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Bowden promotion is hardly nepotism
Florida State narrowly averted disaster last week by announcing that new offensive coordinator Jeff Bowden will not report to his father, head coach Bobby Bowden. Praise the Lord and bypass the nepotism. Jeff Bowden will report to associate head coach Jim Gladden. In other words, the offensive coordinator's boss will be the defensive-line coach. And if you believe that's how the football team will operate, click here for a hot picture of Anna Kournikova with Anquan Boldin. I'm not trying to belittle Papa Bowden's efforts to adhere to the university's rules. No, actually, that's exactly what I'm trying to do. Look, I'm all for rules against nepotism. And I suppose that in football, where coaches tend to be autocrats, it's good to have them understand that they must play by the university's rules. In this case, however, does anyone really believe that Bobby is going to do something untoward? It's not like Jeff is the first of Bobby's sons to coach for him. In fact, Jeff is the third Bowden boy to work for Daddy, and that doesn't include daughter Robyn's husband, Jack Hines, who's now on Tommy Bowden's staff at Clemson. At some point, past record has to account for something. The fact is, Bowden has never shown any inclination toward nepotism. He had never made one of his sons a coordinator before he named Jeff to the job. His last two offensive coordinators have been Mark Richt, who created the opening for Jeff by taking a job at Georgia, and Brad Scott, who flamed out as head coach at South Carolina and now works for Tommy at Clemson, too. His sons have proven they are capable coaches. So why rig up some artificial chain of command? Why put Gladden, who is as genuine a guy as you'll meet in this business, in this position? Does anyone really think Jeff Bowden is going to report to Gladden? What's remarkable is that, given coaches' tendency toward becoming dictators, we haven't had more instances of nepotism. Think about it, though. How many successful coaches have had sons who matched their accomplishments? They are few and far between. Of the 17 coaches who have won 200 games in Division I-A, only three that I am aware of even had sons who became head coaches: Bowden, Amos Alonzo Stagg and Lou Holtz. Both Joe Paterno and Vince Dooley have sons who are assistant coaches; Jay Paterno works for his dad at Penn State and Derek Dooley is the recruiting coordinator at LSU, which won the most recent recruiting sweepstakes. I'm sure there are more. Shawn Slocum works on his father, R.C.'s, staff at Texas A&M. Shane Beamer, son of Virginia Tech coach Frank, is a graduate assistant at Georgia Tech. But among the 58 I-A coaches who have won at least 155 games in their careers, there are no father-son combinations. Why don't more sons become successful in the family business? It may be that coaches so dedicate themselves to their jobs that they don't have time for their families. A lot of sons may not know their fathers well, or they know too well the toll that coaching takes. Regulations guarding against nepotism are good in theory. In reality, where football is concerned, they are just so much additional paperwork. Sports Illustrated senior writer Ivan Maisel covers college football for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com.
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