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The Broyles Award Trophy, made out of solid bronze, depicts Broyles (kneeling) and longtime University of Arkansas assistant coach Wilson Matthews (standing), watching over a Razorback football game or practice. Matthews was the coach of Little Rock Central High School before joining Broyles on the Razorback’s staff.
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Today at the Little Rock Touchdown Club Luncheon, Bobby Bowden spoke, but before he spoke, David Bazell announced that Bowden is the newest member of the Broyles Award Selection Committee. The committee includes Frank Broyles, Don James, Vince Dooley, Haden Fry, Dick MacPherson, Grant Teaff, and LaVell Edwards.
The Broyles Award is an annual award given to honor the best assistant coach in college football. First awarded in 1996, it was named after former University of Arkansas men’s athletic director Frank Broyles. The award is presented in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Bowden told a funny story about the 1980 victory at Nebraska. He pointed out that Nebraska was ranked #3 and was expected to possibly win the national championship. At that time Florida State had not won a game against a top 5 team yet, and FSU went into the game as big underdogs. In fact, the week before FSU had lost 10-9 in a game where they had been heavily favored because of the 10 fumbles they had because their first and second team centers had season ending injuries.
In practice the next week Bowden got several players together to compete for the starting center position and it was won by a walk-on player. The next game against Nebraska, Florida State had no turnovers while Nebraska had 4 and Florida State came away with a 18-14 victory.
Bowden noted that the walk-on center was horrible at blocking, but he was very dependable at providing good snaps. Bowden uses this illustration when he talks to business people to encourage them to seek dependable employees.
Bowden asserted, “That will always go down in my book not neccessarily my favorite win, but probably the most important win in Florida State’s modern day history.”
Below you will see a clip that discusses that 1980 matchup and you will notice that former Arkansas defensive coordinator Reggie Herring is interviewed twice in the 4 minute clip. Herring played on the FSU defense.
In 2006 I went to the Shiloh Christian at Bauxite playoff game in Saline County. It was a cold night, and I noticed Gus Malzahn and several other notable persons at the game. Arkansas had played LSU earlier in the day in Little Rock. During the second half I saw a monster hit by a linebacker from Shiloh, and I exclaimed, “Who was that guy?” The gentleman next to me who was wearing a ski mask responded, “That is my son Adam Herring.” I had been standing next to Reggie Herring for 2 hours and did not even know it.
The Daily Hatch 