Bobby Bowden hopped on Sirius XM College Sports Nation recently and told a story about how he didn't want his sons to go into the coaching profession. Of course all three of them (Jeff, Tommy, and Terry) have had long careers in the profession, and Bowden's son in law also went into coaching.
“I had three sons that went into coaching, and my son in law. I reminded them like I was reminded when I got in - don’t get into it if you can live without it."
"If you can live without coaching, don’t get into it. If you can’t live without it, go right ahead. That’s the way I was with my sons. I didn’t want them to go into coaching."
“No. 1, I didn’t want to compete with them, and I hated seeing them play each other. But they chose to go into it, so if that’s what they do, I’m going to support them 100%. My three sons and me, we have one thing in common...we all got fired.”
Of course, Terry is now the head coach at Akron (after previous head coaching stops at Samford, Auburn, and North Alabama), Jeff is the special teams coordinator and wide receivers coach for the Zips and Tommy is the former head coach at Tulane and Clemson, where he last coached in 2008.
Also during the interview, Bowden provided his take on coaching turnover in the profession today and why programs are so hungry to win in modern day college football. In his eyes, it has everything to do with the money that coaches are now making and because of that you won't see another coaching tenure like his or Joe Paterno's anytime soon.
“The salaries are so out of whack now - which I believe they deserve - but you talk about $7 million like Coach Saban and you’d better win. You’d better win if they’re going to pay those kinds of bucks."
"That’s why you don’t see coaches staying in as long as Joe Paterno and myself. They make such big money that they can retire earlier, or they make such big bucks and don’t win, they get fired. It knocks down that longevity.”