BOISE, IDAHO: Terry Bowden didn’t think it would take this long.
He didn’t believe he would have to do it this way.
When the son of a legend took over as the University of Akron football coach in 2012, he thought he could throw the ball all over the field to create excitement, just as he had during his days at Auburn.
He underestimated the Midwestern weather, which instead required the Zips to run the ball and play defense to win. He didn’t figure a third consecutive 1-11 season would be necessary before the turnaround began.
But he never underestimated the special players who stuck with him through the dark days.
Those players were rewarded Tuesday as the Zips earned the first bowl victory in the program’s 28 years in Division I, hanging on for a 23-21 triumph over Utah State in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl at Albertsons Stadium. UA (8-5, 5-3 in the Mid-American Conference) also notched its first eight-victory season since it moved up to the Football Bowl Subdivision level in 1987.
Players like senior kicker Robert Stein, who saw Bowden take away his scholarship in the spring of 2013 and give it to a freshman.
“He came to my office, there were big tears and I cried, too,” Bowden remembered. “After the second game, [the freshman] wasn’t ready to play and Robert took back over and had a great season.”
In the fall of 2014, Bowden was about to yank the younger kicker’s financial aid and give it back to Stein.
“He said, ‘Coach, I’m an engineering student, I’m going to graduate. I don’t need that scholarship, let him keep it and I’ll kick for nothing,’ ” Bowden said of Stein.
Against the Aggies, Stein was perfect on three field-goal attempts, including the game-winning 46-yarder with 8:15 remaining, and was named the game’s MVP. The Cincinnati Sycamore High School product finished as UA’s career scoring leader with 268 points.
Players like Thomas Woodson, No. 3 on the depth chart going into the summer. Tra’Von Chapman, a Kent Roosevelt graduate who had transferred from Pitt, beat out incumbent Kyle Pohl, but Bowden soon saw he’d picked the wrong quarterback. Woodson started 10 games and proved to be as tough to tackle as a runner as he was efficient as a passer.
Against Utah State, the sophomore from Monroeville, Pa., threw for 168 yards and was the Zips’ leading rusher.
“It’s crazy, honestly,” Woodson said of his journey. “After I saw the final play, I cried. Cried the whole time, I really did, just tears of joy. I was thinking what I’d been through my whole life, not just with football.”
Players like senior linebacker Jatavis Brown, who arrived as a 5-foot-11, 190-pound freshman. The native of NFL hotbed Belle Glade, Fla., bulked up to 225 pounds and leaves as a team captain, the MAC defensive player of the year and the school record holder for sacks and tackles for losses.
Against Utah State, Brown’s forced fumble with four seconds remaining in the second quarter was the key play of the game. His sack of quarterback Kent Myers knocked the ball loose and defensive tackle Rodney Coe picked it up and ran 56 yards to set up Stein’s 29-yard field goal for a 13-7 halftime lead.
Bowden compared Brown to Takeo Spikes, a linebacker Bowden coached at Auburn who recently retired after 15 years in the NFL.
“This is the closest I’ve got to Takeo,” Bowden said of Brown. “That’s the kind of athlete he is. But more importantly, that’s the kind of Akron man he is.”
Brown wiped away tears as Bowden spoke.
On the field, as the Zips celebrated with their band, there were cheers of “Terry, Terry.” But Bowden didn’t want the credit. He pointed instead to the athletes with great character who he said epitomized what UA had just accomplished.
Bowden couldn’t resist sharing the story of Stein, who had totaled the second-lowest field goal percentage in his four seasons coming into the game. He seemed the perfect example of the players who carried the Zips to what could be the program’s triumphant breakthrough.
Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at www.ohio.com/marla. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.