In a move that makes one think of the term “reactive, not proactive”, Clemson Tigers football coach Tommy Bowden benched ACC preseason POY Cullen Harper on Friday, the day after another anemic performance from the senior QB. On Thursday night, Clemson managed a meager 198 yards of total offense against Wake Forest, coming away with only 7 points in the contest.
Now certainly all the blame cannot be placed up Harper’s shoulders. True, he hasn’t come reomtely close to living up to the preseason hype, but neither has anyone else on the team this year. Harper has thrown 6 interceptions on the year, totalling one more than he had all of last year. To the surprise of some, Harper was voted as the ACC preseason player of the year, above his running back teammates James Davis and C.J. Spiller, respectively referred to often as Thunder and Lightning.
So now for next week’s game against ACC rival Georgia Tech, redshirt freshman QB Willy Korn from Byrnes High in Spartanburg, SC will get the start. Korn comes in the local kid, already a crowd favorite. Really in a way, Harper had no shot at all this year unless he played perfect. Korn was highly touted coming out of high school, ranked in the top 5 of quaterbacks nationwide in the 2006 class. He’s played a few snaps this year and some last year, but none against any real competition.
So what does Korn bring to the table that Harper didn’t? The first and biggest asset is his mobility. Harper isn’t one to make plays with his feet, which can hurt a QB that doesn’t have a very dependable line. Korn can scramble and pick up those first downs with his legs that Harper couldn’t. Secondly, Korn has great downfield vision. I understand you cannot really compare high school stats to Division 1 football, but what this kid did in high school was just insane. He finished his career at Byrnes with 10,716 yards passing and 125 touchdowns. As a junior, he set South Carolina state records for passing yards (4,164) and TDs (53). He led Byrnes to back-to-back state titles in ‘04 and ‘05. But this wasn’t against bad competition. Byrnes annually plays one, sometimes two out-of-state games against solid competition. Not to mention annual clashes with Gaffney High, another South Carolina powerhouse.
Bowden’s switch to Korn comes across to many fans as “too little, too late”. Most won’t be satisfied until Bowden himself is gone, but you have to give the man credit for being willing to switch things up. It’s just a shame that it took consecutive losses to lesser ACC schools for it to happen.
Korn’s bound to make some mistakes as young quarterbacks tend to do, but the fact is, he’s the future at Clemson. He’s wanted to be a Tiger all his life, dreaming of stepping behind center in a big game to prove his own God-given ability to the world. Next Saturday at high noon he gets that chance. Let’s jsut hope offensive coordinator Rob Spence doesn’t call boneheaded plays and just lets Korn do his thing. But no pressure Willy. Just know 80,000 fans will be at Death Valley next Saturday expecting you to be the savior of Clemson football. Good luck.
