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Bowden Energizes Sold-Out Crowd at Grand Finale/The Pursuit

Bowden Energizes Sold-Out Crowd at Grand Finale/The Pursuit

Football Aug 11
By ULMWarhawks.com Online Columnist Paul Letlow

MONROE, La.  – It's a preseason unlike many here at ULM, with nearly 50 new players joining a reshaped roster and a revamped coaching staff led by Terry Bowden.

The ULM renovation project is a big one, and getting everyone up to speed in a hurry during the dog days of August is challenging.

But Bowden has been here before.

"In half the jobs I've taken, I've had to do exactly that," Bowden said Tuesday night before the Berry-Bowden Tour Grand Finale at ULM's Bayou Pointe. "I think I might have been prepared for a job like this more than most others, because that's exactly what I've done at places like Akron, at Samford, even North Alabama. Going back even to my first job at Salem College and getting transfers from Florida State."

Although energized by the work ahead, Bowden is also coping with the loss of his father Bobby Bowden, a legendary coach who died Sunday at age 91. Bowden left the team last week and was able to spend the final days with his father. He will rejoin his family in Tallahassee, Florida, this weekend for the funeral.

"I've been coaching a long time," Bowden said. "Next to my father, nobody in my family has coached as long as I have, and that's with a 10-year sabbatical at ABC Sports in New York in the middle of it.

"That was always a part of my life and my dad went through his father's loss when he was coaching at West Virginia as the head coach. During the football season, he had to deal with that. I know whatever I had to do, he'd understand that."

When Bowden is away tending to family matters, he's able to hand the reins to his associate head coach and offensive coordinator Rich Rodriguez.

"With Rich Rodriguez here, he was able to fill in with the experience of being a head coach for a couple of days," Bowden said. "We'll do the same thing this weekend when I go back for the funeral. We won't skip a beat. I've been a head coach for 25 years and he's been a head coach for 24. I don't know that I can do it a whole lot better than he can do it when it comes to organizing and running our football practice. We've got a good plan and everything is already in place. But I'll have to be gone to Tallahassee one more time."

Bowden expects his father's service to be a celebration of life, with former Florida State players like Deion Sanders, Charlie Ward and Warrick Dunn taking part.

"The difficult part is past," Bowden said. "The celebration is next."

Sanders, now head coach at Jackson State, will provide the opposition in Bowden's first ULM home game on Sept. 18.

"I don't know that I've seen him in a long time since he played for my dad at Florida State," Bowden said. "Our paths just haven't crossed directly. But I've followed him of course as everybody in America and across the world has followed him. He and many of his teammates over the years, it's a special relationship they had. I hope that I can have somewhat of an impact on my players like he had on guys like Deion Sanders and Warrick Dunn."

Like his father, Terry Bowden understands the importance of promoting his program. This year's Berry-Bowden Grand Finale was combined with The Pursuit, an annual event designed to kick off the new school year and football season. ULM President Ron Berry, Bowden and others spoke during the booster function.

"Get ready," Bowden said. "Get ready to expect the best. Let's go get excited. Let's be a part of the reason we win. Let's make that stadium part of our excitement, part of our enthusiasm, part of the experience that we have at a game but the unhappy experience opponents have. I want to make our home field an advantage.

"They've got to accept with faith some of these things, but that's what we need. Tonight, we're going to crank it up and get going. It's officially started, and now, I think we have a lot of people here who just want to get it going."
 
 
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