Coaching career

Before coming to Clemson, Bowden was the head coach at Tulane University, and an assistant at the University of Alabama, Auburn University, Duke University, the University of Kentucky, East Carolina University and, with his father, at Florida State. His 1998 Tulane squad went 12-0 and achieved a top-10 final ranking in both polls. Despite being one of only two undefeated teams in the regular season, Tulane was not even considered for a bid in a Bowl Championship Series game because it was believed they had not played a legitimate schedule.

Bowden was hired as Clemson's head coach before the 1999 season. Bowden's Clemson teams went to a bowl game every year he coached there, except in 2004, when, after a brawl with rival South Carolina, both teams withdrew from bowl consideration for that season. He resigned on October 13, 2008, after leading the team to a disappointing 3-3 record (1-2 ACC) at the midpoint of a season in which the Tigers had been an almost unanimous preseason pick to win their first ACC title under Bowden and were ranked #9 in the preseason polls. Assistant head coach/wide receivers coach Dabo Swinney was named as interim head coach for the remainder of the season.

Personal

Bowden attended and played football for West Virginia University from 1972 through 1976. He is married to the former Linda White and has two children, Ryan and Lauren. He is a son of former Florida State Seminoles head coach Bobby Bowden and has two sisters and three brothers, including Terry, the head coach at the University of Akron, and Jeff, who serves as an assistant coach on his brother Terry's staff. Bowden is an evangelical Christian. He has openly used his religion as a recruiting tool, saying that his faith “was a tremendous recruiting advantage.”

Head coaching record

Year	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Bowl/playoffs	Coaches#	AP°
Tulane Green Wave (Conference USA)
1997	Tulane	7-4	5-1	2nd
1998	Tulane	11-0	6-0	1st	Liberty	10	10
Tulane:		18-4	11-1
Clemson Tigers (Atlantic Coast Conference)
1999	Clemson	6-6	5-3	2nd	L Peach
2000	Clemson	9-3	6-2	2nd	L Gator	14	16
2001	Clemson	7-5	4-4	T-4th	W Humanitarian
2002	Clemson	7-6	4-4	T-5th	L Tangerine
2003	Clemson	9-4	5-3	3rd	W Peach	22	22
2004	Clemson	6-5	4-4	T-6th	Declined*
2005	Clemson	8-4	4-4	3rd	W Champs Sports	21	21
2006	Clemson	8-5	5-3	T-2nd	L Music City
2007	Clemson	9-4	5-3	2nd	L Chick-fil-A	22	21
2008	Clemson	3-3‡	1-2	T-2nd
Clemson:		72-45	43-32
Total:		90-49

‡

[ Source: Wikipedia ]