By Dennis Dodd
CBS SportsLine Senior Writer
Sept. 2, 1998
All the way with UCLA.
Every Tuesday morning, a couple of important FedExs hit the desks of Tommy, Terry and Bobby Bowden.
It's
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One can only imagine what the game's first family of coaches devises out of its weekly film exchange. Bobby, in his 23rd season at Florida State, is a college football icon. Terry has averaged nine victories in five seasons with Auburn. Tommy, though, is the rising young star having turned around a morbid Tulane program in his rookie year as head coach last season.
"I thought I was ready a long time ago," Tommy said. "Being raised in the environment I was, you just look for the right place. Can I keep it going? I don't know. The track record is not good here. We'll find out in three or four more years. I'll either be hired or fired."
Que sera, sera ya'll. This is, after all, Tulane, which has employed 38 coaches in its 104-year history. But for now the city known for Bourbon Street and barge traffic must add Tommy Bowden to its must-see list.
HE IS THE BIGGEST REASON why Tulane is the first winner of CBS Sportsline's fictional Gary Barnett Award, named in honor of the team most likely to duplicate Northwestern's miraculous turnaround in 1995 with 1) a national ranking; 2) a conference title; 3) a bowl. Unfortunately, to be eligible, a program must first stink. And prior to Bowden, Tulane did.
The Green Wave had suffered through 15 consecutive non-winning seasons before Bowden arrived in 1996. Located in the heart of the Southeastern Conference, the program had to fight the usual academic restrictions of a private school and its own football legacy. Trapped in limbo as an independent before joining Conference USA, the program was forced to play SEC teams -- and endure beating after beating.
"They dropped Alabama and dropped Florida State," Bowden said. "Other than that, I can't figure it out why I took the job. It was an opening. Why did I take this job?"
The Tommy branch of the Bowden coaching empire operates a lot like his dad. Down-home humor and pumped-up players. As a rookie coach, he oversaw the second-biggest turnaround in the country as the Green Wave went from 2-9 to 7-4. More important, they went from off college football's radar to respectability.
The seven victories were a school record for a rookie head coach. Bowden's
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Bowden's Green Wave might not be staring at the back of Jeff Bower's Southern Miss. squad for long.
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TULANE'S DEFENSE LED the nation with 26 interceptions and posted two shutouts in a season for the first time since 1973. The Green Wave are a consensus No. 2 pick in C-USA behind defending champion Southern Mississippi.
"Tommy seems like he has been destined to be a coach," Bobby Bowden said. "Of all our boys, he was committed to coaching earlier than any of them. I'm talking about back in the seventh or eighth grade."
It's been a 20-year route to head coaching for Tommy, 44, since he began as a graduate assistant at West Virginia in 1977. Since then there have been stops at seven other schools, most recently at Auburn where he was offensive coordinator from 1991-96.
"We talk a whole bunch," Tommy said of his relationship with his father and brother. "We'll watch the film on Tuesday. On Wednesday and Thursday you can put it in your game plan if you like it. It's a really nice advantage."
Nice advantage? That's like saying the Kennedy family has some political influence. Rather, think of it as 29 years of experience and 261 combined victories for the Bowden bunch.
THAT TOMMY WAS ABLE to turn the corner right away is amazing even with his pedigree. Recruiting made a dramatic turn for the best with a top 30 class. And for the first time in recent memory, Tulane began attracting New Orleans' best talent. Receiver Terrell Harris, quarterback Derrick Joseph and offensive lineman Torie Taulli all come from local power Archbishop Shaw.
"My name helped in recruiting," Bowden said. "That probably helped me get the job. After that you're kind of on your own. When I took the job, the players thought I could do the job whether I could or not. We might have been able to fake them out."
Any success that was achieved at the school in the past was usually used as a stepping stone to a better job. The coaches to pass through the program were impressive but also gone.
"It's extremely hard because you're right in the middle of SEC football," said Missouri's Larry Smith who coached at Tulane from 1976-79. "The recruiting is really tough. They have very high academic standards. You don't have a home stadium, or at least nothing on campus. When I was there, they didn't play in a league."
BOWDEN NOT ONLY CHANGED the past, he buried it. The Green Wave were knocking on the door for a bowl game last year and return 16 starters -- 10 on offense -- to spark a run at the unheard of ... a conference title.
It is no fluke. Right now, Tulane is threatening to join the trend set by Northwestern. In 1995, the Wildcats went from 3-7-1 to 10-2 and a Rose Bowl berth. In 1996, it was Arizona State improving to 11-1. The Sun Devils got to the Rose Bowl, their first bowl in 10 years, before losing to Ohio State in the final seconds.
Tommy's name says he is part of college football's establishment. His team tells him he has a long way to go.
"I'd rather be the underdog," he said. "It's harder to stay on top. You need to sneak up on people, which will be a problem for us this year."
Dennis Dodd is a senior writer in CBS SportsLine's Kansas City bureau.