Mark Richt built programs around 'Bobby Bowden way'

Former Miami and Georgia coach Mark Richt shared his memories of college football coaching legend Bobby Bowden, who died on Sunday. Richt spent 15 seasons with Bowden at Florida State, starting as a grad asssiatnat and working his way up to offensive coordinator. During his time in Tallahassee, Richt helped the Seminoles win two national titles and seven-consecutive ACC championships.

“I think a lot of coaches motivate through intimidation and fear,” Richt said on the ACC Network on Monday. “That’s pretty affective, I’m not saying it’s not. But coach went about it in a different way. He motivated through his passion and his love for his players and for his coaches and for everybody he was around. He just loved people in general because of the faith he had.

“The players knew he loved them, so they would fight for him. As a coaching staff, knew he loved us and our families, we wanted to win for him more than us. It was just one of those unique situations where a leader that didn’t need to remind who the boss was. We all knew it and we all loved working for him.”

Richt is a devout Christian. He credited his conversion to Christianity on Monday to Bowden’s speech in the wake of the death of Pablo Lopez, a Florida State football player who was shot and killed in 1986. He also built his coaching career around the lessons Bowden taught him.

“I just watched him,” Richt said. “The thing for me is a lot of first-time head coaches had been to five different programs with five different ways of doing things. Try to pick from the best of the best, and that’s what you do. But for me, I spent 15 years with coach Bowden at Florida State during that wonderful run we had. That’s all I knew was the Florida State way, the Bobby Bowden way.”

Bobby Bowden on his legacy

In 2009, Mike Freeman wrote BOWDEN – How Bobby Bowden Forged a College Football Dynasty. In it, Bobby Bowden detailed how we wanted to be remembered. 

“A lot of people in the past have asked me what about my legacy,” Bowden shared with Freeman.  “I’ve said this and that and I don’t like talking about it all that much, but I answer the question the best I can.  I want people to say, ‘He was one of the best.’ Not the best.  Just one of the best.  I want people to say I didn’t cheat.  We made some mistakes here, but I never had a win-at-all-costs mentality.  We had that dadgum Free Shoes University thing, but we didn’t know what the players were doing and anyone who says we did isn’t telling the truth.  I would’ve rather lost than be seen as a guy who won and cheated.  I guess I want my legacy to be we won and we mostly won the right way, and along the way, people had fun, and I treated people with respect and decency.  I was something Florida State could be proud of.  They’d say, ‘That dadgum Bowden was a good guy.’  That’s how I hope I’ll be remembered.”

Bobby Bowden resume is unrivaled in Tallahassee

Bobby Bowden amassed a 315-98-4 record during his 34-year tenure in Tallahassee. When he took over at Florida State, the team had gone 4-29 in its previous three seasons. By his second year, they won 10 games. Over the next 14 years leading up to FSU’s ACC debut, they won at least nine games nine times. When they joined their new conference, then-ACC commissioner Gene Corrigan commented how valuable they had become in the college football world.

“Their football team had more national television exposure last year than all our teams had together,” Corrigan said. 

Not only did he turn the Seminoles into a competitive program, he twice reached the pinnacle of college football, winning national titles in 1993 and 1999. Bobby Bowden was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2006 before retiring in 2009.

On3.com’s Jamie Oakes and Ashton Pollard contributed to this report