Terry Bowden returns to football at D-II North Alabama

Athletic director Mark Linder called him at the hotel that night and they had other conversations. Bowden came in Wednesday for a round of interviews and was hired that evening for what he admits is a significant paycut.

His salary was not immediately available.

Bowden then left Thursday shortly after his introductory news conference to fly to Dallas to work the Cotton Bowl for Westwood One.

"I'm as excited as I was the day I went to Samford and the day I went to Auburn," he said.

Bowden has an impressive pedigree as a head coach. At NAIA Salem, he won 19 of his last 25 games at a program that was 0-9-1 the year before his arrival. The team led the nation in total offense his last two seasons.

At Samford, which went from Division III to I-AA, he went 9-1 in his first year, three more wins than the team had totaled the previous three seasons. That team led the nation in total offense and scoring.

Auburn had won five games each of the past two seasons before his arrival. The Tigers went 11-0 his first season and won the first nine games in '94 despite heavy scholarship reductions and a postseason ban.

Bowden resigned six games into the 1998 season and has maintained that he left after influential trustee Bobby Lowder told him he would be fired.

Now, he returns after brother Tommy, his offensive coordinator at Auburn, stepped down as Clemson's head coach.

"When one Bowden goes into football, one Bowden goes out," Bowden joked. "Maybe I can throw Tommy some bread.

"We only won 20 straight last time we got together."