NewZipsFan

It wasn't even updated for his three seasons at UNA But if you read the ABJ this morning, Coach Bobby Bowden did call it a "nice little job"... LOL!

Well -- just on the face of the moves I've seen in the past several months, along with seeing the "now famous" facilities (which do NOT disappoint in any possible way -- except of course for the JAR... and seriously - what's the deal with the "bridge to nowhere"???) basically what I said to begin with. UA has spent the money to upgrade facilities (before great athletic success.. "if we build it, we will win"), seem to have some very, very specialized programs that are ranked very high nationally, is located in an area that has the population to support the size/scope of the University as it is now - and what it plans to be in the near future, seems to value academics and the academic faculty - which leads me to believe that with some major successes/money from football - the appropriate percentage would be reinvested into that staff and academic facilities/programs, etc... All which begins/continues the cycle of attracting great students, great student-athletes, great faculty -- all which continue to build the reputation of the University and make it a sought after institution. 25 years ago - the joke was that it was easier to get into UF than community college. Now, 29,000 freshmen were vying for 6,400 spots in the 2011 freshman class. That is INSANE! But very true. I see the similarities - whether it is an actual "model", I don't know -- I may have not used the proper words. But its all semantics. Common sense is just common sense sometimes. P.S. Zipmeister -- regarding your comments about feeling smarter the further south you travel -- I won't disagree with you 100%, but the state of Florida really isn't considered the South. If you want to talk Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, etc... you'll get no argument from me

More about Bobby than Terry, but I guess if you get the chance to sit down in his living room on a Saturday afternoon, you probably can't help yourself from writing about him Bowden retired from coaching, not life...

I agree with the other poster below. I can see some rivalries developed easily with a couple of these teams. To me, Marshall is a no-brainer. Terry and Doc Holliday grew up together (Doc is a year or two older) in West Virginia - went to/played at WVU together (along with Tommy), and have known each other for years. I know probably 5,000 hillbillies from West Virginia that would travel to Akron to see that one! E. Carolina has been up and down, but I really like their head coach, and the OC is a very very bright young offensive mind who trained under Mike Leach (Terry spent a lot of time with Mike Leach over the past 4 years learning his offense) UAB - well -- it IS Alabama -- and honestly, they're just overboard on anything college football. Tulane? If they could get their act together (Tommy Bowden led them to an undefeated season in 1998 - oh and Rich Rodriguez was on Tommy's staff then) - might be a stretch... UNLV and Colo State are both programs that could potentially improve substantially.. And a little travel always makes thing more exciting

These are the kind of stories that can actually "build" the Akron legacy. When Coach Bowden left Akron to accept the head job at Samford (his parents' alma mater and 1st team that his father, Bobby, ever coached at - it was Howard College at the time), he got Jimbo to transfer to Samford in 1987 - and as a Division III school (with plans to move directly to D-1AA the next season) they set many national offensive records. How many of you have actually read Coach Bowden's "official bio"? It is on his speaker website - and includes everything up to his 3 seasons at UNA. Its fascinating - and really shows that he has NEVER lost anywhere! Imagine retiring from one profession (coaching) at 42 years old and already having 111 wins, a 73% winning percentage in the SEC and 68% overall. If some young coach did that today, he would be annointed King, or something... especially in the state of Alabama. lol.. And then - launching a broadcasting and speaking career where he was incredibly successful as well. Here it is below --- (Terry Bowden - Long Bio as of 2009 ) 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.

Well -- it was a little story, for sure.... I'm sure there will be in depth features on AJ as soon as the season starts - if not sooner. Coach Bowden knew that AJ had one of the smartest football minds he'd been around in a very long time when he met AJ in 2009. He recognized a lot of similar attributes that he saw in young Jimbo Fisher about 28 years ago.

Not a pipe dream by any stretch of the imagination. It looks like to me - a basic outsider, new to the program - is that the President is really trying to use UF's "model" of success. They have invested in their athletic programs, and in 20 years or so (or less, really) became an elite educational institution (before you moan about this - unfortunately it is just the truth - this incoming class has 29,000 freshman applications for 6,400 spots - they've got about 50,000 total students). They took the amazing sums of money raised from successful basketball and football and spent it appropriately to keep athletics on top, while continuing to become a better University. 95% of all of their professors has PhDs. That's just impressive to me. And I hate Gators.

I heard something about some pretty decent LB that decided to transfer to Arizona to play for Rich Rodriguez. I've been too busy learning about the plethora of new Linebackers that Coach Amato is going to hand-mold into top LBers in the conference and the country. I really liked the part about the "Top of the Class Recruits"... interesting that two out of the three were originally considered, "who? from where? don't they play basketball?". Don't think that these guys were recruited by accident or just at the last minute to fill spots. These coaches know what they're doing.

What's his Twitter @ name? I'd love to follow him. Thanks!

There is a lot more to things than meet the eye, I suppose. A ten year span away from coaching the game was obviously a much bigger obstacle than Coach Bowden imagined. He wasn't away in another profession -- he had the greatest job in college football for many years with the ABC Studio Show in Times Square - when that was the ONLY half-time show out there (before ESPN had any of them). Then in broadcasting and writing about the game. He learned a LOT while "studying" the game for 10 years. Then going 26-9 in his first three seasons back, is pretty dadgum good. People have just been on this "gotta find the hottest young coordinator who has never been a head coach" kick for the past 5-10 years - and it just doesn't always work out for the best. Experience has proven to be a very, very important factor

Very poor signing class? Really? Because there aren't a lot of pretty, shiny stars? This group is going to surprise a lot of people, I guess.

Exactly right. If he had said he expected Akron to be #1 in the state, period, it would have been an empty and silly statement. Until Akron is in a BCS Conference it is just ridiculous to think we can compete with OSU for the very top recruits in the state. Not to say that we won't steal one here and there - because I believe we will.

Everyone is really excited about him. I think he had a death in the family which kept him from visiting last weekend...but he and his dad came for a short visit yesterday, and obviously they liked what they saw! Welcome to Akron, Dillon!

Of course Cam Newton got paid. Bo Jackson was reportedly paid $150k wayyy back then. Coach Bowden was hired to get Auburn thru the Pat Dye imposed NCAA sanctions/probation. He was never supposed to win. Auburn (read: extremely wealthy boosters wh run that program) had to be on their best behavior while on probation. When Coach Bowden won his first 20 straight (with the team that Pat Dye had losing records with) - that success threw a huge monkey wrench into "their" plans for the future of the Auburn football program. When Coach Bowden refused to "play ball" the way they(boosters) wanted him to, they (he) quickly ran him out of Auburn. One only has to talk to, or read, what Dr. William Muse has to say about that time. As I am sure you know, Dr. Muse was the President at Akron before getting the job at Auburn. He was the President when Coach Bowden was hired, and was the during the entire time (1993-1998) that Coach Bowden was there. He is on the record explaining the almost unbelievable situation that occurred, and is probably still occurring at Auburn.

There is a HUGE difference. First of all -- I am NOT against the JT hire. However, JT is being sanctioned by the NCAA for his participation in something that violated NCAA rules. Coach Bowden was allegedly "quoted" in some internet story. He has always denied making that statement - he went on LIVE national TV while with ABC Sports when that "story" came out, and disputed it. The NCAA never investigated anything, Coach Bowden has never been sanctioned by the NCAA. He got back into coaching three years ago - and was at the University of North Alabama; then was hired here at Akron in December -- if there were ANY issues with the NCAA those would have been made public, if not a long time ago, then definitely when a professional search firm was used to hire him as a head football coach. So - please let's put to rest this notion that Coach Bowden has somehow had problems with the NCAA. He has not.

No argument here. I said in a post somewhere that the writer who finally nails down that story will win a Pulitzer.

Coach Bowden became the head coach at FSU in 1976 at age 47. He was the head coach for 34 years. Terry has been quoted many times as saying he will never even be the winningest coach in his own family . His father didn't win a national championship until 1993 - when he was 63 years old (by the way, Bobby was beaten out for the Bear Bryant Natioinal Coach of the Year Award that year by his son, Terry - who was undefeated in his first season at Auburn). Our Coach Bowden can definitely beat his dad for that milestone... Thats only 7 years ... And totally doable in my opinion. To pass Coach Bowden (2nd all time in D1A wins with 377*) is not nearly as likely. Doubtful anyone will ever catch up.

Because if Penn State is found guilty of the NCAAs most serious infraction, "the lack of institutional control" all of the team's wins will be vacated from the date they determine the infraction began until the date the infraction was stopped.

How many QBs does each school offer each season? That was my point... One, maybe two...

You do know how many great h.s. quarterbacks there are just in this region, right? You realize how many (finite number between 124 and say, 600?) Division 1A (FBS) scholarships are available in the country? I can easily see a potentially great QB, or other player, coming in as a walk-on and earning a scholarship.

This has honestly, got to be the most intelligent post ever written/read on a college football fan message board. I sincerely, with 100% respect for this poster's matter-of-fact delivery of the best accounts/opinions on each topic; allows us to reasonably make up our own minds about each situation. I personally think that Auburn is a MUCH scarier place than Ohio State could ever possibly be. Auburn and Alabma have taken college football to another level. Complain about the big $$$ to the schools from SEC television contracts? Alabama pays its head football coach close to $5million. That is insane - except for the fact that since Saban abandoned the Dolphins for the head job at Alabama, and they are undoubtedly the top program in the nation over the past 3 years, the Tide have raised enormous sums of money. They sre not operating at a deficit. Why did Auburn win last year? Two words. No.....four words.....Cam Newton Got Paid..... It is what it is.. They do it, and get away with it. When someone can finally make it stick, that writer will win a Pulitzer. I promise you that. I would bet my season tickets that Tressel regrets what he did, and Coach Bowden wishes he had spoken up and stood up to some "powerful" boosters who bully their way through an Athletic Department. LP has some vision, some guts, some love of gambling, and some actual clue about how to potentially raise the amount of money necessary to compete on the level with BCS confernence teams/champions. I really believe that if his (and the Board of Regents or Trustees) decisions prove to be the right ones, he and the Zips could become one of the great stories of recent memory. Gonna be fun to watch!

You just have to love writers . "Toppled the football powerhouse"??? Really? Seems to me Urban landed a pretty dadgum good recruiting class - while Penn State struggled. Tattoo-gate is so minor in comparison to PSUs seeming lack of institutional control over many, many years that it's almost embarrassing for me to put the two in the same sentence. Now that JoePa has passed away, which is very sad, there will be a reprieve from the media for a while. But when the NCAAs investigation is complete I believe all of the wins from 2002 forward will be vacated. What happened at OSU is not even in the same universe. The media also has a very short memory. Those headlines/stories will be long forgotten in a few weeks/months.

Weis, IMO, has no clue about college football. What he did (didn't do) with the Florida offense this past season bordered on e criminal. And at ND... He did know that Brady Quinn would eventually run out of eligibility, right??? Didn't he pull his new starting QB in the middle of the first game that season? How do you not have a plan for QB?? I have no clue what Kansas was thinking.

I cannot agree with that statement enough! I have been a Gator-Hater for my entire life; and didn't think I could ever dislike anyone more than Steve "Superior"... But was proven wrong with Urban Liar . I personally think his "health issues" a couple years ago (when he "retired" the first time for about 2 months) was actually a tantrum in response to him not getting the Notre Dame job. He had said on a sports radio station in Miami about 3-4 years ago that ND was his "dream job". But I digress - i think it is entirely possible that Urban doesn't do well at OSU. Losing Dan Mullen just might prove to be his downfall and "expose" his weaknesses. Then, people will be constantly comparing him to JT - who will be where? Oh yeah.... With us at Akron

The thing we don't have to worry about is Coach Bowden being "intimidated" by JTs presence. Not only being "Terry Bowden" but also being Bobby Bowden's son, there arent many people in the college football world (if any) that Coach Bowden wouldnt be comfortable around They have known each other for close to 30 years - going back to the Samford/Youngstown State days (maybe earlier?). I am sure there is a strong mutual professional respect between them. With all of the success that JT has had, he would understand as much as anyone, that the head football coach must have a certain amount of autonomy over his staff, team, etc. I am confident that only good can come out of this.