Hatfield or Ford?

Good question, and I know it’s very different from a Clemson perspective, but from an Arkansas perspective it’s Hatfield by a very long shot. Funny how their track records at each school were so opposite.

The Razorback football team that moved into the SEC was a small, slow, and weak team.

In 1992 it was a MAJOR SHOCK that Arkansas beat Tennessee and LSU that year (yes, the Hogs also beat South Carolina that year, but they too were the new team to the SEC that year)

The Razorbacks were being led by Jack Crow, the young, up and coming coaching mastermind that had never been a head coach before and the program had lost all of their good talent that Hatfield recruited.

although I am split on favoring one of the two former head coaches. I’m pretty much 50/50 on that opinion. I have a lot of respect for both men.

Hatfield was a man of integrity and a true Razorback. He had his fair share of ugly losses throughout his tenure, but is most remembered for his last two seasons as the head Hog.
In 1987, a very, very talented Miami team came to Little Rock and hammered the Hogs on national tv to the tune of something like 57-7. At that particular time, I wouldn’t say Hog fans were all too crazy about the leadership of the football program.
It was the following season the Hogs almost got their revenge at Miami when Steve Atwater dropped a would be INT in the endzone to secure a Hog victory that eventually ended with Miami kicking a FG to win the game 18-16.
Hatfield ended his final two seasons losing to UCLA in the Cotton Bowl, 17-3 and to Tennessee in a repeat Cotton Bowl appearance, 31-27.

Now, here’s my issue with comparing Danny Ford’s resume with Hatfield’s.
First off, Hatfield coached against SWC competition in the 1980s. Compare that to SEC competition in the ‘90s under Ford and Hatfield looks to be much less impressive, regardless of what he did in his last two seasons.
Also, Hatfield coached for 6 seasons, compared to 5 for Ford. Who’s to say Ford wouldn’t have had a breakout season in ‘98? All the peices were there to be successful, and you can’t deny the fact that Danny Ford was the man who put those pieces together, otherwise why did everything crumble so fast under Nutt after those first two seasons with Danny’s players?

My overall assessment is that Danny Ford was put in a position to win in the SEC before this program was even close enough to consider competing at an adequately high level. Once he got them there, Ford was let go and Nutt had a very good group of talented and experienced players to work with for his first two seasons.
Had Ford been that guy to lead those two squads, he would rank much higher than Hatfield in my book because of the great competition level in the SEC.

Hatfield should get the slight edge, but not by much IMO.

I thought I’d come back and post this here since there was some discussion about how Hatfield left. I figured everybody over here would be interested in this. This just came out on Rivals Clemson site this week.

On January 21, 1990, three days after Clemson’s administration ran off national championship head coach Danny Ford, former Arkansas head coach Ken Hatfield was ushered in as the program’s front man, following talks with Max Lennon, Bobby Robinson and Nick Lomax.

AP
Hatfield is the last head coach to win a conference championship at Clemson.
Hatfield took over a program that was under NCAA investigation and would subsequently be placed on probation just four months after his arrival.

The former Southwest Conference Coach of the Decade also found himself greeted by the fallout in a fan base that was deeply divided following Ford’s departure, wounds that would not heal during his four-year run as head coach, with some Clemson boosters contacting prospective student-athletes to encourage them to sign elsewhere.

Hatfield, the last head coach to post a 10-win season and win a conference championship at Clemson, would see his run come to an end following an 8-3 ledger in 1993 and a 32-13-1 mark overall, after a meeting with members of Clemson’s administration in Robinson’s home.

In late May I sat down with Hatfield for an exclusive, one-on-one interview, where the 68-year old placed himself back in Clemson, South Carolina as the program’s head football coach one more time.

This is Ken Hatfield, in his own words.

This is his story.

TI EXCLUSIVE:

Ard. Coach, it’s good to talk with you. Thanks for taking the time. Let’s get started.

You’re named the Southwest Conference Coach of the Decade after five consecutive seasons of nine wins or more at Arkansas, which included four of five seasons where your teams finished in the top 15. Clemson also was a dominant power in the 80’s. Observing the program from afar, what were your impressions?

Hatfield. “Well at that time they were doing outstanding. They had just won four straight bowl games and had come off three straight 10-win seasons. And they had won a national championship. Jack Crowe was on my staff the last year I was here at Arkansas, but he had been on Clemson’s staff with Danny Ford, so he had been keeping up with them. He probably had more inside knowledge about Clemson. I knew they were always competitive. The few games we had a chance to see them, I just thought they were really impressive.”

Ard. Ford’s resignation is announced on January 18, 1990. You were announced as head coach just three days later. Talk about the days leading up to your hire and how you were contacted.

Hatfield. “Jack (Crowe) called me. Some people at Clemson had talked to Jack. They said they were going to make a change and wanted to know if I’d be interested.”

Ard. Talk about the interview process. When was the first time you met Bobby Robinson?

Hatfield. “The first time I met him was when they flew to Memphis, Tenn. We met at a hotel, Bobby Robinson, Max Lennon and Nick Lomax.

Ard. After visiting with them, what were you thinking?

Hatfield. “You have to have time to get by yourself and there are certain things you probably didn’t mention. Those were the types of things I was thinking about. You think about what you might not have covered. I had to think about it, pray about it, but I did feel like both sides had something in common if we were to go further. And I felt like we needed to talk again.”

Ard. Clemson was hit with probation in June of 1990. The investigation had been ongoing before you took the job. Did this impact your thinking when you were looking at the job?

Hatfield. “I knew they were being investigated, but I got no indication (from the administration) that there was anything factual that made a difference. They never mentioned anything to me that they felt was major.”

Ard. The day comes, you’re announced as the head football coach, you and your wife get out of a car, arrive at the stadium and begin walking in for your press conference. There is a horde of people outside booing. There is extra security on hand. How did that make you feel?

Hatfield. “During the press conference I didn’t know what was going on outside. We didn’t know about the ill feelings and the demonstrations until we touched down in Clemson. But while the press conference went on, there were people outside upset.”

Ard. Clemson’s Hall of Fame head coach, Frank Howard, went out of his way to talk to several fans that day and encouraged them to get behind you. You had just met him, but already he was on board with you. What did you think about that?

Hatfield. “That was big. After the press conference he said, ’Let’s go meet them right now.’ So we went out in the middle of them and we met some of them. Coach Howard said, ‘This is Clemson’s coach. He had nothing to do with what’s taking place. You’re looking at the wrong people if you want to demonstrate. There’s always going to be a coach at Clemson, so let’s get behind him.’ He was very passionate. With the respect that he had from Clemson people, I think that helped a little.”

Ard. You would soon meet with your team for the first time. What was that like?

Hatfield. “The first time I met with them was in the dormatory after the press conference. I had asked the coaches to get all the players down there. I just told them about me, my philosophy. I think things were still swirling about the change being made. But I don’t think any of them thought that I was part of the reason. But all of them were still trying to figure out what had happened. They were attentive, quiet and just listened. They were respectful. I introduced my wife to them and told them what a competitor she was, I talked about our background and what we believed in and I told them that I looked forward to meeting with them.”

Ard. Did you talk with coach Ford about the job after you were announced as head coach?

Hatfield. “I did. I drove out to Danny’s farm and we talked. He knew the players, he had recruited the players and I wanted his perspective. He had been there as an assistant coach and a head coach, so from my standpoint, I thought he had a lot of insight into the school and what was going on. He was very open, very honest and I appreciated what he had to say.”

Ard. Let’s talk about your initial staff, because you retained some of Ford’s coaches, but also brought several with you from Arkansas.

Hatfield. “The main thing with me whenever I moved is that I always tried to take all of my staff that I could with me, all that wanted to go, because I had hired them and they’d already worked for me. I gave almost all of them at Arkansas a chance to come, even Jack, who was our offensive coordinator. But they pulled Jack off the plane to give him the head coaching job (at Arkansas).

“I interviewed Rick (Stockstill). He had been at Clemson for one year and I felt he had a great connection to Florida and I thought he had a lot to offer. Larry Vanderheyden was someone who had worked with their offensive line for a long time. He was certainly a good coach and had done a good job. Les (Herrin), I did not have a position for him because of Dick Bumpas, who came with me. But Dick stayed for about two days, then had an opportunity to work at Notre Dame. He felt like it might be a good opportunity, so he left. I had a position open then, so Les stayed on, which gave me both line coaches who had been there. And the defense had been outstanding, there were a lot of players coming back, so that was good, to have that continuity.”

Ard. Were there other Ford assistants that had opportunities with you?

Hatfield. “Only two right away with Larry and Rick. I interviewed Chuck (Reedy), but I had positions (that would be filled) coming from Arkansas. I told some of them that I wanted to interview them because I didn’t know what was going to happen. I interviewed all the volunteer coaches as well.”

Ard. Clyde Wrenn had worked with Clemson’s staff since the early 1970’s. You opted to keep him as your recruiting coordinator. Talk about what you felt he brought to the table for you.

Hatfield. “He knew everyone in the state, in the South. And I had gotten some good input from Jack Crowe. He knew all those guys on the staff, he had seen them work, so I had a little knowledge of them. He knew Clyde was a hard, hard worker. Clyde was just on top of everything and had done a tremendous job in recruiting.”

Ard. You don’t have a lot of time to gather your first recruiting class, a group where several prospects had already been committed to the previous staff. Some of the notables from your initial class: Michael Barber out of Lewisville, Curtis Brown of John’s Island, Warren Forney of Rutherfordton, NC, Josh Holloway from Oxen Hill, MD, Tim Jones from Rock Hill, Nelson Welch from Greer, Ronald Williams from Ninety Six and Derrick Witherspoon from Sumter.

Hatfield. “It was good, considering that we got in late. The first thing we did when we got there was contact all the commitments, get in their homes and talk to them. They had a reason they’d already accepted. And a lot of them lived close to the campus. I always liked to get people who were close enough to the campus so that their families could come see them play.

“Nelson, I still talk with him every now and then and see him at clinics, Ronald started as a true freshman and had some outstanding games. Warren had gone to prep school. Tim was just a tough, tough linebacker. We got some good people who contributed for us in the next few years.”

Ard. Talk about your strategy of identifying prospects and building your recruiting board in the early 1990s.

Hatfield. “Clyde knew all the coaches. You’d go to the clinics and everyone knew about Clemson because it had won a national championship. Clemson was the first ACC school to enlarge its stadium to 80,000. There weren’t any big stadiums in the conference when Clemson enlarged theirs. Everyone knew if you wanted to play big-time college football in the ACC, you’d have to go to Clemson. Clemson was also playing Georgia every year, so that set up some big recruiting battles.

“Being close to Atlanta, it was easy to recruit. You knew what you were looking for and you had a brand of football that high school coaches knew.”

Ard. You begin to work on spring practice and you’ve got to familiarize yourself with your players. What was this process like?

Hatfield. “We relied on Clyde and the three coaches who were carryovers to tell us the history of a guy. We pretty much listened to those coaches, looked at film and then looked at our scheme and decided what we were going to do. It was very similar offensively and defensively, so there wasn’t a lot of change.

“I’d always try to get our #1 offense to go against our #1 defense everyday, even if it was just for a first down series. We wanted to do this just to keep the speed of the game fresh with them. I remember we went three weeks before our offense ever got a first down on our defense in practice. The defensive players were truly outstanding. I knew then we’d be really, really good. The fourth week of that spring we put the ball near the goal line and I think we finally scored three out of five times.

“We ended up with the No. 1 defense in America. And we had some great, great players on defense … Chester McGlockton, Jerome Henderson, Dexter Davis, Brentson Buckner, Levon Kirkland, Wayne Simmons, Doug Brewster, just phenomenal. It’s like we had two full teams of starters on defense.”

Ard. Did you feel in the spring that you had a team that could compete for the national championship?

Hatfield. “I felt like going into the season we had a chance to be very good. I knew that we had a chance to be great on defense and that this would keep us in every game. We had a great kicking game and offensively it was just a matter of getting solid enough and not turning the ball over and making mistakes.”

Ard. Before we get into the season, I want to talk about the booster circuit for a moment. What was that like that spring?

Hatfield. “It was good. I went to every IPTAY club meeting. I always told them that I’d go any time, anywhere. We went to California, New York, we went everywhere. It didn’t matter. I told them I wanted to go to all of them.”

Ard. Clemson people had been used to another coach leading the football program, so they were trying to get to know you and you were trying to get to know them. What did you think of Clemson supporters after you’d met them that spring?

Hatfield. “Tremendous support and they had a lot of pride for Clemson and for IPTAY itself. There was a great passion and love for the school. They wanted to know what kind of team they were going to have.

“It was hard, because we’d have to fly back, but I would try to shake everybody’s hand before we had to leave. Coach (Bill) Wilhelm and coach (Cliff) Ellis were usually with us.”

Ard. You finish 10-2, ranked 9th in the nation, and defeat Illinois 30-0 in the bowl game. What do you remember about your first season?

Hatfield. “We lost to Virginia for the first time. And they were a very, very talented team. It was early in the year and maybe we weren’t at our peak. They were just extremely good. We lost to Georgia Tech a few weeks later by two points. We get a run down at the 20-yard line before the half but it’s called back because of a clip. They won the national championship that year. We played hard enough and good enough to win in Atlanta. I thought we played very well in the bowl game over the Big Ten champs.”

Ard. Your defense finishes #1 in America and there’s a photo op with some of your players in front of a tiger. There’s a story behind this, as I understand it.

Hatfield. “We took a picture of the defensive team, and brought a tiger out there. The old guy with a tiger brought it to Wayne Simmons and told him, ‘Whatever you do, don’t let go of the chain.’ We take a picture on the field and that tiger started yawning. Everyone scattered, everyone. Chester ran and got in the tiger’s cage. But Wayne was standing right there, the only one left standing, and he was right there with that tiger, closing his eyes. I wanted to take a picture with it but he was getting grumpy. I did end up getting a picture beside him, but he started to get tired and was panting, so I got a quick picture and got out of there.”

Ard. How did you feel about the program and where you were coming off year one?

Hatfield. “I felt we had something to build on. I thought we had established what kind of ball we were going to play. I think that’s the main thing. I felt we’d have a good year and we did.”

Ard. Let’s talk about your 1991 recruiting class. The notables: You re-sign Barber, Andre Carter of Camden, Marvin Cross of Durham, NC, you re-sign Forney, Jeff Fortner of Washington, MD, Henry Guess of Cordova, Robert Jackson out of Washington, D.C., Trevor Putnam out of Canton, NC, Jeff Sauve of Mechanicsburg, Pa., Lamarick Simpson of Rock Hill, Louis Solomon of Somerset, NJ and Darnell Stephens of Converse, TX.

Hatfield. “Darnell was a 220-pound defensive back who could sit there with jeans and do splits. He was a phenomenal athlete. He was a punt-returner at 220 pounds. Very gifted athlete, a great player. We were tickled to death to get him. And we went to a lot of places, being from Arkansas and knowing a lot of coaches there and in Texas. We had stayed in touch with a lot of those coaches. We were just fortunate to get Darnell out of there. We would get players out of Mississippi, too. We ended up getting one or two out of Alabama. We had a wide recruiting area.”

Ard. You lose Bob Trott to the NFL and you hire Ron Dickerson to run your defense. Talk about that move and what you felt he could do for you.

Hatfield. “Ron’s son had played for us at Arkansas. We had been to Penn State before to recruit him. I knew Ron and his wife and family. He had been at Penn State with Joe Paterno for quite some time. He wanted to be a head coach at some point and wanted to be a DC, but that wasn’t going to happen at Penn State. Knowing him as a person, knowing he could have a resume as a coordinator at a top program, I think those are some selling points I tried to talk with him about. And it worked out, because he ended up getting a head coaching opportunity at Temple.”

• Tigerillustrated.com will release part II of The Ken Hatfield Files tomorrow.