The trouble with coaching searches is that both athletics departments and coaches are highly incentivized to lie to the media. Was Beamer was genuinely looking to get out of Blacksburg in 1998 or just increasing his leverage for contract extension? It’s not entirely clear. 2 candidate on each team’s short list was Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer. Considering that many of the same coaches populated USC and Clemson’s shortlists, we could have easily had a situation where the Gamecocks and Tigers were both bidding against each other for the same one or two coaches. The swift and decisive action was made all the more impressive by the fact that USC and Clemson were also competing against vacancies at Oklahoma, Iowa, Ole Miss, and Auburn - any of which might have been considered less risky destinations for a legend like Lou Holtz or a rising star with a national-championship bloodline, like Tommy Bowden.īut if Holtz had decided to stay in the CBS studio and Bowden had opted for, say, the newly vacant Ole Miss job, things would have gotten interesting. Within two weeks of season’s end, the Gamecocks and Tigers had each made bold moves to salvage their foundering football programs, securing their top-choice candidates with little in the way of public-facing drama. And the ‘98 Clemson team only just avoided the same dismal fate by getting to three wins against the Gamecocks. USC had just finished the worst season in the 102-year history of its program.
Both South Carolina and Clemson fired their head coaches in November 1998, and each school entered the hiring market with a sense of urgency.
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