ULM Football: Terry Bowden could mean respectability for Warhawks

Terry Bowden has been hired by ULM football to lead the Warhawks into the future and to be fair, he’s built programs from the ground up before. 

For the first time since 2018, there will be a Bowden on a college football program’s sidelines. The Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks announced earlier today that Terry Bowden is the new head coach replacing Matt Viator, who went 0-10 this season in Monroe. For Bowden, this is his first head coaching job since being fired by Akron after the 2018 season.

Bowden has spent the last two seasons as an offensive analyst for the Clemson Tigers and Dabo Swinney. Before his time with Swinney and the Tigers, Bowden spent seven seasons at Akron, taking the Zips to two bowl games –the only coach in school history to do so– including their first bowl win in school history (2015).

Bowden’s break came in 1993 when the Auburn Tigers selected him to replace Pat Dye on the Plains. While at Auburn, Bowden went 47-17 with two ten-win seasons and a 2-1 bowl record.

Bowden’s first two stops in coaching were at Salem College and Samford University –Bobby Bowden’s alma mater–helping build both programs. While at Salem, Bowden won two conference titles, and at Samford, the Bulldogs would transition to Division 1-AA and reach the playoff semifinals in 1991.

Bowden will need all of those skills as a program builder to have any chance of turning around the Warhawks.

This season Louisiana-Monroe football never led a game and lost by an average of 26 points. The Warhawks don’t have much of a football tradition either. Since ULM football moved back to the FBS level in 1994, the Hawks have had five non-losing seasons and one winning season (2012), where they won a share of the Sun Belt title.

Bowden’s first task is to bolster an offense that scored just 16 points per game last season. ULM scored over twenty points only three times and was held to single digits three times as well. The hire by ULM football brings Bowden back to the south. Louisiana is one of the better-recruiting footprints in the country at every level, including the Group of Five.

Time will tell if Bowden can make the Warhawks a respectable football program.