Rodney Garner was Auburn's recruitng coordinator, and he was extremely good at it.

































Quote from a Tiger Host: "Terry Bowden loves Terry Bowden."

Thoughts on Bowden.

You may think this is an odd topic about which to write on Christmas day. And you're probably right. But last night I happened to catch the tail end of an interview with Terry Bowden on ESPN's "Up Close", and it reminded me I really needed to put pen to paper (so to speak) and express my opinion on Bowden's unexpected departure this year. What follows is a lengthy discussion on just that.

If you would rather read the nutshell version, click here.

Let me begin by informing any ignorant readers that the 1998 Auburn football season was nothing less than an unmitigated DISASTER. We won a grand total of three--count 'em, three--games. The worst record in almost a half-century, the worst record since Shug Jordan's second year on the Plains. About the only good thing you can say about this past year's season is that nobody died. And as a result, Terry Bowden, head football coach at Auburn University, is now Terry Bowden, former head coach at Auburn University. Midway through the season, he--and let me make this perfectly clear--QUIT.

When I found out, I was in Texas on a project; a friend emailed me the news and then that Friday I spent half the night combing the Internet for stories. Over the coming weeks I engaged in many an email discussion regarding Bowden, his departure, his coaching ability, what's best for Auburn, etc. And before much time had passed, I came to a conclusion:

Man, am I glad he's gone.

Sad thing to say, isn't it? I mean, this is the man who won his first 20 games as our head coach. This is the man who made everybody forget about NCAA probation. This is the man who pulled off not one, but two, incredible upset victories against the Florida Gators. This is the man who, one year ago, coached Auburn into the SEC championship game and received a hefty pay raise and contract extension as a result. And this is the only Auburn coach in history with a winning record against Alabama. And now he's gone, and I'm saying I'm glad? And the truth is, I'm not really glad, I'm ECSTATIC. And so is every single other person with whom I've discussed this.

Why? Here's why.

1998 was part of a trend, not an aberration. I can pinpoint the time when the downward spiral began: October 16, 1998. Specifically, one day after our amazing upset victory over the top-ranked Florida Gators, right in their own Swampy backyard. That game was the pinnacle of Terry Bowden's career and it was all downhill after that. The rest of 1994, you could literally see the team playing more and more poorly--mainly the because of letdown, in my opinion. We finished that year with a tie against underdog Georgia, and then a loss to UAT.

How have we done since 1994? Here are the numbers:

1995: 8-4
1996: 8-4
1997: 10-3

In the time period since 1994, we have a record of 15-9 against SEC opponents (a meagre .625 winning percentage) and an abysmal 2-8 record against ranked teams. Plus, one loss each year to unranked teams, teams we really should have beaten. And then, of course, this year we lost to dang near everbody.

The losing trend was going to continue. There is no question that our recruiting capability was heading south, FAST. Ever since Bowden ran off Rodney Garner the quality of recruits coming to Auburn (not to mention NOT coming to Auburn due to poor academics) has been mediocre at best. There have been some standouts, but we lost way too many high-profile recruits to other schools in the past few years, and the highly touted recruits we did get have not, as of yet, lived up to potential.

And the poor recruiting or losing trend can't be blamed on the lingering effects of probation, either; our best recruiting class in decades was signed following the 1994 season, when everyone and their grandmother was saying we were only a few years away from a sure national championship. After that year, Garner went to Tennessee (taking Tee Martin with him, by the way) and took our ability to recruit with him.

To quote Barry Switzer when he was at Oklahoma: "Football games are won by athletes." And our athletes simply haven't been up to par.

Bowden himself became the issue. I hate to dwell on this, but it really is the crux of the matter. In many, perhaps all, ways, all the problems of the past four seasons can be traced to Bowden himself.

For years now, ever since the warm, fuzzy feeling of our undefeated 1993 season wore off, I've been calling Bowden the Bill Clinton of college football. What I mean is, whenever I heard him speak, give a talk, hold a press conference, or stand in the public eye, I couldn't shake the feeling that he's was simply telling me what I wanted to hear. He had this easygoing, likeable public façade that simply didn't jibe with the "off-camera" Bowden. To a man, anyone with whom I spoke, who had spent any time around him, said he was the most arrogant, the most egotistical man they had ever met. And it wasn't long until most people caught on to his true character, and realized that whenever he went before the fans people he was merely putting on a show.

You can't do that at Auburn.

Now, winning will cure just about anything, and it will even make uneasy alumni overlook the head coach's faults. But you have to win; Pat Dye could win eight games a year and everyone would love him; Bowden had to win nine just to keep people quiet, with one of those wins either Florida or Alabama. And it simply wasn't happening.

And the reason it wasn't happening? The players didn't like him, didn't respect him, and didn't give a damn what he thought or said. They interacted with him on a daily basis and saw what kind of man he was. It was so bad that during my final year in school, I heard stories of current football players telling recruits not to come to Auburn, because they couldn't stand playing for Bowden. And when the head coach doesn't even know your first name, what do you expect?

I don't want to further malign Bowden (although I could, with plenty of examples), but I hope I've made my point that it was his character itself that led to the losing trend. I don't think anyone can question Bowden's ability when it comes to the Xs and Os, but head coaching is much more than that. If you can't recruit, inspire your players, or gain the loyalty of the alumni and fans, you're not going to have long term success.

I could go on, but the bottom line is this: Bowden had some incredible success at the beginning of his tenure at Auburn, and for that he has earned his place in the Auburn pantheon of coaches. But that success was short-lived, and with no prospect of coming back. It was time for him to go.

"What is Auburn?"











I got all these statistics from another Auburn fan's page.