5 Worst Head Coaching Hires in Clemson Football History

Clemson Tigers Football has hired some great head coaches, but it has had its fair share of misses as well. Here are the five worst head coaching hires in the program's history.

Sep 28, 1991; Clemson, SC, USA; FILE PHOTO;  Clemson Tigers head coach Ken Hatfield
Sep 28, 1991; Clemson, SC, USA; FILE PHOTO; Clemson Tigers head coach Ken Hatfield / RVR Photos-USA TODAY Sports
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The Clemson football program has had some great head coaches during the history of the program. John Heisman was a head coach of the Tigers for a few years and still has the best winning percentage in the history of the program: 83.3%.

They have also had their fair share of bad hires. Some of them came a long time ago. Frank M. Dobson, Wayne Hart, Doc Stewart, Bud Saunders: names most of you probably don’t know but all found their road as the head football coach of the Clemson Tigers to be a difficult one.

Then there are some hires who had winning records but could also be put in the ‘bad hire’ category. Charley Pell turned Clemson’s fortunes around in the 1970s but then left abruptly to take over the Florida football program. It turns out he was also cheating, which further hurt the Clemson program.

In the long run, things worked out because Danny Ford took over for Pell and the Tigers won their first national championship in program history soon after, but Pell is not remembered fondly around Tigertown.

Here are the five worst head coaching hires in the history of Clemson Football.

Next: Ken Hatfield