Boom or Bust for the Bowdens

So, how did last weekend go for your family?

In the latest adventures of the Bowdens, father Bobby’s Florida State squad got back in the national title hunt with a win at Georgia Tech, son Tommy continued to make hay at Tulane and son Terry quit in a huff at Auburn.

Other than that, it was mostly yardwork.

These are conflicting times for college football’s first family, particularly for Tommy, whose turnaround at Tulane might earn him coach-of-the-year honors the same season his younger brother barely beat the posse out of Dodge.

What irony.

Tommy was an Auburn assistant when Pat Dye was ousted in 1993. Tommy wanted the job, but the school opted for Bowden’s younger brother, Terry, who won his first 20 games at the school.

One Bowden up, one Bowden down.

“That was probably the high point of his professional career and the low point of mine, “ Tommy said by phone from New Orleans. “Now, it’s exactly the opposite.”

Last Friday, Terry Bowden abruptly resigned at Auburn amid a swirl of controversy.

Saturday, Tommy’s Tulane team improved to 6-0 with a win at Rutgers. The No. 19 Green Wave is off to its best start since 1973. Tommy is 13-4 in 1 1/2 seasons after taking over a program that had not had a winning season since 1981.

One Bowden up, one Bowden down.

“I’m at the high point of my career, and he’s at the low point of his,” Tommy said. “We’ve seen both ends of the spectrum.”

Instead of basking, Tommy has spent the week defending his kid brother, who has been called a quitter by some for walking away from a 1-5 team in midseason.

What’s the difference between Terry Bowden and Kerry Collins, the former Carolina Panther quarterback who walked out on his team?

“Kerry Collins, he went into the coach and said, ‘Hey, I can’t do it,’ ” Tommy Bowden said. “But Auburn came to Terry and said, ‘Regardless of what you do, you’re gone, and we’re going to make it hell for the next five weeks.’ ”

Tommy knows Auburn politics. He served four seasons as an assistant under Terry before getting his break at Tulane.

Tommy said Auburn is “one of the last dinosaurs” of Southern football, a program where deals and coaches are still cut in smoke-filled back rooms.

From the outside, Terry’s resignation appears ludicrous. He posted a better record in his first five-plus seasons, 47-17-1, than any coach in Auburn history.

Terry had a seven-year contract.

But, Tommy said, Terry was always an outsider at Auburn. “Not a good school for Bowdens,” Tommy said.

Terry’s problems escalated last spring, when seven recruits were declared academically ineligible and receiver Robert Baker was arrested for drug trafficking.

Despite his stellar record, Bowden’s footing was never solid. “No coach in college football had built up as little equity per win [as] Terry Bowden,” a source close to the Auburn program said.

When Auburn struggled on the field, Terry reportedly fell out of favor with Robert E. Lowder, an influential member of the school’s board of trustees.

“That thing’s run by one guy and one guy only,” Tommy says of Lowder. “He makes the decisions.”

Tommy says when the Huntsville (Ala.) Times ran a story last week anonymously quoting a trustee saying that Terry’s job was in jeopardy, Terry called Lowder and asked if he was the source.

Tommy says Lowder confirmed that he was. Terry then had a meeting with Athletic Director David Housel who, according to Terry, told him there was “virtually no way” he could save his job after this year.

So, Terry bolted.

“To me, it was a no-brainer,” Tommy said.

Lowder has publicly denied he forced Bowden’s resignation.

Bobby Bowden told his sons there would be days like these in coaching.

“My kids have seen all that,” Bobby said Wednesday. “They went to school in West Virginia, they’d go to school and hear people talk about their daddy, hear people say bad things about their daddy. They know daddy was hanging by a tree. Only thing about Auburn, they like to use the real body, they don’t use them dummies.”

From a tactical standpoint, Terry did the smart thing. As a free agent, he will now be first in line for impending job openings at Oklahoma, South Carolina and Clemson.

Meanwhile, in New Orleans, Tommy’s success at Tulane has made him a hot coaching candidate, with one considerable hitch.

The man who stands in the way of Tommy possibly landing one of these jobs?

Terry Bowden.

BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO

For 53 years, the Rose Bowl selection process was a snap:

With rare exceptions, the winner of the Big Ten and Pacific 10 conferences proceeded directly to Pasadena for two weeks of pageantry and pigskin.

But all that could change this year with the Rose Bowl joining the bowl championship series.

With the prospect of losing No. 1 Ohio State and/or No. 2 UCLA to the Fiesta Bowl, the Rose Bowl faces painful decisions.

If both schools are lost, does the Rose Bowl fill the void with a viable Pac-10 or Big Ten alternative, or extend invites to Notre Dame or Nebraska?

What if only one spot is open, and the choice comes down to 10-1 Notre Dame and 10-1 Arizona--the only Pac-10/Big Ten school never to have gone to the Rose Bowl?

Does the bowl pounce on Notre Dame’s national name and drawing power at the expense of a Pac-10 partner of comparable ranking?

“That would be a real tough thing to do,” Rose Bowl Chief Executive Jack French said this week. “I don’t particularly want to be there when we do that, when that decision is made.

“We’ve had these friends for a long, long time. I’ve been here 18 years doing this, every one of these guys are my personal friends. It’s not easy when over the last 18 years it’s been a slam dunk, you don’t have to make any decisions, you just do it and enjoy it. But now you have to make a decision, and it’s not a friendship decision, it’s a business decision.”

Here’s how the selection process, if required, will work:

The Rose Bowl’s 15-person Football Committee, chaired by Harriman L. Cronk, will consider all viable candidates for the Jan. 1 game, then forward its recommendation to the 14-person Executive Committee, which has the final say.

But French acknowledges there are plenty of details to be worked out. “Once we pick team A and B, do we have to go back to [Bowl Championship Series chairman] Roy Kramer and/or ABC and get their opinion?” French said.

If the Big Ten loses Ohio State to the Fiesta Bowl, conference Commissioner Jim Delaney believes an 11-0 Wisconsin would be contractually bound to the Rose Bowl because the Badgers would be conference co-champions.

The BCS has told the Rose Bowl it would not be bound to take Wisconsin.

“Another thing I’m not sure of,” French said. “Do the universities have a choice? If we select two teams, do we have to invite them and do they have to accept?”

Stay tuned.

THE COUNT

Turner Gill, Tommie Frazier, Scott Frost . . . Monte Christo?

The succession of great Nebraska quarterbacks took a literary turn last week against Missouri when the Cornhuskers benched ailing starter Bobby Newcombe in favor of Christo, a fifth-year senior walk-on.

Although he fumbled three times in Nebraska’s 20-13 win, Christo has become a cult hero.

Each time “the Count” made a positive play against Missouri, the HuskerVision scoreboard flashed a clip of Christo, donned in a cape, spinning around toward the Memorial Stadium crowd.

Christo said he enjoyed making the video with a university production company, although he isn’t sure of its historical accuracy. “I think they got their wires crossed between the Count of Monte Cristo and Count Dracula,” Christo says.

The name? It was his grandmother’s idea.

She was a devotee of French novelist Alexandre Dumas, author of “The Count of Monte Cristo.”

How good a story is Nebraska’s Monte?

Christo began the season with one more surgery, five, than combined rushing and passing attempts in his career.

Christo rushed for 67 yards and two touchdowns in 20 carries against Missouri.

With Newcombe facing possible knee surgery, Nebraska might have no choice but to count on “the Count.”

TWO-MINUTE DRILL

* In the wake of son Terry’s resignation at Auburn, Bobby Bowden wanted to cancel next year’s Thursday night ESPN opener between the schools, a matchup concocted specifically to pit father vs. son. But Florida State Athletic Director Dave Hart says the home-and-home contract with Auburn will be honored. You think Bowden might be motivated to win that game?

* The Western Athletic Conference’s eight breakaway schools have settled on the name “Mountain West” for its new conference, which will begin play next season. However, the last 16-member WAC champion is in jeopardy of not going to a bowl game after being shut out of openings in the Holiday, Cotton and Independence. The WAC champion’s best hope might be stealing a slot from a Big Ten school that does meet the six victories required for bowl qualification.

* Bill Snyder’s weak scheduling might ultimately cost his team the national title, but the Kansas State coach says he hasn’t paid attention to the new bowl championship series formula. Says Snyder: “I’d hate to waste my time reading up on that.”

* A weekly Scripps-Howard survey of 10 Heisman Trophy voters, two from each region, has Texas tailback Ricky Williams leading UCLA quarterback Cade McNown in a close contest. Kentucky quarterback Tim Couch is third in this week’s balloting, followed by quarterbacks Donovan McNabb of Syracuse and Michael Bishop of Kansas State.