Bowden started to coach immediately after he graduated when he was hired as the wide receivers coach at Salem College (now known as Salem International University) in 1983, where his brother Terry Bowden was the head coach. After two years, he was promoted to the position of offensive coordinator. He then returned to FSU, his alma mater, for a season as a graduate assistant coach. In 1987, he began a four year stint as offensive coordinator at Samford University, again under big brother and head coach Terry Bowden. Bowden then moved up to the Division I-A level as wide receivers coach at Southern Mississippi for three years before being hired by his father at Florida State in 1994 as wide receivers coach. He was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2001 when Mark Richt departed for the hea