Bobby Bowden Retires - IT DESERVES ITS OWN THREAD!!!!

I'm sorry, creating a great program and putting it on the map and everything else is NOT a lifetime contract and clearly eight years of steady decline with no end of the decline in sight means it is time.

And if Bowden can't recognize it someone needs to for him.

A guy who doesn't know the score of a game during a half-time interview is just stealing money and it was clear he and Fisher weren't working well together because the staff was divided in their loyalties.

I do agree with you on one thing - the coach-in-waiting idiocy needs to end and sooner rather than later.

 

I don't think Bobby Bowden had lost that much, Zag. But I do think the coach-in-waiting issue with the $5 million hanging over the athletic department if they didn't move Bobby plus the fact that he and Jimbo Fisher appeared to clash on an uncommon number of issues made things very uneasy.

Bowden wasn't perfect, and I will be the first to admit that there are valid points on both sides to deciding when the right time to go. But the coach-in-waiting shadow loomed very large and created more problems that any continuity the Florida State athletic department thought it would.

 

Sam - Do you think (I know this is a bit of a conspiracy) the coach-in-waiting thing was really just a chickenshit way for the school to start the process of pushing Bowden out?

 

Yes. It gave the athletic department an all-too-convenient excuse to give him but two choices: Either accept even more of a figurehead role than he used to have or retire.

They knew they didn't have to find a coach. It was major chicken-youknowwhat. Screw them. With a rusty drill bit.

 

I understand the impulse to say, "the man built Florida State into one of the greatest football dynasties ever, so let him leave on his own terms." But the president and AD have to make sure the health of the program is their top priority. Bowden clearly doesn't have the energy (or the staff) to rebuild the program back into being a consistent top 10-15 team. Keeping him around for another 6-6, 7-5 season does no one any good.

As one writer pointed out, Bowden probably fears that he would die 6 months after he retired, like his father did and like Bear Bryant did. His time, as glorious as it was, has passed. The best thing for Florida State to do is honor the man and move on.

 

I remember reading Pat Jordan's masterful story on FSU in the very first BASW I bought (1996), which in some regard, is probably the most influential book I've read in my life, because it made me, and still makes me, want to be a writer. The NY Times, which ran the story in its magazine, should really put it back online, because it was probably the best look inside Bowden's program at its peak. It also quoted Chuck Amato, then his assistant head coach, as saying, "Coach Bowden doesn't know what we're going to do" and only intercedes in the final minutes of games. Even 15 years ago Bowden was basically a figurehead, so it's pretty amazing he's lasted this long.

Still, he's a one-of-a-kind and college football is worse off with him gone. As Tim Layden wrote on SI.com, he's the last of the old-school Southern gentleman coaches.

 

Speaking of Chuck Amato and Bobby Bowden, I still love Chuck Amato's response to a question about critics after an early season win over FSU in his last season. He pauses, dramatically, and says "What Critics?" and I think that was the extent of the post-game on-field interview. NC State then proceeds to lose out, finishing 3-9, with Amato getting fired.

 

Behind Gagliardi, JoePa and Bowden, who's the active leader in career college wins?

Jim Tressel (224).

 

Did someone say Chuck Amato?
The same man who offered this gem after losing to Akron:
""They are in a conference that allows non-qualifiers in school. Y'all need to look that up," Amato said. "The Boise States, the Fresno States, the Louisvilles before they went to the Big East. They have non-qualifiers. Do you know what kind of players non-qualifiers are? They are inversely proportional to what their grade-point average is."

 

Amato had a better set of tits than Jenn Sterger. And his were real.

 

I hate this nagging perception I have that Bowden's being pushed out by Florida State. Someone who's been so great for so long deserves to walk away on his terms.

And if I've ever thought or said differently about Joe Pa at Penn State, I'd apply the same to him.

 

The argument that Bowden deserves to leave on his own and the school did him wrong is absurd. The only reason FSU is going to a bowl this year is a 19-9 victory over Jacksonville State. Take away wins against Central Michigan, Troy, UAB, Western Carolina, Chattanooga and other of that ilk and FSU is barely .500 in the last 5 years.

What Bowden has accomplished at FSU is amazing. What he tore apart is equally amazing.