Pardon their progress

When the NCAA baseball regional was in Clemson a few weeks ago, the media food trough was set up in the McFadden Building.

About an hour before the Tigers' implosion against UConn in the Monday game, we were eating dinner when Mark Schlabach of ESPN.com looked around the place and said, "Is this where Terry Don Phillips' office is?"

Yup, I told him. Just across the hallway.

His response: "This is the worst athletic department facility I've seen."

Hard to argue with a guy who's visited a large number of schools across the country the past several years in his job covering college sports.

And given the eye-opening recruiting success that the football program began enjoying, oh, about when construction began on the West End Zone complex, it's hard to argue with all that campaigning (private and public) Tommy Bowden did for enhanced facilities over his first 5-6 years as the Tigers' head coach.

Certainly the current football staff is extraordinarily adept and skilled at the recruiting game. Dabo Swinney and his assistants did a tremendous job last winter by bagging a decorated class in the wake of a 6-7 wreck in 2010, and the momentum has continued with the recent flurry of commitments.

But the sparkling new facilities have played a major role as well, and it's only through a view of the old facilities that you gain a true appreciation for the impact of the upgrades that have taken place over the last six years.

Once upon a time, the football program was based in the McFadden Building. Once upon a time, the weight room and practice locker room were in the Jervey building.

I spent a lot of time in both facilities from 2004 to 2009, when everything moved over to Memorial Stadium. And during that lengthy stretch, it never really occurred to me just how antiquated those buildings were.

Back when the West End Zone complex was just a drawing and they were turning over dirt and trees with a dump truck just to create the appearance of progress to recruits who were visiting, they spent a few hundred thousand dollars trying to spruce up McFadden and Jervey with pictures and new paint and a new locker room. But it was essentially like hitting a long putt for a snowman on a par-4. Whipped cream on top of ... well, you know.

I didn't truly realize how bad Jervey was until recently, when I walked through the same lower floor that players and coaches used to use every day before and after practice. No wonder Bowden and Co. were embarrassed to show this to recruits and their families.

Facilities improvements are not an easy deal when you need tens of millions of dollars to implement them. Yet the progress is continuing with fund-raising for a new indoor practice facility, and construction is underway for the completion of the northwest concourse at Memorial Stadium.

Like some of you, I had some doubts when plans were hatched for the West End Zone way back in 2003 or 2004 or whenever it was. Would they cut corners? Would they be able to raise the money? Would the completion of it take much longer than expected?

Surely there were headaches and frustration and improvisation. Things don't always go according to plan, particularly in a shaky economy.

But sitting here now, looking at a glistening new facility that replaced an eyesore, you have to give credit to the folks who had the vision in the first place.

There's more to building a formidable program than celebrated recruits, and there's more to recruiting than shiny new facilities.

But those facilities sure as heck make a difference. There's no doubt about that.

LW