A Bowden Family Friendship
December 01, 2004 03:00 PM | General
December 1, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – When West Virginia and Florida State hook up in the 2005 Gator Bowl on Jan. 1, 2005, it will be almost like a reunion of sorts for Mountaineer coach Rich Rodriguez, a close friend of the Bowden family.
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| Rich Rodriguez got to know Bobby Bowden well through Bowden's sons Tommy and Terry.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
Rodriguez was an assistant coach for four years for Bobby Bowden’s son Tommy at both Tulane and Clemson, and says he’s known the senior Bowden for more than 10 years now.
“I know him very well,” said Rodriguez. “I got to know him probably 10-12 years ago first through Terry and then through Tommy. I spent a lot of time at the Bowden Academy in the summers at the quarterback-receiver camp that they had every year. I went down there to work it several years in a row and I got to know the family quite well. And then obviously coaching with Tommy for four years helped me to get to know him even better.”
Rodriguez believes his time spent with Tommy Bowden helped accelerate his coaching career.
“The four years I spent with Tommy were invaluable as far as learning some of his philosophies and then some of his dad’s (philosophies) through a lot of what Tommy does,” Rodriguez said. “One of the great things about those summer camps about being around Tommy, Terry, Bobby, Jeff and the Bowden clan is you talk a lot of football and I was able to learn a lot then. I think we’re very similar in a lot of our philosophies and a lot of the things we do.”
Rodriguez says he took more than just coaching philosophies away from Bobby Bowden while working those camps.
“He’s as good of a person or even better person than he is a football coach and he’s obviously one of the best coaches ever at any level,” Rodriguez said. “His whole family is that way. I don’t know of any coach in our profession that can say a bad thing about Bobby Bowden both for what he’s done on the field and what he’s done off the field.”
According to Bowden, Rodriguez is developing a great reputation around the country for his innovative offensive style. “I’ve always thought Rich was one of the best offensive minds in football,” Bowden said.
The 41-year-old Rodriguez admits it will be daunting task going up against the sport’s all-time winningest coach.
“The intimidating part is that you know he’s going to have a great plan and he may be the most successful bowl coach in history,” Rodriguez said. “He’s going to have great players as well with some of the top talent in the country. From that standpoint it’s going to be quite a challenge and something everybody in our program should be excited to see if we can reach it.”
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| Bobby Bowden calls Rich Rodriguez one of the game's "best offensive minds."
Florida State University photo |
Rodriguez recalls facing Bowden’s Florida State team in the 1982 Gator Bowl.
“I remember getting wet and muddy and all I saw was the back of their jerseys,” he laughed. “I was on the kickoff team watching the one guy run for a touchdown. They were running by us and through us and did everything they wanted to do.”
Bowden also remembered that game vividly.
“The interesting thing about the ’82 game was it was against West Virginia -- a school that I had coached at for 10 years,” Bowden said. “And then I think Rich Rodriguez played in that game; then my son Jeffrey played in that game. My sons Tommy and Terry were graduate assistants. I had three sons in the ballgame and now we’re going against the head coach at West Virginia who played in it so that’s kind of unique.”
Both coaches agree that there are no similarities between the teams playing then and now.
“They were established then but they weren’t as established as they are now. Now they’re one of the elite programs,” Rodriguez said.
“Comparing our team with the ’82 team we’re probably a lot better and comparatively West Virginia is too,” Bowden added. “We’re a team that if we could have been a little bit better our record would have been a lot better. We lost some close ones like West Virginia.”
Note: Tickets for the 2005 Toyota Gator Bowl are on sale through the Mountaineer Ticket Office by calling toll-free 1-800-WVU GAME or by logging onto WVUGAME.com.
