Pressure Building on Bobby Bowden

The Hurricanes are back on the national stage and have to be the favorite to capture the ACC’s BCS berth this season.

Sorry, had to take issue with this line. What about the team that handled Miami just last week and has the inside track to the ACC title game?

"What would I gain by stepping down?" he said after the game. "What would you do, fire everyone and bring in an entire coaching staff? What would you gain by that?

Bowden is delusional. FSU was mediocre before Bowden took over, but they’re located in an extremely fertile recruiting ground, and have decent enough facilities (certainly light years better than Miami’s). There’s no good reason that they shouldn’t be dominating their division in the ACC. But they apparently lack the balls to remove Bowden, and he seems to want to coach until he’s 90.

There’s something to be said for knowing when to walk away.

FSU has appealed the ruling, denying any knowledge of infractions by the football staff and saying the coach’s records should not be altered.

Now there’s an academic institution. While Christian Scott sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell, an innocent man in a living hell.

you’re right bigdukesix. It will be interesting to see how Miami handles the rest of the season. They could be 11-1 and shut out of the BCS.

@srr50: I don’t think there’s any way Miami is shut out of an at-large bid if they win out. Which 1-loss team would you place over them in an at-large if they win out?

Miami is a great name but doesn’t travel well at all. If it comes down to a Bowl choosing an equal name like Ohio State, Nebraska, or God forbid Texas that travels well they’ll be left out.

The 2nd place SEC team would be above them — and then Notre Dame — which seems to elude disaster at the last minute each and every week, could be eligible for a BCS berth as well.

To say nothing of Boise State.

The “Lear” references are nice, and not at all out of place on this site.

King LearBowden – The aging king of Britain coach of FSU and is used to enjoying absolute power and to being flattered. He does not respond well to being contradicted or challenged. At the beginning of the playseason, he prizes the appearance of love over actual devotion and wishes to maintain the power of a king while unburdening himself of the responsibility, also he wants to beat JoePa’s record. Nevertheless, he inspires loyalty in subjects such as Gloucester, Kent, Cordelia, and Edgar, Jimbo all of whom risk their lives a $5 million contract clause for him.

I gots mad HTML skillz ya’ll.

Props.

The worse thing that could have ever happened to Florida State fans (aside from getting an “education” at Florida State) is Joe Paterno’s resurrection at Penn State. Bobby looks at Joe Pa and sees a guy his age, on his way out, suddenly reborn. It doesn’t help that Joe’s leading in the all time wins column either. Bowden’s convinced himself that he if Joe can turn it around he can too. What he fails to realize is that for all his faults and bluster, Joe Pa has reconginzed that he’s simply a figure head. He went and got some young, hungry assistants and turned over control of the program (and perhaps just as importantly recruiting) to them. Bobby has never been a hands on guy when it comes to “x and o’s” but he’s always been the guy at the forefront of recruiting. And he was a serious innovator in that area. Unfortunately for him he’s still insistent on being in charge in that arena, where he’s no longer an innovator but now instead finds himself behind the curve of his direct regional rivals Florida and Miami. His classes still rank well, but if you just look through his last 5 or 6 classes you’ll notice a disturbing lack of true difference makers at key positions. All those guys are going to S-E-C schools now. Or worse other ACC teams.

Sailor showing his age again with the bob dylan sports metaphor.

funny how time changes perceptions… when JoePa and Bobby were essentially tied for all-time wins, who in the world would have thought that over the next few years Joe would pull ahead? I would have gladly bet that by now Bowden would be far enough ahead that he wouldn’t even sweat the possible voided wins…

To distill what I wrote elsewhere, Bowden’s record is nowhere near as poor as Joe Paterno’s was in the first half of this decade, and JoePa turned things around.

If you can recruit, you can still win.

What’s the latest take on Jimbo Fisher?

Jimbo Fisher is an overrated buffoon at this point. Look at the FSU offensive performances statistically under Jeff Bowden compared to Fisher and they are almost the same or in Bowden’s favor. Beyond the stats, I watch the games and I am happy he’s not the Texas OC. Wow. That guy is a bust as an OC for FSU, much less a HC in waiting.

FSU and Penn State are both the rough equivalents to Cuba in college football. They become much less formidable or relevant when their figureheads die or retire.

Bowden and Paterno remind me of when I had to take my grandpa’s keys away for the sake of every other driver on the road.

He was very upset and if he would have said no, I couldn’t have fought him. That old man would have whipped my ass all over the place.

Luckily, he had the wisdom to know his best days were behind him; He told me he could still drive and I told him, yes, I know you can old man.

Ozymandias in Tallahassee:
 
“My name is Bobby Bowden, king of kings:
Look on my NASCAR sunglasses, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level swamps stretch far away

fma wrote, “What he fails to realize is that for all his faults and bluster, Joe Pa has reconginzed that he’s simply a figure head. He went and got some young, hungry assistants and turned over control of the program (and perhaps just as importantly recruiting) to them.”

I think picking up OC and senior citizen Galen Hall had more to do with it than anything.

…recruiting a trove of fast skill position players starting in about 2005 helped considerably, as well.

Scipio Tex said:

October 4th, 2009 at 10:09 pm

Ozymandias in Tallahassee:

"My name is Bobby Bowden, king of kings:
Look on my NASCAR sunglasses, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level swamps stretch far away

And that kids is why Scip gets paid the big bucks. He just said “I’ll see your Shakespearean character summary and raise you a Percy Shelley sonnet”.

Uncle.

“[Joe P] went and got some young, hungry assistants and turned over control of the program (and perhaps just as importantly recruiting) to them”

Would that be DC Tom Bradley, who has been at Penn State 31 years; OC Galen Hall, who started coaching at OU in 1966; OL Coach Dick Anderson (32 years at PSU); DL Coach Larry Johnson, 14th year at PSU; TE Coach Bill Kenney (22 years at PSU); QB Coach Jay Paterno (15 years); SC Coach John Thomas (18 years); or LB Coach Ron Vanderlinden (9 years)?

I guess you must mean Kermit Buggs (six years on staff) & Mike McQueary (six years on staff). McQueary’s the recruiting coordinator, and was a quarterback for PSU in 1997. I hardly think Joe has turned over control of the program to them.

/

Whoa. Getting worse:

FSU trustees chair Jim Smith: ‘I think enough is enough’

Wow. After reading that article there is little doubt as to the priorities of the administration at Florida State.

FSU and Penn State are both the rough equivalents to Cuba in college football. They become much less formidable or relevant when their figureheads die or retire.

Yes, it’s always a huge blow to a program when they can no longer pay a coach 2mm+ a year to do nothing. There’s generally no recovering from that.

FSU is at worst the 2nd best football school in the ACC. They couldn’t bring in a new coach and do much better than what they’ve done under Bowden since 2001?

And PSU is a top ten program in college football. They’ve got a pretty good recruiting situation up there.

I also loved the Shelley reference – nicely done, Scip. Just another reason why I come here to do my football readin’.

I think the Shelleys would have been Big 10 fans were they to follow college football, however… his wife wrote Frankenstein, after all, and I see the creature preferring to play for Wisconsin or Ohio State to FSU.

Sounds like Bobby has a going problem.