Terry Bowden, renowned as one of the brightest young minds in college football, joined ABC Sports as the college football studio analyst in August of 1999, and has continued on to his own daily ESPN Radio Show in Central Florida, weekly Coaches Show on Sirius Satellite Radio, analyst for the National College Football Game of the Week on Westwood One Radio, as well as featured columnist for Yahoo! Sports.com.

Bowden’s biggest accomplishments came while manning the sidelines at Auburn University from 1993 until 1998. While at Auburn, Bowden led the Tigers to an astounding 47-16-1 mark, as well as racking up three post-season appearances (1995 Outback Bowl, 1996 Independence Bowl and the 1997 Peach Bowl).

In addition, Bowden became the first head coach in Division IA history to lead his squad to an undefeated season in his first year at the school (1993). Bowden’s perfect season garnered him numerous Coach of the Year awards, including the Walter Camp, Scripps Howard, Football News, Toyota and the Paul “Bear” Bryant award presented by the Football Writers Association.

Prior to joining Auburn, Bowden served as head coach at Samford University from 1987-92. While at the helm, Bowden compiled a 46-22-1 record and rejuvenated a Division III non-scholarship program up to a title-contending Division I-AA program. In 1986 Bowden was on board at Akron, where he coached the quarterbacks under former Notre Dame head coach Gerry Faust. At the age of 26, in 1983, Bowden became the youngest head football coach in America when he was hired by Salem College in Salem, West Virginia. During the years from 1979-82, Bowden was a graduate assistant under his legendary father, Bobby, at Florida State University.

In 1978 Bowden secured his first coaching position at his alma mater, West Virginia, as a graduate assistant. Before making the transition to the sidelines, Bowden donned the Mountaineers uniform, earning two letters as a running back from 1977-78.

"Win With Teamwork"
Being a winner is not always about having the best players, but having the players that play their best together. Teamwork is the ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organized objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results. You can throw money at all your problems if you want, but it doesn’t cost one thin dime to motivate each and  every person within your organization to be their very best. Ultimately, it’s about getting our eleven to play better than their eleven.

Audacity:
The Belief You Can Accomplish Anything
No leader has ever accomplished anything great without audacity. If a leader is filled with high ambition and he pursues his aims with audacity and strength of will, he will reach them in spite of all obstacles. After our undefeated season at Auburn University in 1993, I asked our football team what they wanted to accomplish in 1994. Every single young man said they wanted to go undefeated again. My first impression was that this was crazy – nobody wins every game two years in a row. Then I thought again. This was not crazy…it was audacity!  

"Motivating the Benchwarmers"
I knew my father (Bobby Bowden, the winningest coach in college football) was going to be a great football coach twenty-five years ago. We were sitting around the Thanksgiving table and he said, “I’m so disappointed that I don’t have any grandsons that I’ve created a trust and I’ve put $100,000 in that trust and I’m going to put that trust in the name of the first one of my children that provides me with a grandson.” Then he said, “Let’s bow for a word of prayer”…and when he looked up….. we were all gone. Now that’s motivation!

You don’t need to motivate that top salesman any more than you do the star running back. Those guys were born to win. If you want to build a winner then you better find a way to inspire the back up lineman, the walk-on, and the guy who never gets off the bench. Those are the guys who are ultimately going to get you over the top. I call it the But For Rule. Getting each and every person in the organization to believe that but for their effort, but for their ability, but for their very job, we can not be successful.

"You Can Make a Difference"
A man was walking down the beach and noticed that there were thousands of starfish all across the sand that had crawled out of the ocean due to the red tide. Although the water had cleared, the sun was taking its toll and the starfish were drying up and dying. As the man continued to walk down the beach, he noticed that another man walking in front of him was bending over every now and then to pick something up, and each time that he did he got a little closer. Finally, the man caught up with the other fellow and asked what he was doing. The man said that the starfish were dying in the sun and that he was putting them back in the water. “But there are millions of them. What kind of difference do you think you can make?” To that, the man bent over and picked up another starfish, tossed it into the water and said, “Well, I guess I made a difference to that one.”