NCAA DIVISION II PLAYOFFS ARKANSAS TECH VS. NORTH ALABAMA
Comeback coach
Star-crossed Terry Bowden revivified at North Alabama
DOUG CRISE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
People forget that Terry Bowden isn’t new to this. Sure, Bowden coached Auburn to an undefeated season in 1993, and on the surface that makes his return to football with Division II North Alabama mystifying. But for all that’s made of Bowden’s Division I success and his Division I family history, he still spent most of his pre-Auburn coaching career at small-college outposts like Samford and Salem College “He was used to going out and cutting grass,” said Bowden’s boss, North Alabama Athletic Director Mark Linder. Not that Bowden is exactly slumming. Like other coaches in Division II, Bowden spends more time on buses than planes. And like Arkansas Tech Coach Steve Mullins, whom he’ll face Saturday in an NCAA Division II second-round playoff game, Bowden is his own academic coordinator and fundraiser. But Mullins doesn’t have his own Web site, complete with a publicist’s phone number for arranging speaking engagements. Mullins did not have a legitimate ambition to work in the media. And Mullins hasn’t turned over his roster to high-level Division I transfers, some of them with checkered histories. So Bowden remains a friendly and outgoing mystery, an open book with unclear motives. Linder now says he pulled a small media coup in announcing Bowden’s hiring on New Year’s Day.
On Division I football’s biggest day, a Division II university in Florence, Ala., with an enrollment of 6,300 poked its nose into the football world by hiring one of the college game’s most familiar names and one of its all-time unfinished stories. Bowden came to Auburn in 1993 and took over a program hit by NCAA sanctions. Though ineligible to play in a bowl, the Tigers went 11-0 in Bowden’s first year. Auburn continued to win right up to 1998, when Bowden resigned following a 1-5 start. He was 47-17-1 with the Tigers. The 1998 Tigers also dealt with off-field problems. Seven incoming players were lost to academic issues and two starters were kicked off the team for rules violations. Bowden doesn’t see his decade out of coaching in his post-Auburn years as exile. He’d followed in the footsteps his father, Bobby, laid down at Florida State and helped lay the groundwork for his brother, Tommy, who started at Tulane before heading to Clemson. It was time for something else. “Believe me, I’ve overanalyzed it more than anybody,” Terry Bowden said. “I didn’t leave football. I stayed very much in it. I’ve got a family full of coaches. I wanted to do something they’ve never done.” A career in television, radio and writing kept the coaching itch mostly dormant until 2007. He tried to catch on at West Virginia, and was contemplating his next move as he headed to Florence’s Braly Municipal Stadium to broadcast the Division II national championship game. North Alabama was looking for a coach after Mark Hudspeth left to become offensive coordinator at Mississippi State. Bowden was blunt about his desire to coach again, and broached the topic with both Linder and Gulf South Conference commissioner Nate Salant. Linder suddenly had a man whose qualifications went light years beyond the other five finalists for the job. But it wasn’t experience that led Linder and his search committee to grill Bowden for four hours in a New Years Eve meeting. Linder had to be convinced that he was getting a Division II football coach and not a figurehead. “I came in with my eyes very much wide open,” Bowden said. “I’ve been there. At Salem College, at 26, I was head coach. We had 600 students.” And then the questions began. It wasn’t just Hudspeth who was gone. It was 10 offensive starters and 5 defensive starters that led the Lions to a 12-2 record in 2008. And North Alabama, with three national titles since 1995, doesn’t do “rebuilding.” “The head coach put all his marbles in the senior basket,” Bowden said, referring to Hudspeth. “And it was empty.” So Bowden reconnected with his former Division I colleagues and brought in a bumper crop of Division I transfers. The Lions have 24 former Division I players in all, most of them starters who were former starters at their old schools. Transfers to Division II from Division I are eligible to play immediately, like a junior college-transfer at the Division I level, which contrasts to the Division I rule, which requires athletes to sit out a year. Some of Bowden’s transfers arrived in Florence with trouble at their heels. Defensive end Brandon Fanney, formerly from Alabama, had been previously suspended for parts of spring practice by Crimson Tide Coach Nick Saban. Safety Quinton Andrews had been suspended at West Virginia under then-coach Rich Rodriguez and left the school shortly after the hiring of current coach Bill Stewart. North Alabama’s top two receivers, Mico McSwain (Ole Miss) and T.J. Porter (Pittsburgh), faced academic issues and suspensions, respectively, at their former schools. Division I transfers are common in the Gulf South Conference. Valdosta State made news in the off-season by bringing on record-setting Indiana quarterback Kellen Lewis, who left the Hoosiers after multiple off-field problems. But none have relied so heavily on transfers as Bowden. Linder said Bowden has kept him abreast of who he brings in every step of the way. But Linder said he’s not about to micro-manage. “Our coaches know we want academic and athletic integrity,” Linder said. “After that, they know we want to win.” That’s one thing the Lions have done, getting out to a 10-0 start before losing their regular-season finale two weeks ago. North Alabama spent most of the season’s second half ranked No. 1 nationally. Yet North Alabama can’t shake the perception that the Lions have a “hired gun” mentality, and that the lack of cohesiveness can lead them to wilt in close games. Bowden said there’s some legitimacy to those thoughts, but he said the boatload of transfers is a one-year stopgap measure to keep the program at a high level. “What people say is true,” Bowden said. “It’s hard to create the chemistry. Now you can start following the normal plan.” Does that mean Bowden will stay awhile? He is in the first year of a three-year contract with a $100,000 base salary, far below the multimillion-dollar deals possessed by coaches at Division I’s highest level. Bowden said he knows that some still assume he’s simply cooling his heels in football’s hinterlands, and he’s sure his name may come up when Division I jobs begin to open. But don’t forget his history. Bowden has never been one for convention. “I guess there’s some talk because of my background and my name,” Bowden said. “But I don’t pay attention. I’m 53 years old. I’m not a whippersnapper. I’m not a hot commodity.” Terry Bowden glance SCHOOL North Alabama AGE 53 CAREER COACHING RECORD 121-54-2, including 47-17-1 at Auburn NOTEWORTHY Father, Bobby, is head coach at Florida State, brother, Tommy, is former head coach at Tulane and Clemson. Other brother, Jeff, is an assistant coach at North Alabama. ... Earned a law degree from Florida State in 1982. ... Coached former Henderson State Coach Patrick Nix while at Auburn. Arkansas Tech at North Alabama WHEN Noon Central Saturday WHERE Braly Municipal Stadium, Florence, Alabama WHAT NCAA Division II second-round playoff game RECORDS Arkansas Tech 9-2, North Alabama 10-1 Special to the Democrat-Gazette Terry Bowden took over a team facing NCAA sanctions at Auburn in 1993 (far right), leading it to an undefeated record. With few returning players, Terry Bowden brought in a bumper crop of Division I transfers to lead a team that was undefeated until the final week of the regular season.
Photo courtesy of University of North Alabama North Alabama Coach Terry Bowden did not see his decade away from coaching as exile, but rather as a time to do something else.
