Tommy Bowden

Tommy Bowden decided he had done all he could do for Clemson football, telling his athletic director Monday he'd step aside for the future of the program. Terry Don Phillips said his intent Monday morning was to have a candid, heart-to-heart talk with Bowden about the football team. So Phillips was surprised when Bowden offered to walk away in midseason. "There wasn't a gun to his head," Phillips said. "He put it on the table for the sake of the program. I agreed."

Tommy Bowden decided he had done all he could do for Clemson football, telling his athletic director Monday he'd step aside for the future of the program. Terry Don Phillips said his intent Monday morning was to have a candid, heart-to-heart talk with Bowden about the football team. So Phillips was surprised when Bowden offered to walk away in midseason. "There wasn't a gun to his head," Phillips said. "He put it on the table for the sake of the program. I agreed."

Tommy Bowden waited a long time before he finally got a chance to lead his own Division I-A college football program. But three games into his first season as head coach at Tulane last year, he had reason to worry if he was the right person for the job. Losing had become somewhat of a tradition at Tulane, which won only 12 games over the previous six seasons and had not had a winning season since 1981.

Utah at Michigan Saturday, 12:30 p.m., ESPN2 Rich Rodriguez makes his debut at Michigan after his tumultuous and expensive off-season extraction from the contract clutches of West Virginia. Rodriguez, in time, might transform the Big Ten with his brand of spread offense, but right now he just needs the engine to start. Rodriguez has already embraced the Ohio State rivalry but also needs to know, as Lloyd Carr found out last year, that losing the home opener to a school outside the Bowl Championship Series sphere is also grounds for annulment.

'Tommy needed a win more than I did, but my team needed it more than his team did.' Bobby Bowden, Florida State coach, whose No. 3-ranked Seminoles lost to Clemson and son Tommy Bowden, 26-10, Saturday

Tulane Coach Tommy Bowden is scheduled to meet with Clemson officials today about the Tigers' head coaching vacancy. Bowden is also scheduled to meet today with Tulane President Scott Cowen and Athletic Director Sandy Barbour. The three are expected to discuss Bowden's future, along with facility improvements and revised academic standards.

If anyone should be happy about arriving at a bowl game, shouldn't it be Bobby Bowden? The 66-year-old Florida State coach is riding one of the great streaks in sports. He has won 11 consecutive bowl games, is 13-0-1 in bowls dating to 1982, and has not lost a bowl game since an 18-17 defeat against Oklahoma in the 1980 Orange Bowl. Yet, as his No. 1 Florida State team arrived in New Orleans on Friday for Thursday's Sugar Bowl, Bowden repeated his disdain for having to play No.

The Times' Chris Dufresne unveils his preseason college football top 25, one day (and team) at a time: Tommy Bowden's new contract, which will pay him $1.8 million annually, came with the usual perks: Free use of two new cars, 10 tickets to Clemson home games -- and one priceless comment from a Tigers fan who e-mailed the Greenville News. "Nice reward for never winning the ACC, never going to a BCS bowl and never finishing higher than fourth in the ACC." No. 8 Clemson Ouch.

In a new series titled "Iconoclasts" that makes its debut on the Sundance Channel tonight at 10, actor Samuel L. Jackson spends time talking with basketball's Bill Russell. Jackson visits Russell's home in Seattle, they play golf, and they go out to dinner with members of Russell's family. Russell is a nonconformist who claims to not care what people think of him, and at dinner his daughter Karen says, "Isn't it hard not to think about what other people think about you?"

The Times' Chris Dufresne unveils his preseason college football top 25, one day (and team) at a time: Tommy Bowden's new contract, which will pay him $1.8 million annually, came with the usual perks: Free use of two new cars, 10 tickets to Clemson home games -- and one priceless comment from a Tigers fan who e-mailed the Greenville News. "Nice reward for never winning the ACC, never going to a BCS bowl and never finishing higher than fourth in the ACC." No. 8 Clemson Ouch.

In a new series titled "Iconoclasts" that makes its debut on the Sundance Channel tonight at 10, actor Samuel L. Jackson spends time talking with basketball's Bill Russell. Jackson visits Russell's home in Seattle, they play golf, and they go out to dinner with members of Russell's family. Russell is a nonconformist who claims to not care what people think of him, and at dinner his daughter Karen says, "Isn't it hard not to think about what other people think about you?"

'Tommy needed a win more than I did, but my team needed it more than his team did.' Bobby Bowden, Florida State coach, whose No. 3-ranked Seminoles lost to Clemson and son Tommy Bowden, 26-10, Saturday

He threw everything in the playbook at his dear old dad--fake punts, reverse passes and a shocking 11-point first-half lead, but the gamble Tommy Bowden did not take in the end may have cost him a chance at preempting his dad's date with destiny. With Ann Bowden torn in the stands Saturday night, rooting for her husband but feeling for her son, No. 1 Florida State rallied to defeat Clemson, 17-14, before a record crowd of 86,200 at Clemson Memorial Stadium.

Had Tommy Bowden gone into dentistry, as his parents had hoped, he might be doing bridge work on his dad instead of, in all likelihood, providing the bridge to his dad's 300th victory. As fate would have it, the only cavity in need of filling tonight is cavernous 81,474-seat Clemson Memorial Stadium, otherwise known as "Death Valley," for the meeting of Florida State (7-0) and Clemson (3-3) in a historic battle of Bowdens.

GAME OF THE WEEK Only the great schedule maker in the sky could dream this up: father versus son, Seminole versus Tiger, brother versus brother. What's a wife and mother to do? Bobby Bowden versus Tommy Bowden is a rare moment in sports because it was not contrived. Oh, they tried to contrive it. Last year, ESPN was set to pit then-Auburn coach Terry Bowden against his daddy to kick off the 1999 season, but the deal fell through when Terry resigned at mid-season, his program in turmoil.

Had Tommy Bowden gone into dentistry, as his parents had hoped, he might be doing bridge work on his dad instead of, in all likelihood, providing the bridge to his dad's 300th victory. As fate would have it, the only cavity in need of filling tonight is cavernous 81,474-seat Clemson Memorial Stadium, otherwise known as "Death Valley," for the meeting of Florida State (7-0) and Clemson (3-3) in a historic battle of Bowdens.

He threw everything in the playbook at his dear old dad--fake punts, reverse passes and a shocking 11-point first-half lead, but the gamble Tommy Bowden did not take in the end may have cost him a chance at preempting his dad's date with destiny. With Ann Bowden torn in the stands Saturday night, rooting for her husband but feeling for her son, No. 1 Florida State rallied to defeat Clemson, 17-14, before a record crowd of 86,200 at Clemson Memorial Stadium.

Politics has the Kennedys, tightrope walking the Flying Wallendas. The movies gave us the Barrymores, television the Waltons. In college football, there is also no mistaking the First Family: The Bowdens. A writer once wrote: "You can't swing a golf club in the South without hitting a football coach named Bowden." In Tempe this week, Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden awaits a Monday night Fiesta Bowl showdown against Tennessee for the national championship.

Tommy Bowden, who turned Tulane from a football laughingstock into the No. 9 team in the nation with an 11-0 record, held an emotional last meeting with his players before heading for his new job at Clemson. Tulane Athletic Director Sandy Barbour selected offensive coordinator Rich Rodriguez as interim coach. * Promising a long-term stay, David Cutcliffe became coach at Mississippi, a job he will take on full time after serving one more game as an assistant at No. 1 Tennessee. . . .