Bowden firing won’t change Ga. Tech’s plan

Georgia Tech defensive tackle Vance Walker learned that Tommy Bowden eas no longer the Clemson head in atypical fashion.

Walker had just finished lifting weights, he said, and “somebody was running around the locker room screaming it.”

Not one to trust locker room criers, Walker confirmed the news through the Internet.

“I was shocked, but at the same time, it’s a business,” Walker said.

The Jackets, who will be the first opponent of the post-Bowden era, are keeping a like mind set about Saturday’s game at Clemson: It’s business.

“It won’t make a huge difference,” Tech coach Paul Johnson said. “They might tweak some things or change some things, but the players will be the same. The schemes will be the same. They’re not going to change everything in four days.”

Speaking as a colleague, Johnson said he was “disappointed” for Bowden’s ouster.

“You feel for him,” Johnson said. “Sometimes people don’t realize that’s a lot of people involved, a lot of families and a lot of people. You just wish him the best.”

Unlike Walker, linebacker Sedric Griffin, from Blair, S.C., about an hour from Clemson, was not as surprised.

“They’ve had a bounty on Tommy Bowden’s head for a long time,” Griffin said. “It’s just unfortunate somebody had to lose his job.”

Johnson addressed the matter at a team meeting prior to Monday’s practice.

“He made a point, which was very true, basically that it doesn’t really change anything for the players on this team,” said Walker, who was not recruited by Clemson coming out of Fort Mill.

Defensive coordinator Dave Wommack said he won’t change his approach now that Dabo Swinney is the interim head coach at Clemson. Wommack said he expects that quarterback Cullen Harper, from Sequoyah High, will start. The team will prepare for both Harper and freshman Willy Korn, whom Bowden had named the new starter last Friday.

Wommack said Clemson uses a lot of different formations on offense

“If they change, then we’ll have to change,” he said. “That’s one thing that’s nice about this defense, is that we can adjust on the run if we need to.”

Both Johnson and Walker suspected that the Jackets will get Clemson’s best shot.

“They’re probably going to come out with fire, if anything,” Walker said.

Former Tech quarterback and national scouting director for Scouts, inc. Tom Luginbill knows a little about that. Luginbill was the Jackets’ quarterback in 1994 when the school fired coach Bill Lewis with three games remaining in the season. Coincidentally, Tech played Clemson that week.

“I know this,” Luginbill. “We weren’t a very good football team and we played our tails off.”

Tech, under interim George O’Leary, lost 20-10, on its way to a 1-10 season.

“You almost become numb to” the speculation, Luginbill said. “And when it does happen, then the focus goes to, ‘O.K., things are going to change.’ “