In the biggest non-breaking news story ever, Terry Bowden has expressed his love for West Virginia University:
Bowden, who grew up in Morgantown when his father, Bobby, was Mountaineers coach and played at West Virginia, has been out of coaching since 1998. Not long after Rich Rodriguez left the Mountaineers to take the Michigan job, Bowden, the former Auburn coach, let it be known he's interested in the West Virginia vacancy.
"I made a full commitment to get back into coaching almost two years ago. Coming home to West Virginia would obviously be the dream job for me," Bowden, a college football analyst on radio and for Yahoo! Sports, said in a statement released by his publicist.
While this might be news to the rest of the country, WVU fans have known this for a few months now. Regardless of whether Terry Bowden gets the job or not, it's refreshing to see someone so in love with their alma mater. Quite the change from our previous coach. I feel like we could offer Bowden $15,000/year and all the lollipops he could handle and he would still take the job.
Of course, that type of contract will still contain a $4 million buyout. You know, just in case.
UPDATE: We just received a forward of an e-mail from Terry Bowden's publicist. Basically, it's just a reiteration of the article above, but I figured it was worth sharing:
The emails have been pouring in since Friday evening, and Terry really appreciates the groundswell of kindness.
With the news just breaking that Coach Rodriguez is indeed leaving for Michigan , I will say that Terry is first and foremost a West Virginia Mountaineer and I believe he would be honored to come home. Of course it is not his decision, but that of the AD and President of WVU, and I am sure they will do what is best for the football program.
Thank you again for your support,
Kim Shiff
[ESPN -- HT: Rick]