AKRON —The University of Akron may have found a fit better than a native son to breathe life back into its football program. According to a source with knowledge of contract talks, Akron will hire Terry Bowden to be the Zips next football coach. Bowden, who is reviving his coaching career, may need the Zips as much as the Zips need him.Key administrators from the university met with Bowden Wednesday near Cleveland Hopkins Airport and later offered him the job. Bowden, who has been the head coach at Division II University of North Alabama, flew back Thursday morning to inform his players of the move.Akron’s beleaguered football program has needed infused with enthusiasm. The Zips have won just one game in each of the last two years. Bowden is taking over for Rob Ianello, who went 1-11 in each of the last two seasons.According to the source, Bowden reached out to Akron. His hiring is subject to board of trustee approval.Former Zips player and coach, and Akron native Paul Winters, was the initial choice but he turned the position down. Landing Bowden is a coup for the Mid-American Conference school and gives Akron a high-profile football coach second only to Ohio State’s Urban Meyer in the state.Bowden has been the head coach at North Alabama in Florence, Ala. the last three years. He has led the Lions to a 29-10 record during that time, one of the best three-year records in school history. They made the Division II playoffs each year.Bowden, who was one of the most charismatic coaches in college football at Auburn, may be helped in attracting recruits to Akron by his legendary father, Bobby Bowden. His brother Jeff is a top assistant at North Alabama and could come with him to Akron.If Terry Bowden is able to turn around Akron’s football program, he could move back into major college football. The Zips have had just seven winning seasons since the program became a Division I program in 1987. It has never won more than seven games during that time.However, Akron opened InfoCision Stadium in 2009, moving football games back on campus. Coupled with a new indoor practice facility, Akron has arguably the best facilities in the MAC.Bowden was the quarterbacks coach at Akron in 1986 under then-head coach Gerry Faust. His first head coaching job was at Salem in 1983, where he went 19-13 in three seasons. He was at Samford from 1987-92, going 45-23-1, as the program made the jump from Division III program to I-AA.After guiding Samford to the I-AA playoffs his final two seasons there, Bowden was hired as Auburn’s head coach. At the time, it was a program that faced NCAA sanctions with scholarship reductions, a television ban and a two-year postseason ban. Bowden went 11-0 in his first season in 1993. He became the first Division I head coach to go unbeaten in his initial season at a school, earning numerous national coach of the year awards.In 1994, Bowden ran his winning streak to 20 games, and finished 9-1-1. That was as good as it got for Bowden and the Tigers. He resigned in 1998 after a 1-5 start and then took on a role as an analyst for ABC. He has also hosted his own radio show in Orlando and later on Sirius.Bowden comes from a coaching family. His father, Bobby Bowden, won 377 games as Florida State’s legendary coach. Bobby Bowden is the second winningest coach among Division I-FBS coaches. Terry Bowden’s brother, Tommy, was the head coach at Clemson
This is a head scratcher for me. UNA to Akron?
DI > DII
Don't forget that UNA is going to make the jump to FCS. That is hard for a program and I would almost bet that factored into the decision as well.
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