BOL Round Table

I'm sure everyone remembers this interview:

"One week on the job, Hall came in with a ledger of players who have been paid, who paid the money, how much money and when it was paid. He said we’ve still got 9-12 players that we’re paying $600 per month.

We paid then $12,000-$15,000 to sign. We sign about four every year that we pay.(Former assistant coach Rodney) Garner paid most of the players. He was paid when he was a player at Auburn.(Stacey) Danley is the assistant compliance guy, and he was paid when he was a player. I broke the rules. I said pay it off, and it will never happen again.

Hall said “OK, but you will change your mind.” Katherine came to Auburn as

my assistant, but she worked for Colonial. We were real close. I told
Lowder “We have cash all over.” Lowder said “I told Wayne not to collect more than we had to have to pay the players.” Wayne had a safe in his house where he kept the money. Within two weeks of me being hired they told me about paying Jelks.

Nothing was done without Lowder knowing. I will go under oath
and say that Lowder looked me in the eyes and said, “I didn’t want Wayne to collect more money than we needed to pay the players.” I was hiding a dirty secret. We were paying (star running back and current Washington Redskin) Steve Davis and his cousin the fullback.

It took about two years to get it all cleaned up. Most the guys we were paying weren’t any good and weren’t helping us win games. Steve Davis was the exception.

HERE IS HOW IT WORKS fifty to 60 men give $5,000 per year. Wayne would collect it. These are all good men. They didn’t ask questions. The coach tells them that everybody cheats so we have to. My first two years we went 11-0 and 9-0-1.

My third year, (assistants Jimbo) Fisher and (Rick) Trickett said, “Hall is on the phone a lot with Lowder.” I thought he was going back to cheating. I told Hall that when the season was over he needed to move on.

I told Garner that I was taking him off coaching for a year. That was the beginning of the end for me. Jimmy Rane was in on all of this. He is high maintenance. Three current Board of Trustees members gave cash to players - Rane, Spina and McWhorter."

The part that sticks out to me is the amount of players he says were paid. Auburn fans keep saying that the four players are lying because of how many said they weren't paid. Well in this, Bowden says only 4 per year were paid to come to Auburn ($12,000 to $15,000) and only 9-12 were paid $600 a month. Both sides could easily be telling the truth. Just because 50 players say they weren't paid, doesn't mean a few were. SIAP