Terry Bowden

Akron head coach Terry Bowden has led the Zips to their first winning season since 2005.

(AP Photo)

AKRON, Ohio -- Terry Bowden has coached everywhere from Division III in Salem (West Virginia) to Auburn in the SEC. Twenty-two years of coaching at five different schools at every level of college football.

"But this season may be the most gratifying," said the University of Akron coach.

I talked to Bowden in his office the day before his team was to leave for Boise, Idaho.

His Akron Zips will play Utah State at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday on the Boise State blue field in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.

"People can say there are so many bowls, so what's the big deal?" said Bowden. "But this is the first time in 10 years that Akron has had a winning record, the first time they are going to a bowl game since 2005."

In 2005, J.D. Brookhart led Akron to a 7-6 record and spot in the Motor City Bowl, where the Zips lost to Memphis State, 38-31. Since then, it's been mostly gloom and doom for Akron football ... until this season.

"That's why this means so much to all of us," said Bowden. "If we can beat Utah State, it will be the first time that an Akron team won eight games in Division I."

Bowden talked about how he took over for Rob Ianello, who had back-to-back seasons of 1-11.

Then Bowden was 1-11 in 2012, his first season in Akron.

"A group of kids had three coaches (Brookhart, Ianello and Bowden) in a four-year span," said Bowden. "Many transferred out. At one point, 67-of-85 had left because of all the coaching changes. We were starting over."

THE TURNAROUND

"We won our first 20 games in a row when I took over at Auburn (in 1993)," said Bowden. "That was a big deal. Lots of people paid attention. But a lot of talent was already there. It was just that the morale was down. Here, we had to build up everything."

Bowden was 5-7 in 2013...

And 5-7 in 2014...

And 3-5 after the first eight games of 2015...

"We played at UMass," he said. "At that point, the season could have gone either way. We hung on and beat them (17-13). We intercepted a pass near the end of game. After that, we began to believe."

The Zips finished the season with four victories in a row, including a 20-0 victory over Kent State in the final game of the season.

"We got out of that rut where when something bad would happen in a game, we'd start to think, 'We're gonna lose again,'" said Bowden. "Kent was a big win for us because it gave us a winning season.

"Kent is our big rival. It's the kind of game at the end of the season that Akron has lost before. We changed that."

Akron's final four victories were over teams with losing records. But Akron was a losing team for so long ... until this year.

This season is significant progress, especially a 5-3 record in the Mid-American Conference.

Bowden now has a 12-12 record in the MAC over the last three seasons.

NO RUSH TO GO ANYWHERE

Bowden comes from the coaching family with Hall of Famer Bobby Bowden as the patriarch. At one point, Bobby was coaching at Florida State, Terry was at Auburn and brother Tommy was at Clemson.

"I've had people ask me if I was planning to use this job to get another job," said Bowden. "Look at the record. Ever since they went Division I, every coach has been dismissed ... every single coach. And that also was true of Coach (Jim) Dennison before that. None left to take another job."

Then Bowden laughed.

"My goal has been to just win enough games so that they want to keep me around here," he said. "I was on the coaching staff with Gerry Faust (1986) when we played at the old Rubber Bowl and there was a road that ran right through the middle of campus. Now, look at it. The campus is terrific. We have a great stadium and indoor facility."

Bowden showed me a picture of Audrey Renner, an Akron woman.

"We got engaged right after the Kent State game," he said.

Then he laughed.

"I wanted to wait until after the game to ask her to make sure we won," he said, figuring a 7-5 record meant he'd be around for a while.

Bowden laughed again.

Bowden has three years left on his contract, but Akron hired Larry Williams, a new athletic director, during the season.

"When I was a younger coach, that would have worried me more," he said. "But I knew the team was making progress. I knew we were so close to winning. If we started to win, that would take care of things."

And then they ended the season with the four-game winning streak.

THE MID-LIFE DECISION

Bowden resigned from Auburn in the middle of the 1998 season. He had 1-5 record. The school was in turmoil. He left with a 47-17-1 record.

Bowden was 40 years old.

He spent the next 10 years in broadcasting. He turned down some Division I coaching opportunities in the first few years.

"Then they (schools) stopped calling," he said. "I was happy in broadcasting. Then I turned 50 and I began to wonder, is it time to get back into coaching? If not now, when?"

He was broadcasting the D-2 National Title game in Florence, Alabama. The coach at North Alabama left.

"I got a note under the (press box) door while I was doing the game," said Bowden. "It was from the North Alabama athletic director wanting to talk to me about the job."

Bowden realized it was his chance to return to coaching. He took a cut from $400,000 in broadcasting to coach in D-2 for $100,000.

"I talked to my family," he said. "They said if I wanted to coach, then go coach. My father said he never got a coaching job that he went after. The jobs he got -- West Virginia and Florida State -- came to him."

After three years and a 29-9 record at North Alabama, Bowden said Akron called.

One look at how the campus had changed from his days with Faust in 1986 was about all it took to convince Bowden to head to Akron.

THE SOLICH MODEL

Bowden talked about how the "MAC Model" is to hire a young coach who is successful. Then he leaves. Then you hire another young coach. He wins, and leaves.

Ohio hired Frank Solich (in 2005)," said Bowden. "He had won at Nebraska (58-19 from 1998-2003), but they fired him anyway. Frank came to Ohio and settled in."

Solich has an 80-60 record at the MAC school and is making his seventh trip to a bowl game. The Bobcats were 8-4 this season for the 71-year-old Solich.

Bowden is 59 and says that gives him a different perspective.

"Frank Solich and I have been at the big, power schools," he said. "We know what it's like. When you're young, you want a crack at the big time, no matter where it is.

"That can lead to taking a job at a place where you can't win. I don't have to go to a bigger job just to say that I did it."

Bowden is wise enough to never say never when it comes to coaching football. But after four years of working so hard to bring respectability back to Akron football, he is enjoying the moment.

"It's been great to build something," he said. "That's what I meant about this being my most satisfying season as a coach."