Jimbo Fisher shares heavy praise of Terry Bowden

Jimbo Fisher faces a familiar face this weekend as Texas A&M hosts Louisiana-Monroe led by head coach Terry Bowden.

Bowden is a seasoned veteran in the collegiate coaching ranks dating back to his first head coaching job at Salem University. Which ironically is where Fisher played quarterback in college, even following Bowden to his next head coaching gig at Samford, where Fisher was named Division III National Player of the Year and still holds some school records.

“Brilliant guy,” Fisher said. “Like I said, in 1993 probably did one of the best coaching jobs in college football history. Ended up winning 20 in a row for a year and a half almost. Very smart guy, was my coach personally. Tremendous guy, loved ball, tremendous competitor, built programs, did everything he did.”

Fisher even pulled back the curtain on a fun fact about Bowden during his time as a graduate assistant at Florida State under his father and legend Bobby Bowden.

“One of the few guys that ever got a law degree while he was a GA, graduated law school while he was GAing which is amazing. Studied in Oxford, England over in England, very smart guy. Loved ball, coached, and was very close with him,” Fisher said.

Fisher’s tremendous respect and appreciation for Bowden are evident, but they extend to the entire Bowden family, which had a pivotal role in his early and more formative years as a head coach.

“Learned a ton of offense, treated me like family, that’s why I got into coaching. One of the reasons I wanted to coach and he gave me the opportunity,” Fisher said. “And him and his father and brothers all treated me like family, I used to stay at their house. Stayed at Bobby’s house as a young kid, as a player, and got me involved in how to do things and the way to do things and a lot of things came from that Bowden family in that tree. I mean he meant the world to me and was very close and I have nothing but pure respect for him.”

Fisher landed his first college coaching gig as a graduate assistant under Bowden at Samford, working his way up to quarterbacks coach and keeping that title on Auburn‘s staff during Bowden’s six-year tenure with the Tigers.

Fisher now is in the midst of his 14th season as a college head coach while Bowden is in his 28th, as the relationship that started in 1985 will come full circle this weekend as the Aggies face the Warhawks at 4:00 p.m. ET on Saturday in a game airing on SEC Network.