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By Andy Baeuerle
Though some schools go through football coaches every other year, some just stick around and make a huge difference and legacy. Ole Miss had Johnny Vaught from 1947 to 1970. Jackson State had W.C. Gorden, who coached the Tigers from 1976 to 1991. Jackie Sherrill coached Mississippi State from 1991 to 2003. These coaches were successful at their respective schools and gained a large following. But there’s one who I feel forever impacted his school. That would be Jeff Bower.
Athletic Beginnings
Born on May 28, 1953, in Roswell, Georgia, Jeffrey Jon Bower excelled in sports in high school. As a quarterback, he led his school to two football state championships in 1968 and 1970. He also played on two state-champion baseball teams (1969 and 1971) and a state-champion basketball team (1971.) Bower’s football career started at the University of Georgia in 1971. He never started a game in Athens and transferred to Southern Miss in 1972. Bower became the starting quarterback for the Golden Eagles from 1973 to 1975. While at Southern Miss, Bower set multiple school records, broken later by quarterbacks he coached.
College Coaching
After his senior year, Jeff Bower became a graduate assistant for the Southern Miss football team. Serving under Bobby Collins, Bower finished his term as a graduate assistant and was hired under Collins in 1978 as a wide receivers and quarterbacks coach. When Coach Collins accepted the head coaching job at Southern Methodist in 1981, Bower followed, where he was a quarterbacks coach from 1981 to 1986. Following this stint, Coach Bower accepted the quarterbacks coach job at Wake Forest. He coached with the Demon Deacons only in the 1987 season.
Return to Southern Miss
In 1988, Coach Bower moved back to Hattiesburg when he accepted the job of assistant head and quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator at Southern Miss under Coach Curley Hallman. Bower worked with Hallman’s squad in 1988 and 1989. In 1990, Bower moved to Stillwater, Oklahoma, as the Oklahoma State Cowboys offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. However, Bower wouldn’t even stay at Oklahoma State for the whole season. USM Coach Curley Hallman accepted the head coaching job at LSU, taking over for Mike Archer. With their fourth bowl appearance of the 1980s scheduled in a few weeks, Southern Miss now needed a coach. In an “Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime” episode hosted by former USM linebacker Marchant Kenney, this is how Coach Bower describes how he got the HC job at USM: “I was at Texas Stadium recruiting and watching the Texas High School Playoffs, and there was an announcement over the PA that said ‘Will Jeff Bower go to the courtesy phone in the lobby.’ I picked up the phone, and it was Bill McLellan, and he said, ‘Do you want to be our next head coach?’” From there, Jeff Bower became the 18th head coach of the Southern Miss Golden Eagles.
Bower’s first head coaching game was in the 1990 All-American Bowl. Southern Miss had achieved an 8-3 regular season and a bid to the All-American Bowl. The #23 Golden Eagles were slated to face the NC State Wolfpack of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Wolfpack were 6-5 on the season and 3-4 in their conference. This game was also USM senior quarterback Brett Favre’s last college game, and though the Eagles fell 31-27 at the hands of NC State, Favre was that game’s MVP.
The Golden Years
Jeff Bower coached the Golden Eagles from that 1990 bowl appearance until his retirement in 2007. During this time, he led the Golden Eagles to brand-new heights. The 1996 team was co-champions of Conference-USA along with the Houston Cougars. In 1997, in USM’s second year in Conference USA, the Golden Eagles won their first CUSA championship. The Eagles would win two more championships in 1999 and 2003. The 1997 and 1999 teams also finished in the AP and Coaches Top 25. He also coached five USM quarterbacks who rank in the top 10 of multiple USM quarterback records. These quarterbacks are Tommy Waters (1991-1994), Heath Graham (1994-1996), Lee Roberts (1995-1998), Jeff Kelly (1998-2001), and Dustin Almond (2002-2005). In Bower’s time, Southern Miss went from an independent team to a C-USA team, and M.M. Roberts Stadium saw a 3,000-seat south end-zone expansion**.
Following his retirement, Bower was selected to the College Football Playoff Selection Committee in 2016. This committee is responsible for picking what teams make it into the playoffs each year. Bower served in this position until 2018. Today, Bower can be seen around Hattiesburg and can also be seen at many Southern Miss sporting events.
The Bower Legacy
I got to talk to a player who played under Coach Bower. Marchant Kenney was a linebacker for the Golden Eagles from 1994-1997 and is often considered one of the greatest USM linebackers of all time, finishing with 280 solo tackles. I asked Kenney what the most admirable thing about Coach Bower was in his time as a Golden Eagle. This was his response “Coach Bower was a great man. I look up to him. In 1997, his daughter Kristin died in a car wreck. It was during the third week of that football season. And Coach Bower was very close to me, and Kristin was like a little sister. But we had the services that week, and as big of a loss it was to the Bower family, Coach Bower held on to his faith and coached that third-week game against Nevada. And we beat Nevada 35-19 in front of a large home crowd***. And I look up to him for finishing that game and that week.”
Jeff Bower’s Coaching Stats
- Head Coaching Record
- 1. Overall: 119-83-1*
- 2. C-USA: 63-24
- 3. Bowls: 6-5
- Notable Games Coached
- 1. October 5, 1991: Southern Miss 10, #16 Auburn 9
- 2. November 20, 1993: Southern Miss 30, Tulsa 30
- 3. November 12, 1994: Southern Miss 20, LSU 18
- 4. August 31, 1996: Southern Miss 11, Georgia 7
- 5. 1997 Liberty Bowl: Southern Miss 41, Pittsburgh 7
- 6. October 9, 1999: Southern Miss 39, #16 East Carolina 22
- 7. 1999 Liberty Bowl: #16 Southern Miss 23, Colorado State 17
- 8. September 16, 2000: Southern Miss 21, #15 Alabama 0
- 9. 2000 Mobile, Alabama Bowl: Southern Miss 28, #13 TCU 21
- 10. November 20, 2003: Southern Miss 40, #10 TCU 28
- Rivalry Records
- 1. Black & Blue Bowl (vs. Memphis): 11-6
- 2. Rivalry in Dixie (vs. LA Tech): 1-1
- 3. Battle for the Bell (vs. Tulane): 13-3
- 4. vs. Louisiana-Lafayette: 7-1
- 5. vs. East Carolina: 11-5
Jeff Bower’s Awards and Accomplishments
- Conference USA Champions: 1996, 1997, 1999, 2003
- Conference USA Coach of the Year: 1997, 1999, 2003
- Conference USA Coach of the Decade: 1990s
- Southern Miss Sports Hall of Fame: 1988
- Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame: 2009
- College Football National Playoff Selection Committee: 2016-2018
- 14 Consecutive Winning Seasons, 1994-2007
- Total Weeks in AP Top 25: 27 Weeks
- 11 Bowl Game Appearances: 6 wins, 5 Losses
- Coached 145 All-CUSA Selections and 40 Future Professional Players
*119 wins is the most wins of any USM Head Coach in the program’s history
**M.M. Roberts Stadium capacity as of 2008 is 36,000
***Attendance is represented as 26,481 out of a 33,000-seat stadium (80%)
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great coach and man, but never seemed quite the same after his daughter was killed in a car crash in 1997