By Dennis Dodd
CBS SportsLine Senior Writer
Oct. 23, 1998
The wolves in Tigers' clothing got what they wanted Friday night at Auburn.
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They wanted coach Terry Bowden strung up, gutted and displayed in the square of public opinion. For the crime of bad football, they wanted one of the most successful coaches in Auburn history fired.
They got the next best thing. Bowden resigned Friday after the best five-year start by any coach in Auburn history. Despite a 46-12-1 record during that period, the faithful couldn't handle a 1-5 record this season. There were the usual whispers of problems with athletic director David Housel. Boosters were whining.
"Resigned under pressure" was a more accurate term.
BUT THIS WASN'T SO much a resignation as revenge. In his tersely worded statement, Bowden used words like "harmful" and "painful" to describe speculation about his job security. The criticism hurt Bowden, now his abrupt absence will hurt the program.
Look closely at the timing of the resignation -- on a Friday night before a home football game. During that most sacred of nights, if Auburn revelers aren't at a local watering hole, they're partying inside those famous Jordan-Hare Stadium RVs.
Right about now, the grumbling masses should be in a quandary. How do you cheer for Bowden's team one week and cheer his absence the next?
In the end, Bowden got 'em good. He has youth (age 42), talent and heredity on his side. Auburn was merely his apprenticeship before someday succeeding his father Bobby at Florida State.
Auburn can't feel it now, but Terry stuck the knife in and twisted it. He quit in the middle of recruiting season. One assistant was called in off the road when the news of Bowden's intentions spread. A college head coach leaving in the middle of the season almost never happens. It's suicide on all fronts from continuity to recruiting. This isn't the NFL where spoiled rookie quarterbacks are making more than the head coach.
"You don't want me?" Bowden seemed to say. "Fine, it's your mess now."
AND WHAT A MESS IT is. Injuries, arrests, shoddy recruiting. The usual stuff faced by a program in a valley. If this were a pattern of behavior over a period of years, then Bowden should have been out on his ear. But it was slightly more than 10 months ago Auburn lost by a point to Tennessee in the SEC championship game.
Bowden didn't get that stupid in that short of a time. The off-season bottomed out when star receiver Robert Baker was arrested for cocaine trafficking. If recruiting players of questionable character is a crime then throw half the Division I-A coaches in jail right now. Such luminaries as Tom Osborne, Auburn legend Pat Dye and Bowden's father himself would be there to greet Terry.
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Terry Bowden will bounce back. The same might not be true for Auburn. (AP)
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No coach can help injuries. Auburn's ailments expedited Bowden's fall from glory. This season he lost five centers, a starting fullback and a backup running back. Take seven scholarship players away from any program and it would struggle.
With Bowden gone, there will be less of a chance to recruit immediate help. At this moment, the football staff is in complete disarray. Assistants will be burning up phone lines trying to secure new jobs. Why wait to see if interim coach Bill Oliver, the defensive coordinator, gets the job? There are no promises from whoever is named the permanent coach.
MEANWHILE, IF YOU'RE A recruit it's hard to commit to a staff that might be unemployed by mid-December.
All of it leads to one conclusion: Bowden quit on his terms. That seven-year contract he signed in the off-season certainly has to contain a resignation buyout clause. Papa Bowden didn't raise no financial fool.
Don't grieve for Terry Bowden. He's barely middle-aged, bright, articulate and a member of college football's first family. Florida State can wait while dad winds down. How much do you want to bet Terry is the top candidate for the soon-to-be-open jobs at Oklahoma and Clemson? If not those places, then some other high-profile job including, perhaps, a shot at the NFL.
The joke's on Auburn. In Bowden, it had long-term glory pacing the sidelines. A young Shug Jordan, a more scrupulous Pat Dye. How soon the wolves forgot Bowden won his first 20 games at Auburn. Without him, a slow and painful decline that awaits.
Dennis Dodd is a senior writer in CBS SportsLine's Kansas City bureau.