Dateline November 2, 1991, Auburn, Alabama. After opening the season 3-0, the Tigers had lost to Tennessee and a shocker to Southern Miss, and then struggled to beat Vanderbilt by 2 points. Then the previous week the Tigers had lost by a touchdown to Mississippi State, and the now 4-3 Auburn team was beginning to feel a bit demoralized. There was a growing feeling in the state that the team was losing the momentum of the previous half decade (records of 10-2, 9-1-2, 10-2, 10-2, 8-3-1), a run that had included two SEC championships and parity with the hated Crimson Tide.
Meanwhile, those of us from Gainesville were feeling very different. For one thing, we were feeling very cold: we had made this road trip in our t-shirts and shorts, but a cold snap had hit the deep south and though it would be 70 degrees that night in Gainesville, it would be in the 30s with a wind in the second half at Jordan Hare. But the other feeling was that the Gators might finally overcome the probation years of Pell and Hall, and at last take an outright and official SEC championship. Our five year period had included one stripped SEC championship, and mediocre records (6-5, 6-6, 7-5, 7-5, 9-2). In 1991, the Gators had only a road loss to Syracuse, but were still fighting for respect in the polls.
Shivering in a corner of the stadium, we watched the Gators more or less demolish the Tigers, 31-10. But what I'll remember most about the game was the drive home, listening to the local post game call-in show. The fans were livid. They were 4-4, and despite the recent years of success, they were calling for Pat "Tie" Dye's head. Hand the reins over to offensive coordinator Tommy Bowden, they said, Dye just doesn't have what it takes to go all the way. We felt kind of good. We felt like the Gators had turned the fans against their own stunningly successful program, that the defeat was all the worse because the Gators had been such an average team for so long. And for all Auburn's success, their Heismans and their conference crowns, they were jealous because we had Steve Spurrier, and they didn't. We had a bona fide offensive genius, and they had Pat "tie" Dye, a coach so backward and offensively dumb that he didn't know how to put two points on the board to win a game. So they said.
Fast forward now to 1998. Somehow Dye survived that season, and survived even a loss to Alabama, but the next year was worse (5-5-1), and the loss to Alabama was worse (17-0, the 0 proving just how bad offensively the Tigers were under Pat Dye). So they brought in a hot shot from Samford, Terry Bowden. His 5-year rein of terror included the most consecutive wins for a new head coach in Division I-A (20), two wins over favored Florida teams, an undefeated season, an appearance in an SEC championship game, and records of 11-0, 9-1-1, 8-4, 8-4, and 10-3. The Auburn home page had (and may still have) pages and pages devoted to Terry Bowden, the man, the myth, the legend. The savior. The great. The indefatiguable Bowden. The boy wonder. Here's a nice quote from one of the Bowden pages:
"I came to Auburn to stay," Bowden said. "Auburn is one of those places you never want to leave. It has a great football tradition, outstanding facilities and tremendous fan support. I want to grow old and raise my children here." If history is any indication of what is to come, there are more bright and happy days ahead for Auburn and for the Bowden family as Auburn football continues its climb to the top of the college football world.
What went wrong? The rumors are rampant. The best gossip I heard is that Terry impregnated the daughter of a powerful booster. After dizzily trying to pin down that juicy nugget, I abandoned the whole project with the realization that it was just some blatant slander. There are many other theories though. To explain away the 11-0 start to his career, one theory is that Bowden can win with other coaches players, but he can't recruit his own. A second theory is that Bowden isn't "an Auburn man". A third was that Bowden crossed a powerful trustee, Bobby Lowder, in some manner other than by boffing his daughter. A fourth, floated by Birmingham columnist Paul Finebaum, was that Bowden had gotten "too big for his own britches", that he was self-centered and cared more about his own success than that of Auburn University.
Let's take these in turn. The first theory has its merits, but is an oversimplification. Bowden has landed his share of Parade all-Americans, and Auburn's only appearance in an SEC chamionship game, last year's 10-3 team, consisted solely of Bowden recruits. There are Bowden recruits in the NFL, like rookie starter Takeo Spikes. There are preseason all-Americans at Auburn now, like defensive tackle Jimmy Brumbaugh. There was Heisman candidate Dameyune Craig. The fact of the matter is, Bowden at least held his own in prime recruiting territory for other recruiting giants: Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Florida State, and LSU. A criticism that could be levied against Bowden is recruiting strategy: many of his recruits have since been kicked off the team for criminal offenses or poor classwork. And this has been a huge problem for the Tigers: if you add the players kicked off the team to those who "no longer wanted to play football" to those who've had season ending injuries or left for the NFL, you begin to realize that Bowden's "recruiting" acumen is based not on his top flight players, but on the players that remain. Skim the top 5 or 6 recruits off of any team and see where the class ranks then.
Bowden isn't an Auburn man? There is a lot of hogwash here. Bowden sure as hell was an Auburn man when he was 20-1-1 after two seasons, I can tell you that. People want a winner, pure and simple. Now Auburn fans are talking about bringing in a coach who served under Pat Dye, but Pat Dye was no Auburn man either. He forged himself an Auburn man by winning, and Bowden could have done the same.
Did Bowden have a run in with a trustee? It's possible, though Terry Bowden is hardly known for his abrasive personality. In fact, what he is known for is his graciousness, southern charm, and what one Auburn fan called a "bubbly outlook." Was he too big for his own britches? Here's the comments of Birmingham columnist Paul Finebaum:
How many times did Bowden talk about his 20-0 start? How often did he mention he was the winningest coach for the first five years of anyone in Auburn history? How often did you hear him refer back to the fact that Auburn was only two points away from winning the SEC last year? The past. The only tense in Bowden's vocabulary.
Yeah, he sounds like a demon, but this is revisionist history if I've ever heard one. Now's the time for Bowden bashers to make their case, to amass all the quotes to damn him. But look at what the quotes are saying: the winningest 5-year period. When did that period end? Last year. Two points from an SEC championship when? Last year. If the past is the only tense Bowden has, isn't it interesting that the past is defined as seven games ago? Turn this on its end and you see the absurdity: all Auburn cares about is now, strongly defined: this year. It is all about this year. Am I alone in thinking "I brought an unheralded team within two points of beating heavily favored Tennessee in the SEC championship JUST LAST YEAR" is a REASONABLE answer to "Yeah, but what have you done for me lately?" This is not a guy who is harkening back to some glory of the distant past. This is a guy who went 10-3 LAST YEAR. Past tense, indeed.
Having said all that, Bowden was a jerk for leaving midseason, and it is not going to help his career or his team. If there is any evidence to back up Finebaum's claim that Bowden is self-absorbed, it is the midseason resignation. There is little justification that the controversy surrounding him was bad for his team, it was bad for Terry Bowden. He got out with only 5 losses added to his carreer record for 1998; he got out before he had to add 3 or 4 more to his lifetime mark. And if you are going to resign in midseason, how about doing it on a Sunday or Monday instead of a Friday?
Bowden had adamently insisted before the Florida game that he would remain as head coach for the rest of the season. Things apparently changed rapidly over the weekend, and Bowden would not coach another game for the Tigers. So this team that can't string two good five years together has dumped another coach, and I can't help but feel a loss to Florida helped precipitate the whole affair. Its great not to be an Auburn Tiger, and its great not to be poor Terry Bowden.