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Terry Bowden taking leave of absence at ULM to care for Bobby Bowden; former SEC coordinator to be interim head coach
By SDS Staff
Published:
Louisiana-Monroe opened its fall camp on Friday, but new head coach Terry Bowden was absent. The former Auburn head coach has taken a leave of absence to care for his ailing father, Bobby Bowden.
Terry Bowden told Adam Hunsucker of the Monroe News-Star that Rich Rodriguez will fill in as interim head coach.
“There’s a spiritual side of me that thanks God for all the good times I’ve had with my father,” Bowden told the News-Star. “We’ve known for a couple weeks that it was terminal. As it gets closer, we’re thankful that it hasn’t been a difficult or painful process for him.
“The knowledge that with Rich here and us being close, I have no problem turning it over to him because he’s done it almost as long as I have. I’m comfortable enough in my shoes to let him step in and know that our program will run smoothly.”
Last month, Bobby Bowden announced he has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. Terry later revealed that his 91-year-old father has pancreatic cancer.
ULM hired Terry Bowden in December 2020. Terry spent the past two seasons in a graduate assistant role at Clemson on Dabo Swinney’s staff. Bowden’s head coaching experience spans multiple decades with previous stops at Salem, Samford, Auburn, North Alabama and Akron.
Bowden hired Rodriguez as his offensive coordinator. Rodriguez has head coaching experience at West Virginia, Michigan and Arizona. He was offensive coordinator at Ole Miss for the 2019 season, his last gig before taking the position at ULM.
Saturday Down South reports and comments on the news around the Southeastern Conference as well as larger college football topics.
