Brand names you can trust: the college game's most sought-after honor isn't the Heisman. It doesn't even have a name. And only fans decide who's worthy

Football Digest, Dec, 2001 by Joe Donatelli

YOU SAY THE NAMES OF CERtain college coaches, and the their schools come immediately to mind.

Paul "Bear" Bryant ... Alabama.

Eddie Robinson ... Grambling.

Knute Rockne ... Notre Dame.

It's the ultimate coaching honor.

Forget Walter Camp Coach of the Year. Forget the university Hall of Fame. Forget the Starkville (Miss.) Civic Boosters Man of the Year Award.

Short of a national title, having your name forever linked to your school is the ultimate personal honor, one attained by only a handful of coaches.

"That's what happens over a long enough period of time," former Nebraska coach Tom Osborne says. "Fans follow a certain team, and a name like Bear Bryant becomes synonymous with Alabama."

This will be remembered as the season both Penn State's Joe Paterno and Florida State's Bobby Bowden surpassed Bear Bryant's Division I-A wins record (323). It's one more plaque on a burdened wall, a 37th breakout-box in the media guide, the first line of their obituaries.

But the record, if anything, further cements their status as two of college football's dwindling band of brand-name coaches. Think Microsoft in white tube socks, black Nikes, thick shop-teacher sunglasses, face like a map of central Pennsylvania. Think Coca-Cola in a headset, white polo shirt and a smile that makes him feel good, not the other way around.

Further expert testimonial: "Joe has a pretty good sense of humor. He is basically a very good person," Osborne says. "He would never cheat, and he takes pride in the way his team presents itself and how well-dressed, well-groomed, and well-mannered his players are.

"Bobby probably is more outgoing than anyone in the country, and he plays by the rules. He's got that good ol' boy demeanor, and people just instinctively like him."

Paterno was born in Brooklyn in 1926, which, if you've witnessed the moxie New Yorkers displayed following the World Trade Center attack, is all you need to know about his upbringing.

In 1966, at the age of 40, Paterno took over what had been a solid program under Rip Engle and turned it into a perennial power. Following a dozen top-10 finishes, he won his first national rifle in 1982, second in 1986, and nearly won a third in 1994 when his team went undefeated but finished second in the major polls to Osborne's 13-0 Nebraska.

Known for defense--especially exceptional linebackers such as Jack Ham, Shane Conlan, and LaVar Arrington--the Nittany Lions won both championships by harassing Heisman Trophy winners Herschel Walker (Georgia) and Vinny Testaverde (Miami) in Penn State's bowl wins. All the while--as some 700 coaches came and went on the Division I level--Penn State's players graduated.

A poll of coaches revealed that Paterno was the man they'd most trust with their sons. Those who follow him closely say he could have been a great lawyer or doctor had he not chosen football. He had the opportunity to become a professional coach on a number of occasions--most famously with the New England Patriots in the 1970s--but "JoePa" always declined.

The coach has raised so much money for the university that the board of trustees named the library after him. Says school president Graham Spanier: "I tell him, `I don't want to hire the coach who has to replace you,' and he reminds me that he's been through six or seven presidents and doesn't want to break another one in."

Bowden was born in Birmingham, Ala., in 1929; somewhere in the shadows of Big Rocky Candy Mountain. "Hey, buddy!" is how he greets so many strangers, who do not remain so for long.

If Paterno is the classy one, then Bowden is the friendly one. Imagine Paterno giving sideline interviews with a game in progress or phoning in quotes to beat reporters early in the fourth quarter, as Bowden has been known to do.

In college football, recruiting coordinators--who spend more time with high school athletes and coaches than anyone--hear all of the lies coaches tell recruits about rival programs: "He's leaving after next year, you know." "You'll never play. He doesn't start freshmen." "Remember when you lost your puppy when you were five years old? We have information that coach ..."

Bowden? "He keeps his enemies to a minimum," says Florida State recruiting coordinator John Lilly. That's coach-talk for, "No one disses Bobby Bowden."

Rightly so, says Lilly. "He's known for developing football players," Lilly says. "There's stability. You can't sell that anywhere else. He's not going anywhere, not for at least another 15 to 20 years I hope."

In addition to a pair of national titles (1993, '99), FSU has not finished lower than fifth in the final Associated Press top 25 poll since 1987. Peter Warrick, Deion Sanders, and Peter Boulware are among Bowden's distinguished alumni.

While other coaches have watched the game pass them by--Paterno has been accused of this--Bowden has surrounded himself with innovative coaches like defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews and offensive coordinator Mark Richt, who was hired away by Georgia after last: season. And he gives his coaches that greatest of gifts: freedom.