‘You know, Mike, Bobby Lowder really acts like the Auburn Tigers are his professional football franchise.’

Somehow, we’re supposed to believe that the Bobby Lowder of this story…

With the Auburn football job open in December 1992, Mike Lude, then the university’s athletic director, interviewed a stellar group of candidates: North Carolina’s Mack Brown, Southern California’s Larry Smith and West Virginia’s Don Nehlen.

But Lude and the hiring committee were most impressed by a long-shot candidate, Terry Bowden, the little-known coach at Samford in Birmingham, Ala.

Years later, Lude found out why Bowden, who ultimately won the job, was so prepared for the interview. Bowden told him that the Auburn superbooster Bobby Lowder, who had sat in on other candidates’ interviews, had prepped Bowden in his hotel room the night before his meeting with Auburn officials…

has morphed into a quasi-radioactive figure who is barely known by the people running Auburn’s football program.

“In my two years there, Mr. Lowder has done some great things for Auburn, but there hasn’t been that much contact,” Chizik said. “I’m very appreciative of all he’s done for Auburn University. Just don’t see him much. He is busy with a lot of things going on in the business world.”

…

Athletic Director Jay Jacobs, who has avoided the news media in the week before the championship game, did not return a call seeking comment. The Auburn assistant coach Trooper Taylor said he only knew Lowder’s name.

“I’ve never even met him,” Taylor said. “I couldn’t even tell you what he looks like or any of that. I’ve seen buildings with his name on it, but I don’t know him at all.”