Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 28, 1994 TAG: 9408260037
SECTION: COLLEGE FOOTBALL PAGE: FB12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Of the two new head football coaches in the ACC this year, Fred Goldsmith is clearly the more accomplished, with back-to-back consecutive winning seasons at previously downtrodden Rice.
In his only season as a head coach, Tommy West directed Tennessee-Chattanooga to a 4-7 record and was the only coach to experience defeat against VMI, yet he inherited a program that has been one of the most successful in college football over the last two decades.
Goldsmith said he left the security of his Rice job only after he was convinced of Duke's commitment, despite two winning seasons in the last 11. No one is exactly sure what Clemson wants, but what the Tigers didn't want was Ken Hatfield.
Clemson was so disenchanted with Hatfield, despite four victories in the last five games and an 8-3 record, that it refused his request to have his contract extended from three to four years. After Hatfield's resignation, Clemson wasted little time in hiring West, who coached outside linebackers under former Tigers' coach Danny Ford from 1982-89.
``I knew there would be comparisons with Danny Ford because I was there for eight years,'' said West, a tall former University of Tennessee tight end who resembles Ford in stature and homespun manner. ``I learned a lot from him, [but] one thing that helped me after the break in 1989 was going some other places.''
There are plenty of connections, not all of them between Ford and West. Ford is now the head coach at Arkansas, where Hatfield served from 1984-89, while Hatfield has taken over at Rice, where Goldsmith was the coach from 1989-93.
Goldsmith, once the defensive coordinator for Hatfield at Arkansas, rejected Duke at an early stage of the Blue Devils' coaching search but had a change in heart after Virginia offensive coordinator Tom O'Brien withdrew from consideration.
Goldsmith's reversal came as a surprise to his Rice staff, which wasn't thrilled about going through a second rebuilding campaign.
``I don't think, when I broke the news to them, they jumped for joy,'' Goldsmith said. ``They asked if they got basketball tickets. But, after the first recruiting weekend, they said, `Now, we know why you wanted to do it.'
``I feared Duke in recruiting when I was at Rice. At Rice, there was a challenge of trying to survive as a Division I athletic program against a lot of people who didn't want us to have a Division I athletic program. The football program here is nowhere near as down as it was there.''
Goldsmith's decision seemed particularly wise in light of the resulting break-up of the Southwest Conference. When Texas and Texas A&M headed a four-team move to the Big Eight, Rice and others were left to scramble for conference affilition and now appear headed for the Western Athletic Conference.
``There were question marks about the Southwest Conference, but I didn't know [the split] was going to happen,'' Goldsmith said. ``I didn't have a timetable on it. However, I didn't come here because of what was going to happen there.''
Duke has had one of the nation's premier men's basketball programs for more than a decade, but the football team has drawn poorly and won sporadically and athletic director Tom Butters had to convince Goldsmith he was serious.
``He told me he would slug it out with me and wanted to make it work,'' Goldsmith, 50, said. ``Step by step, he's been beside us doing the things we needed to do to make conditions more conducive to win. I wanted the challenge as long as there was going to be a commitment to win.''
No one has ever questioned Clemson's commitment to winning. Some might call it an obsession. Hatfield failed to win nine games only once in four seasons, but a 5-6 season in 1992 resulted in dwindling attendance and declining contributions and even a late surge couldn't save him.
Some have pointed to Hatfield's devotion to an option offense. Clemson ranked last in the ACC in scoring and total offense last year, but Ford's teams were never known for offensive fireworks. More than anything, Ford had an earthiness that appealed to the Clemson faithful in rural southwestern South Carolina.
Ford also had an inattention to detail that caused Clemson to run afoul of the NCAA and eventually cost him his job, although he received a healthy settlement without technically being fired. West has been careful, in his public pronouncements, to stress that football will be given a proper perspective.
``My philosophy was set a long time ago: just play tough, hard-nosed physical football and do it in a first-class way,'' said West, who turned 40 on the last day of July. ``That doesn't sound complicated enough to warrant being a head football coach; there's got to be more to it, or anybody could do it. But, simple as it sounds, it still works.''
West was introduced as Clemson coach on Nov. 29 - five days after Hatfield's resignation - and just over one month later directed the Tigers to a 14-13 victory over Kentucky in the Peach Bowl. Clemson scored the winning touchdown on a 21-yard pass with 20 seconds remaining.
"I said beforehand that I didn't think we had to win the game,'' said West, the first head coach to experience victory in a bowl game after coaching elsewhere in the regular season, ``but the way we won the game - and the excitement, energy and enthusiam it created - was a real lift for our program.''
by CNB