Terry Bowden to be announced Head Coach
By JWilson on Dec 22, 2007 in Coaching, Featured, Football
A wvmountaineersports.com exclusive…
As of 7:30pm an inside source to the program tells me that when Terry Bowden lands in Morgantown he will be announced as the new Head Coach of the WVU Mountaineers. Stay tuned for more information.
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Junior | Dec 22, 2007 | Reply
Please no! I know the Bowden name carries some weight, but we need someone who is going to lead the Mountaineers. Holiday would be a much better fit. There is a reason why Auburn fired him, he could not win. Besides didn’t his daddy leave WVU high and dry when he was coach, look how long it took us to recover from that. I’m not saying he doesn’t know football, but let’s put him in the A.D. offices. Please reconsider.
Gracie | Dec 22, 2007 | Reply
Please no! We need someone young who is currently coaching. What about the Boise State head coach? Or even the Applachian State head coach? Anyone would be better than Terry Bowden. The best candidate should get the job, not the one with connections to the governor’s office. We need someone who can keep us a top 10 team.
russdigga | Dec 22, 2007 | Reply
interesting.. my sources were leaning towards jimbo..
noobasaurus rex | Dec 22, 2007 | Reply
The good ol’ boy network strikes again. Hey, everything else in WV is mediocre(at best), so why not the football team? Thanks, Joe!
Tony | Dec 22, 2007 | Reply
Yea, thats what we need. A man riding on daddy’s name and has not coached in a decade. Oh, and did I forget he can’t keep his pants zipped up? Yepper, thats what we neeed alright!
Beezner | Dec 22, 2007 | Reply
Didn’t Bowden leave Auburn under a cloud of possible NCAA violations? I’m not positive about this, but I think that might have been the case. Does anyone know if that is true?
PC Mud | Dec 23, 2007 | Reply
Jimbo is not going to WV.
barec2 | Dec 23, 2007 | Reply
Actually ALL my sources are saying it’s 85% Jimbo w/ announcement w/in 3 days.
G Par | Dec 23, 2007 | Reply
In his first season at Auburn in 1993, he led the Tigers to a perfect 11-0 season (the team was ineligible for post-season play because of infractions by the previous staff). Bowden’s Tigers would run the string of undefeated games until the final game of the 1994 season against arch-rival Alabama and finish his first two seasons with a 20-1-1 record. The win-streak is still the longest in AU football history. During his tenure at Auburn, Terry Bowden recruited 18 players that were drafted into the National Football League, including three players taken in the First Round
I'MallEERS | Dec 23, 2007 | Reply
If we can’t get jimbo i think that terry is a great hire! hope this is true..
brandon jones | Dec 23, 2007 | Reply
yeah 11-0 he beat only two teams with winning records that year
Auggie Paul | Dec 23, 2007 | Reply
WVU Coaching Search: Florida State heir Fisher moves to front of pack
Sunday, December 23, 2007
By Chuck Finder, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Florida State coach-in-waiting Jimbo Fisher may not have to do much more waiting, because he could become West Virginia’s coach as early as tomorrow.
Fisher, a native of Clarksburg, W.Va., has emerged as the Mountaineers’ consensus candidate to succeed new Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez. West Virginia administrators, fans and, perhaps most important, boosters — divided at midweek over the Doc Holliday-Terry Bowden leading candidates — roundly threw their support behind Florida State’s offensive coordinator and anointed heir to Bobby Bowden.
Under his Seminoles coach-in-waiting contract, an extension through 2011 that boosts his salary to $625,000, Fisher “shall not seek, solicit, discuss, entertain, interview for or accept any offer of an opportunity for any coaching position” in college or the NFL. So a $2.5 million buyout due Florida State — for a 39-year-old who is still an assistant coach, remember — seemingly would be triggered at some point, though back-channel negotiations were cautiously executed the past few days to avoid contract trouble.
With a prod from Gov. Joe Manchin, West Virginia officials made a push for Fisher and garnered the donor support necessary for a long-term deal and Fisher’s personal buyout cost, sources said. If their discussions reach an agreeable end today, he is expected to be introduced as their new coach as soon as tomorrow.
Failing that, however, West Virginia could revert to a fallback position and use the Christmas Eve window tomorrow to name ESPN’s Terry Bowden, son of Bobby, as its new coach. He apparently edged out Holliday, a Florida assistant head coach, in the candidates’ race before Fisher quickly entered the picture.
Meanwhile, one other potential candidate received glowing recommendations.
Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe, a native of Huntington, W.Va., and a candidate mentioned for almost every Top 25 program opening, said West Virginia has a good man in place: Interim head coach Bill Stewart, who has neither campaigned nor been interviewed.
“I don’t know if you’ll find anybody who loves West Virginia University and the state more than Bill Stewart,” Grobe said in an unsolicited recommendation. “They’d hit a home run with that guy. You think of a guy who can galvanize kids and keep things moving forward. … I know there are a lot of political things that influence those decisions. But as far as football things and leading the program, you can’t find a better guy.”
Stewart, West Virginia’s associate head coach the past year, was handed a fragile football team a week ago after Rodriguez’s exit meeting. He wasn’t officially named interim head coach until Wednesday, due to Rodriguez’s contract. Yet he seemed to steady, if not buoy, the Mountaineers before they left for Christmas break Friday to reconvene Wednesday in Phoenix.
“That should tell you something,” Grobe said. “If he’s the best guy to do that now, he’s probably the best guy for the job. Sometimes that’s lost [on administrators] when it’s right in front of you.”
Perhaps Stewart’s most famous ex-Virginia Military Institute assistant also openly backs him for the job.
“I just think the world of him,” said Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, whose first coaching job after William & Mary College was as a graduate assistant for Stewart. “They’re not going to do any better as a coach or a man.”
Chuck Finder can be reached at cfinder@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1724.
First published on December 23, 2007 at 12:00 am
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Justin | Dec 23, 2007 | Reply
Hope your team gets that money from Rich b/c it’s going straight to FSU… and when that’s all said and done you still won’t have Jimbo. Good job kids. Way to try to be somebody.
Al | Dec 23, 2007 | Reply
He beat everybody. So what’s your point?
eliotz | Dec 23, 2007 | Reply
I don’t know where all the controversy is coming from. Terry hasn’t coached in a few years. So what. He would be the first coach with single A head coach experience that WVU has ever hired. Lets face it, at the time RichRod was hired he was just another assistant with a nice resume that the Admin could get for a good price. This jabber about Terry’s lack of recruiting talent? FALSE by several NFL draft picks. ONE ranked winning season? FALSE by 4 seasons. Fired? FALSE, he might have been eventually, as rumor has him doing the AD’s daughter but again FALSE, he quit mid-season while in the midst of his first loosing season. Fisher could be a better choice, but Terry is a fine choice and brings to the table experience and media attention that WVU needs to stay amongst the ranks of the elite. And yes I did say elite. The winningest team in college football that has never won a national championship. Third most Heisman trophy nominees without a winner. With ALUM names like Sam Huff, Jim Braxton, Jeff Hostetler, Major Harris, Mark Bulger and on and on. WVU’s fans have always thought the program was diserving of a big name coach. Admin has never managed to cough up the doe, despite 20-30 bowl appearances (million $ checks). Finally. Mountaineer fans should be ecstatic with either choice and feel like they dodged the RichRod bullet!
Lee Boyette | Dec 23, 2007 | Reply
As far as 20-1-1 he did all that with Pat Dye’s recruits. Anybody could have done what he did with the team he took over. Why did he quit in mid-season? Ask the AD’s daughter. He’s a opportunist very much in the vain of Bill Clinton, but on a much smaller level. Hell the man can’t even tie his tie the right length.
eliotz | Dec 23, 2007 | Reply
Anybody could have done what Terry Bowden did with Auburn in 93-94? Seriously. Coach the 1-A SEC Auburn Tigers to 20-1-1? This is not Pop Warner its the SEC and a major SEC program at the time. You don’t just take somebody’s recruiting class and the kids just go out and play together cause he picked talented ones. Or maybe since they were Pat Dye’s recruits they were somehow blessed by the football god with “how to win in the SEC” knowledge? Most 1st year program coaches can’t even get 2 assistants and 2 coordinators to agree on formations. the first year is the hardest and great recruits help but they ain’t enough to win in the SEC, much less win the SEC Championship!
And even if it did explain his 1st two years 1993-94, it doesn’t explain his 5th year. You remember, 1997 when he went 10-3, won the SEC Championship and ranked 11th in the nation. At the end of 97 he was 46-12-1 at Auburn. Thats like.. what, 60-2 in the Big East? Like I said, I’m not a huge fan of Terry’s and I would rather probably see Fisher get the job. It’s just easy to criticize a coaching record when its someone who never coached comparing the coach to assistants who are 0-0-0. There’s more to the AD’s daughter story than was ever told also. The facts are looking more like he sacrificed himself to save someone, and the University of Auburn, from a huge scandal. But even if he did it, so what? The only time I’ve seen his boinkin effect him on the field was the five losses of his final season. Same as Clinton but on a much larger scale.
Tie a tie? Thats why most coaches don’t wear them anymore. Rich couldn’t tie one either.
Justin | Dec 23, 2007 | Reply
How backwoods are some WVU fans. How can you cry about Rich Rodriguez being a traitor for breaking his contract, only to covet Jimbo and suggest he break his contract… on which the ink hasn’t even dried yet. Seriously? Talk about hypocracy!
russdigga | Dec 23, 2007 | Reply
well actually justin… richrod played at wvu, is from west virginia, said he wanted to coach here as long as we would have him… then bolted…
the jimbo story is entirely different.. dont even try to compare them
saltman | Dec 23, 2007 | Reply
TB is a great TV personality but a lot has change in the scheme of things in College Football ten years.I think you are right it’s going to be Jimbo’s Job. It is a better choice that TB, Doc turned down Marshall two years ago, it will be his day somewhere else but not in the State of West Virginia. Good news for Florida Football, I feel bad for Doc because the Politics cost him the job. Either way you look at it Bobby AKA Booby has set his son TERRY up to be a head coach again if Jimbo goes to WVU then Bobby will Lobby for his baby to be coach at FSU. However FSU already sent one son packing Actually paying him $300,000. to leave
Roy | Dec 23, 2007 | Reply
you all are all dumb for not liking this choice. This is the best choice. We finally have a good play caller and will keep recruiting up.
saltman | Dec 23, 2007 | Reply
roy Hopefully you are talking about Jimbo because if you are saying that about terry you sir are the one ate up with the dumb A#%
Frank | Dec 23, 2007 | Reply
All my sources keep saying it’s pretty much Terry at this point. Jimbo has said thru his agent that he is sticking to his word with FSU. Frankly, TB is the safer choice with incredible upside.
saltman | Dec 23, 2007 | Reply
Yes you are right about the upside he will get up and leave just like Rich did, he has proven that with the Tigers. Daddy will have made it happen for him. tell me what he has done to get back into coaching as he says over the past two years at least 25 teams have wanted new coaches did he express interest. No daddy is about to retire home to West Virginia and that is why Terry wants to coach again because it is in West Virginia
Andrew | Dec 23, 2007 | Reply
Corrections for Junior….
1. Auburn didn’t fire Bowden… he left midseason.
2. If there is one thing he CAN do is win games… He can’t recruit or keep his personal life in check.
Sure he almost ran our program into the ground but its mostly because he did not recruit the right type of player… If Bowden has grown up since his Auburn days then you’re getting a great coach… If not, well then…good luck
saltman | Dec 23, 2007 | Reply
Andrew of course he leaned his lesson the lesson was in fact that when things get tough he needs to quit. So it is a good thing Daddy is doing the lobbying for him because with the Admin slowing the process Terry might have quit as it is getting tough on him. But hey if he is your guy then you heard it hear first he will quit the Mountaineers when he can not replenish the talent.
saltman | Dec 23, 2007 | Reply
sorry type-o Learned his lesson
Joseph | Dec 23, 2007 | Reply
Hey Mountaineers..
Auburn Fan here, If yall do indeed hire Bowden, then yall would have gotten a great coach. He was a great coach at Auburn. He resigned in the middle of the 1998 season, after a horrible start due to 9 staters on Offense and 6 starters on D going down witrh season or career ending injuries….The president and the boosters had already decided to fire him at the conclusion of the season anyway, b/c of some off the field issues that had to do with Terrys personal life and his marriage..that in the boosters eyes was bad publicity for the school so they decided to fire him at the conclusion of the 98 season… instead of waiting it out ..he resigned halfway through the year…
I think he was a great coach who had a raw deal given to him…
He took over after Pat Dye and his recruiting scandal left us on NCAA porbation for 4 years and no one wanted the job..except Terry… and with the same crew that Pat dye went 6-6 with …terry went 11-0…
HE was a good coach at Auburn..and he will be an excellent replacement for you guys and he will stay as long as yall will have him he is loyal…
War Eagle, I will see yall next fall in morgantown!
saltman | Dec 23, 2007 | Reply
Hey Joseph, Gator Fan here
Rich was a great coach from them to until he left after one loss that cost them a chance at the National Title. if they want someone who will walk out of them when Terry “Daddy please help me get a job” Bowden is their man. When they hired Rich Doc was in line for that job as well where was Terry if this is his DREAM JOB. Great news for the GatorNation Doc will be better off in Florida anyway
hillbilleee | Dec 23, 2007 | Reply
I’m still not sold on T Bowden, it has just been to long since he has coached. The game has changed alot since then. Would be nice to get Jimbo, I read somewhere that Rich called Florida State and earned them to contract there coachs, something about WVU isn’t a good place to coach, blaa blaa, bad enough he turncoats on us but tries to keep us from getting a quality replacement. His offense is ok at times, but fast defense and good coaching proves that you can stop a 5 play offense!!!!!!! I,m sure they are many more Ohio State fans in WV now, screw the Blue, even i lokk at the scores now of there basketball team , love everytime they lose. I’d like to see the old rumore that I have heard from differant people, from differant parts of town, about Rich pregnating a black cheerleader a few years ago, how they kept that under wraps I do not no , but just a thought . ha
tsamples | Dec 23, 2007 | Reply
these are the facts about terry bowden GPar, while at Auburn. We have a 2008 team here that will be a national power and a quarterback that I saw carry the team in the gatorbowl against Georgia Tech. Wvu only loses came when he was injured. We need a coach with Bowden’s experience. Yes the Bowden’s name will carry alot of clot and his time out of coaching was spent as a college football commentator. Dick Vermeel said after he left pro football and was a commentator he said he became a better coach and came back and won a superbowl.
1stString | Dec 23, 2007 | Reply
Big mistake to hire Terry “Tot” Bowden. Terrible recruiter and the word “terrible” is not near strong enough. When Tater Tot was at Auburn everything was all about himself and not about Auburn. His brother created the 11-0 and 9-1-1 first two seasons as the OC under Terry and when his brother left to go to Tulane then Auburn went downhill. As Pat Dye’s players graduated Tater Tot couldn’t recruit to replace Dye’s players and that is another reason Auburn went downhill. Tater loved to recruit players he could see eye to eye to but unfortunately he is only 5′ tall so those players were a bit small to player Division I football. Good luck with him.
Shawn Griffith | Dec 23, 2007 | Reply
Jimbo Fisher said today that he is staying at FSU
and if WVU hires Terry Bowden i will root for the Herd
Justin | Dec 23, 2007 | Reply
Way to represent those diehard WVU fans, Shawn Griffith… You guys are pathetic. You’ll never know tradition. Go Noles.
eliotz | Dec 24, 2007 | Reply
Shawn please go root for the Herd either way. Please. Justin would be correct if we were all like you. Bet you’re a Raider fan or an x-Dallas fan. Do you find yourself rooting for USC or LSU? Don’t worry as soon as one of them looses a couple years in a row, you’ll find another winning team to say is yours. Bandwagon guy. Right. No loyalty. I understand.
I’ve lived in San Diego for 20 years but I’m a diehard Mountaineer and have been throughout my childhood, and my 5 years at WVU. I will be an eer till I die. If I was going to jump off the team bus because of a hire I didn’t like, I would have gone to Marshall back when they hired Cignetti. In fact, I was rooting for TerryB when RichRod was hired and again last year before he decided to stay. Recently, I was beginning to sway, due to all the propaganda, until I really checked into the facts of what everyone was saying about TBowden. 1stString and others.. Scroll up and I read my earlier retort. Terry’s not my first choice anymore but only because I think we can get a hotter commodity. But he can coach, he’s proved it and not with someone else’s players or his brothers guidance. Example His 5th year (not the 20-1-1 1st or 2nd year), the 1997 Auburn Tigers. SEC Champs, 11th Ranked AP, 10th Coaches. He was 46-12-1 in the SEC at the end of his 5th season. Like I said above, thats equivalent to what?__say.. 60-2 in the Big East? We can probably find another live one, but I’d rather have him than another 0-0-0 budget priced assistant (as an admin roll of the dice) with no head coaching experience at a 1-A program. We’ve never hired one of those before ya’know? Never hired an experienced 1-A head coach. It might be nice for a change. Maybe we could actually stop being the winningest program in college football history without a national championship! Maybe we could have a player win the Heisman, instead of just having the most nominees without a trophy. Maybe the press would consider us an elite program for more than a couple of years at a time!
If anyone needs to talk to me I’ll be in Phoenix for New Years and the Fiesta Bowl. Where will the elite noles or the wolverines be in January?
Live for the moment!Lifes too short!
GO EERS!
Proud Tiger | Dec 24, 2007 | Reply
Folks I sincerely hope your powers-that-be aren’t dumb enough to hire Buster Brown Bowden. He is a twirp and a quitter. One thing for sure, if ya’ll do get him our game at WV next year will get blown into the Tater Tot show and portrayed as a big grudge match. please don’t hire this jerk.
And by the way, the FSU poster is right, they do have a long standing tradition. We are seeing it in spades right now as Diddy Bowden and the Criminoles linp into their bowl game with yet another scandal.
Shawn Griffith | Dec 24, 2007 | Reply
I hope WVU has the sense to hire a good coach not just the name Bowden, I hope they hire Doc Holliday
BigTBird | Dec 24, 2007 | Reply
I wish Terry Bowden and West Va the very best. I like Terry and am an Auburn Grad. I think that he was a good coach and loved his enthusiasm. The only fault if any that he had seemed to be a lack of knowledge or desire to recruit. So…be sure you have some good guys backing him in coaches jobs that are great recruiters since that does not seem to be Terry’s strong point. But he puts a good system on the field and with good players will give you an exciting team. War Eagle.
tebow | Dec 24, 2007 | Reply
Listen folks, I will do a good job, I LOVE W.Va. and can definitely keep things going. As for the rumors about an A.D.’s daughter, those are patently untrue … er, at least some of the rumors. The zipper is up for good.
Jeremy | Dec 25, 2007 | Reply
1) Don’t believe anything you read in the Pittsurgh Post-Gazette..remember that it is published in the city which is home to our arch-rival…?? They print stuff just to watch us get pissed about it…look at all the crap RichRod articles that have come from that no good hack Finder. Jimbo was never leaving FSU…but the PG prints an article and it gets national attention and Jimbo has to publically state he was not leaving FSU…making WVU look like it is fumbling for a coach…I think they have our guy lined out for awhile (see below)
2) We will know our coach is first thing Thursday morning (27th). If it is Butch Jones, then it will be announced that morning. after the CMU win! If no announcement than it is Doc Holliday and will be announced after Florida pummels Michigan whorverines. The best way to get over RichFraud is to hire a coach…If they were hiring Bowden they would have done it a days ago. Why drag it out unless the guy you want is days away from a bowl game.
The other two guys have bowl games to win and they are true Mountaineers to honor their teams, players, and fans by coaching their teams in the bowls.
Ann Arbor is a whore!
Red Fish | Dec 25, 2007 | Reply
Why did Papa Bowden call your Gov and lobby for Tot??????
It takes some of the action off Jimbo and
Tot wants to get back into the action…..
Do it and regret it……..
eliotz | Dec 26, 2007 | Reply
Jeremy - Eureka. You’re right. That makes perfect sense.
saltman | Dec 26, 2007 | Reply
Seems to me that THE MOUTAINEERS’ next coach is coaching in a bowl game, if they were not then they would have hired Bowden So he could start recruiting. So who ever it is they better be a great recruiter because the talent pool is shrinking with everyday that passes without a coach. Good news for DOC?!?!?!
eliotz | Dec 26, 2007 | Reply
There is no way that whoever it is has told their program yet.. UNLESS the program is below our recruiting standards. Otherwise the program would be afraid that the coach would be stealing players for his new job? UNLESS the job were a step below us in the talent pool. And EP said we were going to do it right and notify the schools and get permission to speak to the coaches. Sounds like Jones to me. Florida State wouldn’t let it go on.