Patrick Stevens The Washington Times - September 27, 2008, 06:39PM

CLEMSON, S.C. —- Today was an example of Clemson being unable to escape its intrinsic, inevitable … well, Clemsonliness.

Every league, it seems, has a team that finds ways to inexplicably lose games it has no business losing on an annual basis. I’d nominate Pittsburgh, Michigan State, Texas A&M, UCLA and probably South Carolina for those honors in the other BCS conferences.

SEE RELATED:

In the ACC, it’s Clemson. So it should come as no surprise that the Tigers lost as a ranked team at home to an unranked opponent for the seventh time since 2000.

Think about that. Seven losses as a ranked team to an unranked opponent. At home. All under Tommy Bowden.

Those boos that Clemson fans were hurling into Death Valley were very much directed at Bowden, who should have a team capable of winning an ACC title but is instead 1-2 against major-college teams as September ends.

Here, of course, is the documentation on all of the Tigers’ humbling home losses under Bowden.

Year Opponent CU rank Score Opp. final record
2000 Georgia Tech 5 L, 31-28 9-3
2001 Virginia 19 L, 26-24 5-7
2001 North Carolina 13 L, 38-3 8-5
2004 Georgia Tech 20 L, 28-24 7-5
2006 Maryland 19 L, 13-12 9-4
2006 South Carolina 24 L, 31-28 8-5
2008 Maryland 20 L, 20-17 —-

Ralph Friedgen was involved in three of these losses, for what it’s worth.

To Clemson fans, the real issue is that Bowden was involved in all of them.

—- Patrick Stevens