What Terry Bowden learned from spending a year with Clemson, and what’s next for him
Terry Bowden has 25 years of experience as a head coach in college football. His jobs range from being the head man at lower-level schools Salem and North Alabama to leading Auburn to an undefeated season in the SEC.
He has experienced the highest of highs, winning a pair of bowl games during his time at Auburn and having success in the Division II playoffs during a stint at North Alabama. There’s also the lowest of lows, including getting fired from Auburn after a 1-5 start in 1998 and being fired from Akron after going 4-8 in 2018.
But Bowden had never experienced anything quite like he did this year at Clemson.
The 63-year-old put aside his pride to serve as an unpaid grad intern for Dabo Swinney’s team in 2019, being a staff member as something other than a head coach of a program for the first time in more than 30 years.
“It’s been one of the greatest experiences of my life,” Bowden told The State. “Getting back to sitting in front of a camera and studying football again, with a bunch of great people and great analysts and being a small part, I’ve really enjoyed it. I think most of us who are fortunate enough to still be in this game at my age just enjoy it. They do a lot more for me probably than I’m doing for them, and I’m very thankful for that.”
When Bowden was fired from Akron following the 2018 season, he set out to spend some time learning from other coaches before trying to lead his own program again.
With Clemson coming off the 2018 national title and establishing itself as the top program in college football, Bowden thought to himself that there would be no better place to learn than from Swinney and his staff at Clemson.
Bowden’s brother, Tommy Bowden, was the former head coach at Clemson and hired Swinney to his staff before resigning in 2008. There was a natural connection between the Bowden family and Swinney that Terry wanted to tap into. It was easy for Terry to be humble and come to Swinney, asking if he could somehow be a part of Swinney’s program.
“All my life there was not one day that I was the best head coach in my whole family. So if you’re the son of Bobby Bowden, whether you’re Tommy or Terry, if you don’t have humility you’ll never work out,” Terry said. “It was the right place to be. I’m thankful they’ve allowed me to be a part of what they are already successful at, and every day try to get one thing I can do to help them.”
There was an initial problem when Bowden first came to Swinney — he didn’t have an opening on his staff.
“I said, ‘Well, we don’t have volunteers and I don’t have any jobs open. The only option you’ve got is you could be a grad intern, but you’ve gotta be a full-time grad student,’” Swinney recalled. “He’s got to pay for everything. He doesn’t get anything.”
So off to enroll at Clemson Bowden went. He is working to earn a master’s degree in athletic leadership to go along with his bachelor’s and law degrees.
“I’m a student. That’s the most unusual thing, is that 37 years ago I graduated from law school, and the next year I became a head football coach. We didn’t have internet and we didn’t have computers. So 37 years later, in order for me to coach on the field, I have to be a student,” Bowden said. “I’ve got two classes a semester and they’re both online. And both of them you have to use your computer. And I never even knew what that was when I was going to college. So that’s been kind of fun.”
Getting back to the basics of breaking down football has also been enjoyable.
As Clemson practiced and prepared to face its opponent for the upcoming weekend throughout the 2019 season, Bowden was a week ahead, breaking down film and looking at tendencies of the team Clemson would play the following week. When Clemson’s assistant coaches would show up on Sunday to begin working on a new opponent for the upcoming week, Bowden and Clemson’s other grad assistants already had a head start.
“It didn’t take me long to see why they win. They’ve got a great staff and a great group of analysts that have all been around a good while,” Bowden said. “So I’ve just been thankful to coach Swinney to be a part of it and to be able to stay in the game. Most of us analysts aren’t ready to get out of the game yet. We’re just trying to help in any way we can.”
While Bowden enjoyed his time at Clemson this past season, he still has aspirations of leading his own program once again. When that time comes, he will take what he learned from Swinney and Clemson’s staff and try to apply it somewhere new.
“I think the secret sauce is a staff that’s a service staff, that I’m a service head coach. I’m serving my players. I’m serving them off the field as well as on. That I have great humility as a program. And that we love each other and care for each other. The culture at Clemson is maybe the strongest part of what coach Swinney has brought to Clemson,” Bowden said. “Probably the greatest thing that I would say I’ve pulled from this is, it’s still about family, it’s still about culture, it’s still about the whole player and the whole man. I think coach Swinney, right now, understands that as well as anybody has ever understood it. He reminds me of my father. And that’s a big plus to me.”
Bowden is in no hurry to leave, and he’s still receiving his buyout payment from Akron through the 2020 season.
Yes, he wants to run his own program again, but he could also spend another year as an unpaid grad intern at Clemson first.
“I’ve been on the big stage and I don’t have to have the big stage anymore,” Bowden said. “I’m going to have 125 guys sitting in front of me every day — maybe I can lead and I can mentor and I can grow. You have the same opportunities to influence young people, no matter what level. And unlike a lot of guys I’ve been a head coach at Division III, Division II, Division I-AA and Division I.
“My dad’s 90 years old. I’m 63. What am I going to do for the next 25 years of my life? I don’t have to have coaching, but I love the opportunity. I think God will lead me wherever he wants me to go. And so right now he led me here and I’m thankful for it.”
This story was originally published January 24, 2020 at 9:10 AM.
