ShareThisBy GREG WALLACE
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Two programs. Two Tigers. Two outspoken coaches named Tommy.
One town.
Two very different perspectives.
On December 26, 2005, while Clemson made its final preparations for the following day's Champs Sports Bowl matchup with Colorado, the Auburn football program joined them in Orlando, Fla., arriving for New Year's Day's Capital One Bowl against Wisconsin.
That day, "Fear The Thumb" was born.
Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville made his arrival in a "Fear The Thumb" T-shirt, trumpeting his program's four straight wins over archrival Alabama and wondering aloud about a fifth.
A few weeks earlier, Clemson coach Tommy Bowden had won his fourth straight game against archrival South Carolina. But there were no T-shirts. No talk. Instead, Bowden and his Tigers talked about building their program to the next level (it hasn't happened quite the way they wanted this year, but that's another story).
I thought about this after witnessing Auburn's 22-15 win over Alabama in Saturday's Iron Bowl _ I was there as an interested spectator and guest of my wife and her friends, Alabama season-ticket holders.
All over the state of Alabama Sunday, people buzzed about the Tigers' fifth straight win over their hated rivals.
The Birmingham News had a special section Sunday morning with a huge picture of Auburn cornerback David Irons, thumbs raised, and a banner headline saying "Thumbs Up."
Talk radio callers, letters to the editors and even columnists are wondering if Alabama coach Mike Shula _ who lost his fourth straight game to Auburn _ will survive the aftermath or merely make sweeping changes to his coaching staff.
Saturday, Bowden goes for his fifth straight win over equally hated foe South Carolina in a rivalry that goes under the national radar compared to Alabama-Auburn or Michigan-Ohio State or Oklahoma-Texas.
But you aren't hearing Clemson trumpet its domination over the Gamecocks. Instead, the buzz is about Gamecocks coach Steve Spurrier and the will he-won't he flirtation with Miami.
Bowden has made it clear that the South Carolina rivalry is important to him; it is his most asked-about game on the Tigers boosters' circuit. But it isn't an all-consuming passion.
He's 6-1 against South Carolina, but said last week he'd trade a 50-50 split with the Gamecocks for an every-year shot at the ACC title, a BCS berth and its multi-million dollar payday.
Maybe 63-36-4 _ Clemson's all-time record against USC _ has something to do with that. It's easier to talk about a rival when you're beating them every year.
Bowden has been on both sides of the Alabama-Auburn rivalry _ in the late 1980s as a Bill Curry assistant at Alabama and in the 1990s as an assistant under Pat Dye and his brother Terry at Auburn.
Curry was successful but never beat Auburn in three years, essentially forced out in 1989 before he took over at Kentucky.
"It's about being an Alabama guy," Bowden said. "We lost three straight and (Curry) got run out. Shula lost three straight and they gave him a contract extension."
That decision doesn't look so smart today.
If you're Bowden, you can say things like that. Because when it comes to South Carolina, he doesn't have much to fear these days.
