'I want to be a Tiger. I made the commitment and I'm coming.'" But a week later, early December (Northwest has just won its first-ever state title); another call reaches Trivers' office. It's from Clemson graduate assistant coach Billy Napier, a former standout quarterback at Division I-AA Furman University just up the road from Clemson in Greenville, S.C. He says Smith (a seven-year Bowden assistant) has been fired as well. Napier travels to Germantown, again to erase any creeping doubts Nelson and Trivers may have about the Tigers' program. He wants to set up an official visit for Nelson in the third week of January and reiterates how excited Bowden and Co. are to have Nelson in the fold. Then, the phone calls stop. "I knew when they hadn't called for a while that something was going on," Trivers said. "Usually, there's constant contact. As a college, you don't know. You have a verbal commitment, but you don't know for sure until they actually, physically sign. So you're still recruiting. Something was wrong. It was very strange." Clemson sports information director Tim Bourret said no one at the university is able to comment on the situation. The divorce The New Year: 2005. Nelson and Trivers haven't heard from Clemson for the better part of three weeks. On Jan. 4, the phone rings. It's Clemson recruiting coordinator and linebackers coach David Blackwell. According to Trivers he says, "Coach, we just looked over Tony's academic records in our file and we don't think he's going to make it." Blackwell rescinds Nelson's scholarship, using academics as the reason, saying they can't take the risk of him not qualifying. In fairness to Clemson, Nelson has not yet met NCAA eligibility requirements for scholarship qualification. But he's right on the border, needing a 50-point improvement on his SAT score or a 0.125 upgrade in his grade-point average -- miniscule numbers by recruiting standards. But Blackwell never asks when Nelson will be taking the SATs again or if he's taking any SAT prep classes or what his grades were in the second semester of the school year. It was not the conversation of someone who wanted Nelson at Clemson "They went the academic route, saying he wasn't going to make it," Trivers said. "He has four more opportunities at the SATs, he's got senior grades to factor in. I don't get it. He's a slam-dunk to qualify. I told their recruiting coordinator, 'You're not talking to a rookie here. I've had many Division-I athletes and a lot of 'em were worse off than Tony and made it at athletically and academically comparable or better schools than Clemson.' He said, 'I don't know about that, but from our calculations he's not going to be able to do it.' Reading between the lines, the reality of the situation is, they got a commitment from a running back and were in on another running back and Tony's all the way up in Maryland, and they're all the way down in South Carolina, so the hell with Coach Trivers and Northwest. They could never recruit here again and still win championships. They don't need Maryland as their lifeblood for recruiting. There is no way this would have happened had Tony been from South Carolina. They wouldn't have dared burn that bridge." On Dec. 16, Clemson received a verbal commitment from Miami, Fla., speed-burner Demerick Chancellor, ranked as the 44th-best running back recruit in the nation by rivals.com, a leading internet recruiting site. But the Tigers were still in the running for Atlanta's James Davis and Columbia, S.C.'s Mike Davis, rated as the sixth- and 22nd-best running back prospects by rivals.com. They needed room on their recruiting board. Nelson, who is not ranked in the top 100 by rivals.com, was an easy cut. He wasn't from their recruiting bases of South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida. He was from Maryland, an area Clemson does not need to recruit well to survive. James Davis committed to Clemson on Jan. 15. "I was a little upset," Nelson said. "But I always try to stay positive, that's just how I am. I thought it was wrong, but I just tried to do my best to get over it." Trivers wanted to talk to Bowden and left several messages for the coach. After 30 hours, Bowden called Trivers back. "He was passing the buck off on to John Lovett," Trivers said. "I found that a little disturbing because he wasn't taking any responsibility. Then, I say, 'Look Coach, Tony's going to make it. He's going to get these numbers. His ability to make it is about as sure as Michael Jordan on a fast-break dunk. That's going to be two points. That's how close it is.' There are 118 coaches in Division I-A. If you put Tony's numbers in front of them they'd all say, 'Yep, recruitable player.' Tony Nelson will sign on Wednesday, and the school he's signing with is under the same NCAA guidelines as Clemson. Their story of him being in trouble academically is bogus. "I told him, 'Coach I thought you were a man of integrity and honor, but I guess I was wrong. I don't know how you look yourself in the mirror after what you did to this young man and his family.' He said, 'Well I understand you're upset Coach, and the Bowden name wasn't built on incidents like this and I understand I'll probably never be able to recruit at your school again. I've probably damaged that relationship forever. But I'm going to make sure something like this doesn't happen again.' He went on and on with his Bowden, televangelist, Southern shtick. It was unbelievable, appalling." The healing Late January 2005. Tony Nelson has had three-plus weeks to find a new school. Whatever Clemson and Bowden did had left him hurt, but also in a lurch. Most schools had not wasted resources recruiting him, thinking he was locked in at Clemson. By January, most schools had their recruits lined up, ready to sign on Feb. 2. There were still a few opportunities out there, but not close to the number Nelson would have had had he been available throughout the fall and winter. The timing of Clemson's move was probably the most egregious of its sins. But Nelson is a talented quantity. And a day after Clemson rescinded, the University of Massachusetts, a Division I-AA powerhouse, offered him a full ride. West Virginia showed interest. So did East Carolina, Temple and Virginia. But those schools couldn't promise a scholarship. They were doing the ethical thing, telling Nelson if one of the recruits they hoped to get fell though, he could have their scholarship. But Nelson has chosen the sure thing this time, as he thought he did the last time. He'll go to UMass. "My biggest thing was I felt I could trust them," Nelson said. "The players were cool. The coaches I liked. As soon as the stuff happened with Clemson they came down here the next day. Right then and there, I knew they were serious." Count it as a lesson learned for Nelson, and Trivers, albeit the hard way. And, maybe, in the final analysis, it's a blessing in disguise. "I feel maybe this is a blessing," Trivers said. "I hate for him to have to go through it, but I don't think I've ever coached a kid who could have handled this any better than Tony. I feel terrible because I feel somewhat responsible for this. I help in the recruiting process with the kids, I advise them and I really thought him committing early to Clemson was a good idea. There's a side of me now that wishes he would never have committed because he would have had so many more opportunities then what he ended up with."
Re: Bowden as bad as Beamer Bowden did the same thing when he was at Tulane. The QB who led Cecilia to an undefeated State Championship in 1995 was considering USL and Northwestern. Tommy Bowden sat in his living room with his Mom and Dad and offered him a scholarship to Tulane. After he got the commitment from Ramsey (I believe) they never heard from Bowden again. The kid was crushed and never played football after that, despite an offer of a full ride from Northwestern. He was a 4.0 student with tons of potential and a rocket for an arm.
Re: Bowden as bad as Beamer Thielen Smith, the Clemson assistant coach mentioned in the article, was a great linebacker at LSU in the 1970s. Sorry to hear he was fired at Clemson - but to be away from Bowden is probably a blessing.
Re: Bowden as bad as Beamer Bowden better start paying recruits to come to Clemson soon because his ass is on the line next year.
I apologize if this has been posted and I am just re-stating it.... But WOW I really hope that Nick Saban nor Les Miles do something like this.... http://www.gazette.net/200505/poolesville/sports/258069-1.html
This is the same kind of backtracking that landed Zook in disfavor with many Florida H.S. coaches. Why Clemson wouldn't have wanted to hold on to this kid is somewhat of a mystery.
Great article. Thanks for posting it. I like the Bowden's less and less as the years go by.... That's too bad what Clemson did to that kid. :dis:
