TMCnet News
Bowdens on the rebound [The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.](Dominion Post (Morgantown, WV) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Aug. 2--FLORENCE, Ala. Bobby Bowden heard the goodnatured ribbing from his children through the years and chuckled louder than anybody. The kids, it seemed, loved to predict that "Daddy," as they call the Florida State college football coaching legend, would be out of coaching in two years. "I'll outlive all of you," Bobby would say, laughing. Well, Daddy, who once coached at WVU, certainly has done a good job outasting them. For on Oct. 13, 2008, the patriarch of the Bowden clan -- dubbed the "First Family of College Football" -- was the only one in the family still coaching. How long ago was it that Terry won 20 consecutive games at Auburn, Tommy guided Tulane to an 11-0 season and Jeff received praise for his work with the wide receivers at Florida State? Terry left the coaching ranks six games into the 1998 season amid political turmoil at Auburn. Jeff received a $537,000 payoff from Florida State's boosters to resign as offensive coordinator late in the 2006 season. Then, on a memorable October day a year ago, Tommy said farewell to Clemson, vacating the head coach's office after compiling a 72-45 record in 10 seasons at the South Carolina school. Bobby, 79, took a hit five months later, when an academic fraud scandal erupted at Florida State over an online music class. Ten of the school's athletic teams were involved, including members of Bobby's football squad. Among the penalties the NCAA doled out: The Seminoles would have to forfeit 14 football victories, putting a serious dent in Bobby's ongoing competition with Penn State's Joe Paterno to become college football's all-time victory king. Florida State is appealing. The Bowdens have long relied on their strong faith in times of crisis. That faith sustained them when Bobby was hanged in effigy at WVU during a difficult 4-7 season, in 1974. "With faith, you can overcome any crisis," Bobby said. The Bowdens pay little attention to talk that their football legacy has been irreparably harmed in recent years. The family continues to see the bigger picture, one that has more to do with the relationships they've built and the lives they've touched than the victories, bowl games and national championships they've been a part of. "One of the things I've admired and really felt good hearing," Jeff said, "were former players who had played for [my father] who are grown and have children and they come back and tell me how great it was to have Coach Bowden as their coach, and what he meant to them because of the example and the fact that he was a father figure to them." "That's something I've always wanted to look back myself and hope that my players can say I was fair and did everything to help them be successful in life like they want to be." Bobby doesn't hesitate when asked about his legacy. "I would want it said that I followed God's purpose for my life," he said. "I can do a lot of things. I'd sure like to do that one." Back on the sidelines The dark cloud that hovered over the Bowdens brightened on New Year's Day 2009, when Terry returned to the head-coaching ranks at Division II powerhouse University of North Alabama. Jeff joined his brother's staff as receivers coach. Tommy is out of coaching this fall for the first time in 33 years. His schedule is already filled with public speaking and television work. The coaching -- and noncoaching -- Bowdens, looking tanned and relaxed, gathered on the North Alabama campus this past month to raise money for Terry's new program. Terry, 53, decided two years ago to get back into coaching after being out for a decade. His departure from Auburn stemmed from what he calls his inability to correctly handle "the political situation" at the school. Terry spent his time out of coaching as a familiar face on television and an even more familiar voice on talk radio and the Internet, commenting on the important issues of the day in college football. "I was always analyzing it, talking about it," said Terry, who did postgraduate work at Oxford University and earned a law degree from Florida State. "In some ways, I said to myself, 'Dad is going to have more wins. I think I'll be a spokesperson for the game. I'll be that person people talk to when there's a BCS issue or playoff issue.' I really got into it and stayed close [to the sport]." Opportunities to return to the field popped up shortly after Terry left Auburn. However, he couldn't muster the enthusiasm to interview, even when the job at his alma mater opened up with the retirement of Don Nehlen, after the 2000 season. He rejected a chance to become the head man at Texas Tech, a job that went to Mike Leach, who still holds the position. "When I got out of coaching at Auburn, I was hurt, and I needed to get out for a little bit," Terry said. "The Auburn experience was very tough on me. I wasn't able to deal with it very well. It's OK if you lose a lot -- you get fired. I never was ready to get fired because I didn't handle the political situation correctly. I couldn't figure out how to make it work. "When I got fired, you couldn't answer the questions. I don't think I was able to deal with failure. To me, that was the consummate failure at Auburn ... to have a career being a coach all your life and in '97 we nearly won the SEC with an Auburn team that was not nearly as good as Tennessee. The next year, I'm fired. I couldn't get back in [coaching] for a while because I wasn't ready to coach again." He decided he was mentally and emotionally prepared to return in the summer of 2007. Fate appeared to be guiding him back to Morgantown when Rich Rodriguez departed for Michigan, in December 2007. To Terry, Morgantown is home. It's where he went to grade school, junior high, high school and college. Many of his closest friends live here. One of the most influential figures in his life -- the late Morgantown High football coach Vic Bonfili -- helped strengthen Terry's love for football. "He taught me a passion for football that is as deep and strong as anything I've ever seen in the state of Alabama," Terry said. "Vic Bonfili couldn't talk about University High and the competition with them without tearing up. He loved me, and I loved him. I didn't just learn to love football because I was Bobby Bowden's son." Terry was one of the first people WVU officials interviewed, along with former WVU player and assistant Doc Holliday. Terry couldn't believe his good fortune. "Doc Holliday and I played together and we're good friends, and we're two guys they interview," he said. Terry became uneasy as the interview process continued through December. He had all his chips on the table for the WVU job. WVU eventually offered the job to interim head coach Bill Stewart, after the Mountaineers knocked off Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. "I was very disappointed in the sense that I wasted the whole dadgum month and didn't go get a job," Terry said. "I wasn't disappointed they hired Bill Stewart. I was just disappointed I finally made the decision after eight years to get back into coaching. The first one I interviewed for, I spent a month fooling around with it. Now, I had to be in broadcasting for a whole other year." Terry, as a member of Westwood One's national broadcast team, was in Florence on Dec. 13, for the NCAA Division II championship game involving North Alabama. UNA coach Mark Hudspeth alerted his athletic director, Mark Linder, during the game that he would resign afterward to take an assistant's job at Mississippi State. Linder passed a note to Terry during the game, inquiring about his interest. Terry's response? "Call me," he said. Linder did. Terry interviewed on New Year's Eve and was introduced as the Lions' new head man on New Year's Day. He takes over a program that lost 22 seniors from a 12-2 team, but he embraces the challenge of keeping North Alabama among the nation's elite in Division II. "Every day we have one goal: to win the national championship," Terry said. "We have no other goals. Everything we do has to be at the level needed to win the national championship." Bobby has noticed a marked difference in his son since he seized the reins in Florence. "There's no doubt in my mind, of all my sons Terry needs to be in coaching," Bobby said. "I think the last two years he's tried. Every time he tried, nobody was interested in a guy who had been out nine years. He had to get back into it somewhere. North Alabama was good enough to give him this opportunity, and he is the happiest I've seen him in years." Uncharted territory The Bowdens' combined collegiate coaching record is a sparkling 583-225-6. That's a winning percentage of 72. In 70 seasons, the Bowdens have endured only six losers, thus the "First Family of College Football" tag. "It's quite an honor to have that label on your family," Tommy said. "It's a very difficult profession to succeed in. To have enough wins to be labeled that way is very rewarding." Tommy's ears perked up when the six-losing-seasons statistic was announced at the Bowden Day event. "Which one of y'all had the losing seasons?" he asked, glancing at his father and Terry as the room erupted in laughter. Tommy, 55, the first of the Bowden children to express an interest in coaching, never experienced a losing season, going 90-49 in 12 seasons at Tulane and Clemson. "Tommy never had a losing season?" Terry asked later. "I didn't know that." Tommy posted an 11-0 mark at Tulane, in 1998, which catapulted him to Clemson. He took the Tigers to bowl games in eight of his 10 seasons. He never could please the Clemson faithful, though, finishing second in the Atlantic Coast Conference race four times but failing to win the title. Cries for his job intensified over the years. Tommy fully intended to stay the course at Clemson, in 2008, after a disappointing 3-3 start. "I had been a head coach for 12 years, and we had always turned it around," he said. He stepped aside when he realized he did not have the support of the administration. Tommy received $3.5 million as a buyout negotiated in the contract extension he and the school agreed to in December 2007. Tommy and his family have settled in Panama City, Fla., where he figures to spend his share of time on the city's famous beaches when not speaking and doing television work. He's not certain how he's going to feel when the college football season begins later this month and he's not on the sideline. "I've coached for 32 years," he said. "I've never had a fall without football. I'll have to see what it's like. I've never been not coaching." How long he stays out of coaching is anybody's guess. He plans to wait and see what happens at the end of the year, when athletic directors of struggling teams begin scouring the country for possible head-coaching candidates. "If the phone starts ringing in November, I'll have a decision to make," he said. "But I do know this: If I don't get back in next year, I probably won't do it." His father isn't so certain. "Tommy's resume is pretty doggone good," Bobby said. "He'll get down in that sand in Panama City and run up and down the beach a few times and get bored to death." Jeff understands the feeling. "When you're out of coaching, there's kind of a cycle you go through," he said. "The first year is relief. The second year is boredom. There's only so much work you can do at your home. There's only so much work you can do on your yard. There's only so many days you want to take your kids to school. You want to get back [into coaching]. I could see him getting back in." The youngest Jeff Bowden couldn't have cared less about coaching while growing up in Morgantown. "I was interested in deer hunting, camping, setting jaw traps in the woods," he said. "I played football and baseball and basketball at those ages, but my focus wasn't on coaching." Nonetheless, Jeff, 49, recalls following his father's 10-year career at WVU, first as an assistant coach and then as the head coach. He saw the ups and downs his father endured in Morgantown. "I vaguely remember a rough year or two when it was a little hairy," he said. "I can remember a lot of conversations at my house about why they only gave one-year contracts, not necessarily in a bad way. Other places would give two- or three-year contracts." Jeff was a sophomore at Morgantown High when his father left WVU for the Florida State job, in 1976. Jeff played for the Seminoles as a wide receiver, from 1979-'82. He broke into the coaching ranks, working for Terry as his receivers coach, at Salem College, in 1983. He also worked for Terry for four seasons as his offensive coordinator at Samford and toiled for three seasons as receivers coach at Southern Mississippi before returning to Tallahassee as his father's receivers coach, in 1994. Bobby promoted Jeff to offensive coordinator, in 2001. Jeff absorbed the bulk of the criticism as Florida State's offensive production declined and the program suffered through some un-Seminolelike seasons. The abuse may have stung the father more than it did the son. "They're killing our son," Bobby told his wife, Ann, during one of the darkest days. Bobby encouraged Jeff to stay on the job, but Jeff resigned 10 games into the 2006 season, accepting the payout from the Florida State boosters. "I believe in my heart that, for Bobby Bowden, this is the decision that I need to make," Jeff said at the time. "I could not be happier that I had this opportunity. But it's just time for me to move on." His time away from football lasted until January, when Terry brought him to North Alabama to coach the Lions' receivers. Jeff is technically a volunteer assistant, as he is still being paid by the Florida State boosters. "When I look back on 25 years of coaching, eight of the most enjoyable years were when Terry and I were just starting out [at Salem]," Jeff said. "If I was going to get back into it this quick, it was going to be with Terry. I'm the youngest of four boys. I obviously looked up to my brothers and what they've done in coaching." Lessons learned Some of the toughest seasons of Bobby Bowden's coaching life came at WVU in the early 1970s. Yet those trying seasons paved the way for his success at Florida State and put him in a position to battle Paterno for a spot atop the all-time victories list. "It helped a lot," Bobby said. "It was my first head coaching job at a major school. I had been a head coach at a small college. I had been a head coach at a junior college. I had a lot of headcoaching experience, but nothing like the major leagues, which West Virginia was. I learned a lot." The memories of 1974 remain vivid. That 4-7 WVU campaign marked the first losing season of Bobby's career. The low point came when Bobby was hanged in effigy on campus, although Terry believes the incident has been blown out of proportion. "The effigy is the overstatement of a good joke: They hung me in effigy; that's funny," he said. "It wasn't funny that day. I was a freshman in college. It was so insignificant to our time there." To this day, Bobby contends that the fans had a right to be mad that season. "That was the year they should have fired me," he said, smiling. "We won four games and lost seven. There were factions that wanted me to leave, but the president [James Harlow] and the athletic council stood behind me. The next year, we had a pretty doggone good year." Bobby accepted the task of rebuilding Florida State after WVU capped a nine-win season with a 13-10 victory against Lou Holtz's North Carolina State team in the 1975 Peach Bowl, in Atlanta. The chance to head back to their Southern roots was too tempting for Bobby and Ann to pass up. "I left not because I was mad [at WVU]," Bobby said. "I wanted to get back home. Ann and I were both raised in Alabama, and I had coached in Florida. We wanted to go back home, and that's what I did." He led the Seminoles to an 11-0 regular-season mark before losing to Oklahoma, in the Orange Bowl. The year was special for the Bowdens because Jeff played for Bobby while Tommy and Terry were graduate assistants. "From that point on, we all began to solidify some of our coaching philosophies, some of our beliefs," Terry said. "We took those beliefs, and Florida State went on year after year and had success. Tommy went on to Tulane and Clemson and had success. I went to Auburn." Bobby begins his 55th season with 382 wins, one behind Paterno. Bobby's victory total could change if Florida State does not win its appeal over the 14 victories the school must forfeit. "It's funny, I've been coaching 55 years and never have been involved in cheating," Bobby said. "Here, I've done nothing wrong, and I lose 14 ball games. It don't seem right, but it could happen. I won't cut my wrist if that does happen. I do hope they rethink that and do what they've done in the past with Oklahoma, when at first they said they were going to take away some wins and then changed their mind." Paterno, 83, is on record as saying Bobby shouldn't be stripped of any victories. The coaching icons spend time together on a shoe companysponsored trip each spring. The topic of career victories has never come up, and Bobby's sons admit they've never heard their father discuss the subject outside of the public arena. "I think it's important to every single player who played for Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno," Terry said. "They're going to tell their children, 'I played for the winningest coach of all time.' I kid around about it, but I want to bounce my grandkids on my knee and talk about Bobby Bowden, not Joe Paterno. "We want our daddy to win. Joe Paterno is my second favorite coach and if it couldn't be my dad, I'd want it to be Joe Paterno. It doesn't make one coach better than the other one bit. It's a competitive business. I want my dad to win for him and for my mom and all the years she's sacrificed. It's not going to be the end of the world if he doesn't win it." How much longer? Florida State has already named West Virginia native and current Seminoles assistant Jimbo Fisher as Bobby's successor. Bobby has a year in mind when he'll finally call it quits -- but he refuses to disclose it. "I hope I never have to say because people start counting down," he said. The last thing Bobby wants is a farewell tour. "I can see myself playing at North Carolina and people saying, 'Oh, this is the last time you'll ever play here,' and all that stuff," he said. "I have an idea how long it's going to be, but a new president could wipe all that out." T.K. Wetherell, the Florida State president and longtime Bobby supporter, announced his intention to retire, in June. He will stay on the job until a new president is named. Wetherell's retirement "is not going to affect me unless the new president comes in and says, 'Byebye, Bobby,'" Bobby said. "I've thought about that. A new president may want me to go, but I ain't ready to leave yet." It could be the end of the Bowden coaching tree when Bobby, Terry, Tommy and Jeff leave the sideline. Bobby has 21 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. He's not convinced there are any future coaches in the bunch. "Our grandchildren say, 'We ain't getting into this,' " Bobby said, grinning. "I have a couple of grandchildren who play football in high school. The ones coming up right now, I don't know that any of them will be coaches. One could surprise you. "We might be the last of them, but I've got two great-grandchildren. You never know what they'll do." To see more of The Dominion Post or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dominionpost.com/. Copyright (c) 2009, The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |