Stuck in the Middle
December 03, 2004 04:07 PM | General
December 3, 2004
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| Bowden |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Terry Bowden has witnessed six “Bowden Bowls” as a college football analyst for ABC and now he once again gets an opportunity to see his father coach against his alma mater in a bowl game on Jan. 1 when Florida State takes on West Virginia.
Back in 1982, he was a graduate assistant on Bobby Bowden’s Florida State staff that defeated West Virginia 31-12 in the Gator Bowl.
Terry was a two-year letterman playing for Coach Frank Cignetti at West Virginia in 1977-78 before embarking upon a successful coaching career himself at Salem, Samford and Auburn where he compiled a 15-year record of 111-53-2.
As head coach of Auburn, Bowden won 73 percent of his games and had the best five-year run of any head football coach in school history before resigning in 1998.
Since then, Bowden has been an analyst for ABC Sports while also hosting a three-hour daily talk show on ESPN Radio in Orlando and Melbourne, Fla.
“It’s fun to see the Bowden family go back and have a game against West Virginia with the relationship being as it is and all of the ties that all of us have to Morgantown, to the University and to Rich Rodriguez and the staff,” he said.
Even though Terry lives relatively close to Jacksonville in nearly Orlando, he won’t be able to attend the game because of his commitment with ABC to telecast the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 3. He says most of his family will be there, though.
“Most likely everyone in my family will be there including my children,” he said.
As was the case with the six games his older brother Tommy has coached against his father while at Clemson, Terry is once again going to play this one right down the middle.
“If somebody had to win to keep their job it would be something different,” he said. “It’s just a game that both teams will want to win and a lot of people can say hello again.
“To me if a bowl is meant for entertainment and there is nothing more on the line, and I think that’s probably the case this year with both, what a nice situation,” he said.
Bowden maintains close ties with many of his former West Virginia teammates, including well-known Morgantown lawyer Rocky Gianola.
“I talk to him about once a week and I usually talk to him at halftime of the game I’m doing while I’m in the booth,” Terry said. “Rocky was the best man in my wedding.”
Terry also has a longstanding friendship with Mountaineer coach Rich Rodriguez, as well as ties to assistant head coach Rick Trickett, who worked for Bowden at Auburn. Rodriguez says he first got to know the Bowden family through Terry working at the Bowden Academy for quarterbacks and wide receivers each summer.
“We were looking for coaches to come and coach at our Bowden Academy and it was being held at Auburn,” Terry said. “Rich had gone from Salem to Glenville and he was throwing the ball around a lot. He knew (current LSU offensive coordinator) Jimbo Fisher a little bit and Jimbo was my quarterback coach working my camp and I invited him in and that’s how my dad, Tommy and all of them got to know each other.”
Rodriguez admits that he has incorporated a lot of the Bowden family philosophy in his own coaching style. Terry says there may be some similarities, but there are also a lot of differences, too.
“Rich and Tommy kind of developed what they were doing together,” he said. “I don’t know if my dad, my brother Jeff and I went as far in that direction as he did. When I resigned in 1998 I think they were just developing a lot of the stuff that they were doing during the undefeated season at Tulane. I can’t say he got a lot of the stuff he’s doing right now from us but I think more or less Rich and Tommy really began to explore it (on their own).
“I think the original shot-gun, no-huddle stuff my dad was doing but going a step further and having a good, strong running game out of it and doing what we call the box-calls – calling the plays from the press box – that goes another different generation that I wasn’t around and dad wasn’t around,” Terry added.
Like Rich today, Bobby Bowden was a cutting-edge coach in the 1960s working under Bill Peterson at Florida State. Bowden worked with the quarterbacks and wide receivers at FSU helping Fred Biletnikoff earn All-America honors in 1964. Bobby was later hired at West Virginia by Coach Jim Carlen because of his understanding of the modern passing game.
“Jim Carlen came out of the Pepper Rodgers, running game, wishbone, split-back option days and my dad came out of Florida State where there was a head coach named Bill Peterson who was one of the first college innovators of the passing game,” Terry said. “Back in the early 60s they were one of the premiere throwing teams in all of college football. Jim Carlen went out there and hired somebody who knew what to do.”
Terry says a similar situation occurred when his brother Tommy was hired at Tulane in 1997 and he decided to let Rodriguez run his offense.
“I think Tommy was looking for someone that he could eventually turn his offense over to that had been throwing the football so Rich fit that bill,” Bowden said.
In his four seasons so far at West Virginia, Rodriguez’ spread offense has been used more for running than passing. Current personnel have dictated that West Virginia run more now, but Bowden is convinced that the Northern climate won’t be a factor if Rodriguez decides to throw the ball more in the future.
“They throw it all over the place in the pros; Purdue throws it,” he said. “Morgantown doesn’t have the wind of the Midwest and the muddy, old fields of 25 years ago. The old Big Ten, Midwestern argument that you can’t throw the ball up North hasn’t been valid for a good while.
“The point is that eventually you have to run it, too.”
Note: Tickets for the 2005 Toyota Gator Bowl are on sale through the Mountaineer Ticket Office by calling 1-800-WVU GAME or by logging onto the web site WVUGAME.com. By ordering tickets through the Mountaineer Ticket Office WVU fans are assured of sitting in the West Virginia section of Alltel Stadium.
