The Ken Hatfield Files

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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 in a Memphis, Tenn. hotel.

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 until 2011, would see his run come to an abrupt 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 less than 24 hours following the regular season finale in Columbia.

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

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Five years ago when I began working on this project, the first person I contacted was longtime Clemson sports information director Tim Bourret, also known by many as a walking Clemson encyclopedia. When I told Mr. Bourret what I was trying to do, I remember him telling me that the coach who'd give me the most pushback was Ken Hatfield. And sure enough, such was the case.

It was very obvious to me in a nanosecond that Ken Hatfield didn't want any part of this series. He didn't want to be interviewed. He didn't want to talk. Up until that time in May of 2011, I had never had anyone deny an interview to me. Hatfield was the first. I remember calling him and telling him what I wanted to do. We spoke briefly, he declined. I asked again and he declined, simply telling me to "have a good day" before ending the call.

I reached him again to ask him to reconsider. I then told him that I had already interviewed Hootie Ingram, Red Parker, Tommy West and Tommy Bowden. I told him as we would release the series, we would get peppered with questions on where the Ken Hatfield interview was. I told him we would have to disclose publicly that we made attempts to reach him but he declined to be interviewed.

Again, no dice. He wasn't interested.

He said to me, "I don't think you understand how difficult a time this was for me and my family."

I knew what he was referring to, of course. Here was a guy who had immense success as Arkansas' head coach in the 1980's. He'd had success at Air Force. He came to Clemson after being told by Clemson's administration they were so eager to clean up the program's image that they were willing to shut down the football program for two years.

Essentially, as soon as Mr. Hatfield and his wife stepped off the plane on January 21, 1990, they were greeted with a chorus of boos. And the boos in Clemson, South Carolina never stopped for Ken Hatfield.

No other head coach in Clemson history inherited a team that was talented enough to compete for the national championship from day one. But no other head coach in Clemson history had to fight more battles on his own campus than Ken Hatfield. Boosters were routinely writing letters to prospects, begging them not to sign with the Tigers. They were angry at Danny Ford's departure. They were angry at the manner in which Ford was removed. Their feeling was it was best to just blow up the joint and start over fresh. Division was so bad in the Clemson fan base that four years later in the spring of 1994, Clemson head coach Tommy West chided a number of boosters for their incessant public trashing of Ken Hatfield, who had nothing to do with Ford's dismissal. West was frustrated with the venom and negativity displayed by so many Clemson people who were willing to go to great lengths to get Ford back in the head coaching chair, no matter what.

Hatfield was oblivious to what he was getting into. In fact he didn't know how toxic the environment was in Clemson until he and his wife were up in the air in a plane en route from Arkansas.

Many years later the prevailing sentiment from Clemson fans - at least from an on-the-field perspective - is that Ken Hatfield did quite well in Clemson until he ran out of Danny Ford's players. In four years he signed just one top 20 recruiting class.

This interview would not have happened had it not been for Mr. Bourret. After I was denied an interview twice, Mr. Hatfield contacted Bourret to basically check me out. Mr. Bourret knew how we did business at Tigerillustrated.com, he knew we'd be fair and a couple of days later on a Sunday night I got an email from Mr. Hatfield that read, 'If you still want to do the interview and ask me those questions, I will do it.'

I was shocked, but I didn't ask why. I was grateful. I simply said thanks and then pushing the envelope a notch, I asked if I could drive out to Arkansas to see him, but Mr. Hatfield wasn't interested. An in-person interview is always much better because it's harder for people to say no to you if you're standing in front of them. But Mr. Hatfield didn't want to meet in-person and as it turned out was the only former head coach in this series who agreed to talk only by phone. Nevertheless, we were indeed able to get a window of perspective and additional clarity into Clemson's football program from 1990-1993.

So without any further ado, this is Ken Hatfield, in his own words.

This is his story.

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 dorm 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. It was a class that did not rank inside of the top 25. Nevertheless, 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?