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Football
Coaching:
They'd make the 150-mile pilgrimage from Huntsville to Tuscaloosa, Tim Stowers and his dad, just to gaze upon a Crimson Tide practice in the days when Bear Bryant was god and his players were armor-clad heroes to a kid growing up in Alabama. His dad was superintendent of schools in Huntsville, with three degrees from 'Bama and enough clout to wangle those precious practice passes. But in all those trips and all those miles, his dad never instructed him that life might not be one long series of colorful Saturday afternoons. Never let on that fate doesn't always fight fair, who cut-blocked you at the knees when you least expected it. Some things, like the truth about Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy, a kid just has to learn for himself. Tim Stowers learned it in 1970, at the age of 12, when his dad died of a heart attack at a way-too-soon 46. He learned it again in 1976 when the sainted Bear told him: Sorry, son, you're just not 'Bama material. Again in 1995 when Georgia Southern told him: Sorry, Coach, one national title in six years just doesn't cut it. We were expecting four or five. It could have made him bitter. Instead it made him better. Like Bear Bryant, he'd have one championship ring on his finger and more in his safe-deposit box. Unlike the Bear, he wouldn't win over the skeptics until 11 years after his last title. And that time would come at the most unlikeliest of places: Rhode Island. Tim Stowers ushered in a new era in Rhode Island football when he was named head coach of the Rams on Jan. 13, 2000. The football program had struggled mightily and fan support was on the wane. Stowers inherited a team coming off a 1-10 record in 1999 and one that had lost 13 of its last 14 games while posting just one winning record in the previous 14 seasons. In 2000, Stowers' first Rhode Island team went 0-5 before shocking 13th-ranked James Madison 7-6 on Homecoming Day. The Rams beat Northeastern the following week and upset Connecticut in the next-to-last game, going 3-3 over the final six weeks and setting a hopeful tone for 2001. Even so, the Atlantic 10 coaches' preseason poll had them finishing ninth. What the coaches didn't see were the improvements taking shape off the field: a rejuvenated booster group, a new 2,000-square-foot off-campus weight room, a newly landscaped practice field, a TV show and a bigger budget. Stowers has taken a hands-on approach, writing the booster club newsletters himself, selling TV sponsorships, speaking to countless community groups. In 2001, his second year at Rhode Island, Tim Stowers literally turned the program around - from a 3-8 record in 2000 to an 8-3 mark and a No. 20 national ranking in Division I-AA. (It was Rhode Island's best record and first ranking since 1985.) The Rams ran out to a school-record 7-0 start and for several weeks owned the No. 4 spot, their second-highest ranking ever. On the way, they stunned two other No. 4 teams (Delaware and Hofstra) and topped 24th-ranked William & Mary. Stowers, the 15th head coach in team history, shared Coach of the Year honors in the Atlantic 10 Conference with Maine's Jack Cosgrove after the Rams finished a game out of first place. He wound up seventh in the voting for the Eddie Robinson Award, given to the I-AA Coach of Year. Playing a schedule that included I-A Syracuse in 2002, the Rams struggled to a 3-9 mark but shocked nationally-ranked Delaware 17-14 for Homecoming in 2002 continuing a trend of upsetting nationally-ranked teams. In 2003, the snake-bitten Rams lost three games by seven or fewer points including a 31-24 setback at I-A Cincinnati en route to a 4-8 worksheet. The running Rams set a school record while finishing second in the nation in rushing, amassing 4,005 yards on the ground. Enduring a spate of injuries, the 2004 edition of the Rams started the season with victories over Fordham and Central Connecticut. Rhode Island posted a win over archrival Massachusetts for Homecoming and defeated new Atlantic 10 member Towson but lost four games to nationally ranked team to finish 4-7. After winning the first three games of the 2005 campaign and earning a No. 24-ranking by The Sports Network, Rhode Island struggled in the second half of the season to finish 4-7. But freshman Joe Casey was named the Atlantic 10's Offensive Newcomer of the Year after leading the conference in rushing and the defense showed considerable improvement by season's end. Last season, the Rams compiled a 4-7 overall record and a 2-6 mark in the final season of the Atlantic 10 Football League. The season was highlighted by another win over Brown for the Governor's Cup, as well as a 3-0 victory at home over #15 Maine. Five Rams - Joe Casey, Bryan Giannecchini, Shamel Lewis, Raji El-Amin, and Virgil Gray - were named to the All-A-10 Football Team. "I've made no secret that I consider this to be the best place I've ever coached," said Stowers, a former Auburn lineman who was born Feb. 8, 1958 in Union Springs, Ala. "The people here have been great to work with. Any time we've needed help, people have stepped forward. I'm proud to be the head football coach at Rhode Island." As a 32-year-old rookie head coach, Stowers coaxed Georgia Southern (12-3) to the 1990 national championship after a 1-3 start and won the I-AA Coach of the Year award for himself. Problem was, the Eagles had won three national titles in the previous five years (1985, '86 and '89) under Erk Russell, who retired and bequeathed his football estate to Stowers, his offensive coordinator. Stowers earned three rings under Russell and acquired another in his first fling at head-coaching. He wasn't just the most successful coach in I-AA in 1990, he was the youngest as well. And he was the first coach in I-AA history to win a national title his first time out. Stowers led the Eagles to two more NCAA playoff berths (three altogether in his six years as head man), nurtured 12 all-Americans, graduated 93 percent of his seniors (43 of 46), went 6-2 in NCAA playoffs games and finished with a 51-23 (.689) record. In 1993 the Eagles went 10-3 and won the Southern Conference crown in their second year as a member, earning him the league's Coach of the Year award, and in '95 they were 9-4. But both years they exited the NCAA playoffs in the second round, a cardinal sin to the ultra-demanding Georgia Southern faithful. "When we won the national title, it was like taking a shower with a raincoat on," Stowers drawled in his slow Southern baritone. "We had so much success so soon, it was expected every year. It was like coaching at Notre Dame or Alabama. Anytime you follow a legend [like Russell], your tenure won't be as long as the legend's was. They'll always say, `Coach So-and-So would have done it like this ....' "That's why I wanted to coach somewhere where that I could put my stamp on the football program. That's a much easier situation than going somewhere where they've always won. It's a lot more fun being a pioneer." Stowers first took that positive attitude when he lost his father. "I hadn't been very mature and I realized, `Hey, I've got to grow up. I've got to be the man of the house. I've got to be a better student.'" When Alabama spurned him, he went to Auburn and earned two letters (1977-78) as a linebacker, offensive and defensive lineman under coach Doug Barfield. He spent his freshman year on the JV squad, but in 1977 he became the last Tiger to play regularly on both offense and defense in the same game. "They [Alabama] said I was a step too slow to play in the SEC," he recalled, "but Auburn offered me a scholarship. Auburn's program was down at that time, but it gave me a better opportunity to play - to play earlier. So it worked out fine. 'Bama won back-to-back national championships when I was in college, but we beat every SEC team we played except them." When a back injury ended his playing career before his senior year - an ailment that still plagues him - Stowers jumped right into coaching and spent three years as a student assistant coach (1979-81), working mainly with the JV squad. He moved up to head JV coach in 1982 and '83 while helping Pat Dye and the varsity staff win back-to-back bowl games. The Tigers topped Boston College and Doug Flutie 33-26 in the 1982 Tangerine Bowl, finishing 9-3, and they edged Michigan 9-7 in the 1983 Sugar Bowl to go 11-1. Stowers then spent one year (1984) as an assistant under Joe Hollis at Jacksonville State (Ala.) State before joining the Georgia Southern staff. After his 11-year stint with the Eagles, he endured back-to-back 2-9 years as offensive line coach in the perpetually groping program at Temple (1998-99). His line helped the Owls rank third in rushing in the Big East in 1998. Tim Stowers and his wife, Gaye, have two children: son T.J., a lineman like his father, who plays at Rhode Island, and daughter Kathryn Lee. He's never had the best of everything - blazing speed, healthy back, plum jobs - but he's darn sure made the best of everything he's had. At long last, he's casting a long shadow instead of standing in one. The Stowers' Story * Born Feb. 8, 1958 in Union Springs, Ala. |
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