Terry
Bowden has made the same dramatic entrance into the broadcasting industry as he
did as a head coach in college football. He has quickly become one of the top
television and radio analysts in college football while captivating audiences
all over the country.
Although
Terry Bowden's bright future is firmly planted in broadcasting, it all began
walking the sidelines as a head football coach. Looking back to those years
tells you two things about Terry - number one, he's a winner; and number two,
don't ever underestimate him.
As
a college football coach, Bowden was enormously successful, compiling a 15 year
record of 111-53-2 and an impressive winning percentage of 68%. As head coach
of the Auburn Tigers, he won 73% of his games and posted the best opening
five-year run of any head football coach in school history. Prior to becoming head
football coach at Auburn, Bowden built two programs from the ground up as head coach at Salem College
and Samford University. As the nation's youngest head coach at age 26, it didn't take
long for winning to become Terry Bowden's trademark. At Salem, he
inherited a football program which had gone 0-9-1 the year before he arrived,
but he quickly turned them into a winner.
Salem won the
WVIA Conference Championship, its second in 80 years, in Bowden's second
season. It was the first of two straight championships for Bowden and Salem. He won
19 of his last 25 games, led the nation in offense both years and played in the
NAIA national playoffs both years. He was an assistant coach at Akron for
former Notre Dame head coach Gerry Faust in 1986 before taking the helm at
Samford in 1987. Inheriting a Samford program which had won just six games in
three years prior to his arrival, Samford was 9-1 his first year, tying the
record for the best season in school history.
The
Bulldogs led the nation in total offense (523 ypg) and scoring offense (51.7
ppg), both national Division III records. The team's 40 touchdown passes were
also a national season record, but that was only the beginning for Samford and
for Terry Bowden. Bowden engineered and directed Samford's move from Division
III non-scholarship football to Division I-AA scholarship football.
With
only one freshman class on scholarship, the Bulldogs went to a full Division
I-AA schedule in 1989. By 1991, Samford was competing for the national
championship. The 1991 Samford team had the best record in school history,
12-2, and made the Division I-AA national semifinals. The Bowden magic was
working again. Playing in the shadow of Auburn, Alabama and
the Southeastern Conference, Bowden had developed the Samford program into one
of the nation's strongest, most competitive Division I-AA programs. In five
years, Samford had successfully made the difficult transition from
non-scholarship football to scholarship football, and was competing for titles.
For
Terry Bowden, the next step was inevitable. It came on Dec. 17, 1992 when he was named head coach at Auburn. Auburn
president Dr. William V. Muse called Bowden the perfect choice to lead Auburn
Football into the 21st Century. Terry Bowden's first bio as head football coach
at Auburn began: "At 36, Terry Bowden, one of the youngest coaches in
Division I-A football, is poised on the threshold of greatness…" No one
knew how close greatness was. Yet, five months after that first bio was
written, Terry Bowden had accomplished a feat that no other Division IA coach
had ever accomplished. He had gone undefeated and untied in his first year as a
Division IA head coach, a perfect 11-0. Bowden swept virtually every national
coach of the year award in his rookie season including Walter Camp, Scripps
Howard, Football News, Toyota and the Paul "Bear" Bryant Award presented by the
Football Writers Association.
He
was again a finalist following his second season at Auburn. By the
end of his second season on the Plains, the Tigers had reeled off 20 straight
wins, an Auburn record. Also during his helm at Auburn, Bowden
became the first college coach in 50 years to win his 100th career game by his
40th birthday. As a student-athlete at West Virginia University,
he lettered two years as a running back (1977-78), held a 3.65 GPA in
accounting, the highest GPA on the football team, and graduated Magna Cum
Laude. He did post graduate work at Oxford University
in England, and earned a Juris Doctorate degree from the Florida State
University School of Law in 1982 while a graduate assistant coach at FSU.
He
was born into the most famous and successful college football family. His
father, Bobby Bowden, turned Florida State into
a national champion and is currently the winningest coach in division 1A
history. His brother Tommy is the head coach at Clemson, and brother Jeff is
the offensive coordinator at Florida State.
During the decade of the 1990’s, all three Bowden head coaches led their teams
to undefeated seasons - a feat that will likely never be repeated. Terry Bowden
certainly did his part to add luster and glory to the first family of college
football. In 1998, Bowden left his stellar coaching career behind and made the
exciting move into broadcasting.
Terry
Bowden has been ultra-successful as a student, an athlete, and a college
football coach. He is a much sought after motivational speaker. The qualities
that have made him successful throughout his life - enthusiasm, contagious
optimism, confidence and work ethic - are the same qualities that he now relies
on as a television and radio analyst for college football.
He
can be heard daily in central Florida hosting The Terry Bowden Show on ESPN Radio, weekly on “ The
Coach’s Show” on Sirius Satellite Radio, weekly during football season as the
Color Analyst for Westwood One’s College Football Game of the week, and his
articles can be read as the expert football analyst for YahooSports.com.