CLEMSON, S.C. -- Tommy Bowden's mother didn't have football in mind. She wanted her son to be a dentist.

But her son, as spelled out in a grade-school essay, had other career plans. He wanted to coach like his father, Bobby Bowden of Florida State.

That was Tommy Bowden's goal then, and it hasn't changed.

	Don't expect Bobby Bowden to get emotional over facing off against former assistant coach Chuck Amato.

"Our management styles, our ways with the media, the way we do things is pretty similar," he said. "He's not like me on the sidelines now. I really get into it sometimes; he takes naps over there. Maybe he was more like me at 45 than 69."

Clemson's matchup with Florida State on Saturday night -- college football's first father-son rivalry -- has been building since Tommy romped on the practice fields where his father worked.

Bit by bit, year after year, the passion to follow his father grew.

"I think God has a plan, a will for our lives," he said.

His father saw it coming all along.

"Tommy seems like he was destined to become a football coach," Bobby said. "Of all our boys, he was committed to coaching earlier than any of them."

Tommy was also committed to his father. He walked onto Bobby's West Virginia team as a receiver from 1973-75. He spent five seasons coaching defensive backs and tight ends for his father at Florida State.

And as Tommy made his way through football in the South as an assistant at Auburn, Duke, Alabama and Kentucky, and then as head coach at Tulane in 1997, he shared it all with Dad.

Tommy has made his mark with a fast-paced offense that wears down opponents and a few trick plays at the right times.

"If he had been a doctor or a lawyer, I probably would have been a doctor or a lawyer," Tommy said. "But, he was a college football coach, and that's what I wanted to be."

Rusty Hamilton is Summerville High School's offensive line coach, and he has his own small-school dynasty with sons Paul at East Tennessee State and Fred at Battery Creek High.

He remembers meeting the Bowdens in 1963 when Bobby was hired to coach running backs at Florida State. Hamilton was at University High in Tallahassee, Fla. He said the Bowdens drove up with a big hauler as they moved in and Bobby was all about football.

"Tommy was still a little guy," Hamilton said.

Fast forward to last summer when Hamilton spent two days at Clemson watching film with Tommy Bowden to take notes on his pile-up-the-yards Tulane offense.

"He came in and talked with us, just like Bobby did then," Hamilton recalled. "You could see how they loved football."

And Tommy Bowden's mother knows a special moment awaits this weekend at Death Valley.

"It's going to be so different from anything that has ever happened to us," Ann Bowden said. "I don't think we'll realize it until the time comes."