Paul Palmer can’t wait for the Jets opener next season, but he won’t be wearing anything green and white.
“We all going to be wearing our Temple shirts,” Palmer told The Post on Wednesday. “There’s going to be five or six of us there, wearing our Temple shirts and carrying on. You’ll see us.”
Palmer, a star running back at Temple in the late 1980s, is now one of the biggest Jets fans on the planet after Todd Bowles, his former college teammate, was named to replace Rex Ryan as head coach. Palmer and Bowles played together at Temple when Bowles was a defensive back and Palmer finished second to Vinny Testaverde for the 1986 Heisman Trophy.
Palmer, now a high school football coach in South Jersey and broadcaster for Temple football, described Bowles as a “born leader” who influenced his teammates by action more than words.
“He was very confident, but he was quiet,” Palmer said. “As a ballplayer, he would lead by example. He’s not a loud person. But he’s someone you can trust and he’s very knowledgeable. He’s going to be someone the Jets can believe in.”
Former teammates, fellow coaches and those who have played for Bowles describe him as the anti-Rex Ryan. He’s not going to charm the media or boast about what he’s going to accomplish. He earns respect through hard work, dedication and holding people accountable.
Former Giants linebacker Carl Banks, who played with Bowles as a member of the Redskins, called him a “smart player” who has “the DNA of a very good coach.” Banks said the Jets have found a guy who “knows how to make sure that whatever his directive is that everybody’s in line with it that is coaching his players. You can tell that by the way his defenses played. Everybody was on the same page. They coached that philosophy in one voice. I’m happy for him. I think he’s going to make an excellent head coach for the Jets.”
Ray Mickens was a defensive back for the Jets when Bowles was the team’s secondary coach in 2000. He described Bowles as a mild-mannered person who was willing to lean on his veteran players.
“Great coaches listen, learn and then lead,” Mickens said. “That’s what he did that year. He listened to things that were in place and led in his own way. He was a great DB coach for us and he’s grown so much.”
Super Bowl XXII MVP Doug Williams played with Bowles with the Redskins and gave him his first coaching job at Morehouse College.
“After playing with Todd and watching him on the defensive side of the ball, he was not only a bone-crushing killer, but he knew the other team’s offense and made sure everybody else knew where to go,” Williams told The Post. “You could tell he was the consummate guy, who wanted to be aware of what went on around him on the field. I look at Todd as that little brother I brought to Morehouse and then to Grambling. It makes me feel good knowing where he is today and that I might have had anything to do with that.”
The Jets figure to be a tough team if they take on the personality of their new head coach. Palmer recalls a time during college when Bowles went to visit a lady friend in South Philadelphia and had an altercation on the subway with a few hostiles. Palmer asked Bowles if he was scared. “Why should I be scared in Philly?” Bowles said. “I grew up in Elizabeth.”
Don’t be surprised if Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians shows up to a Jets game wearing one of those Temple T-shirts. Bowles was a freshman when Arians became the head coach at Temple. He later hired Bowles to be his defensive coordinator in Arizona.
“Watching him grow as a player, he was a coach on the field at all times,” Arians said recently. “We could do so many things defensively because of him. He’s a great teacher, a great communicator and players love him. He’s soft-spoken but a very good motivator and he can get on them as good as anybody.”