Bobby Bowden To Step Down at Florida State

Media reports tonight say Bowden will announce his retirement after coaching the Seminoles for 34 years.

Bowden leaves behind a program indelibly stamped with his imprint, one that reached unprecedented heights, but now finds itself the third best program in its state.

School president T.K. Wetherell and athletic director Randy Spetman met with Bowden today and reportedly told him he could come back as an “ambassador” for the program — with little or no input into the football team — or retire. Offensive Coordinator Jimbo Fisher will officially take over as Head Coach.

The Bowden legacy is a stunning stretch of success that turned Florida State into an elite NCAA D-1 football program.

Florida State has been playing football since 1947, and Bobby Bowden has walked the sidelines as Head Coach for 59% of the school’s games throughout its history.

Before Bowden, FSU experienced some success with Bill Peterson, who was 62-42-11 from 1960-70. Peterson, also known for his mangling of the English language )“Men, I want you just thinking of one word all season. One word and one word only: Super Bowl.”
“You guys line up alphabetically by height.”) got FSU ranked in the Top 20 four times.

But when Bowden took over, the program was at the bottom, going 4-39 the previous three years. Bowden went 5-6 his first season (1976) and then ran off 32 straight winning seasons until this year’s 6-6 mark.

Bobby Bowden brought the bling to FSU along with 315 wins.

Before Bowden, Florida State was 150-130-13 for a winning percentage of 53%. Bowden leaves the sidelines with a 315–97-4 mark at FSU for a winning percentage of 76%

During the late 1970′s and early 1980′s Bowden set about building a program that would play anyone anywhere. He took the Seminoles to Baton Rouge five straight times to play LSU without a return date. He played Nebraska and Ohio State two times without a return date, he went to Notre Dame. He also took some damn good teams with him and came away with more than his share of wins on the road.

From 1987-2000, Florida State averaged 11 wins a season and finished in the Top Five all fourteen years. But since the streak ended there has been a gradual decline in the program, and now FSU fans must hope he didn’t stay too long.

Bowden leaves without reaching his final goal, passing Joe Paterno on the all-time major college coaches winning list.

It isn’t just that the wins were not piling up as fast since 2000. There was his hiring of his son Jeff as Offensive Coordinator, and the turmoil that followed. He has seen the NCAA take away some of his wins over an academic misconduct scandal that involved 25 of his players (FSU is appealing the NCAA penalty).

The landscape has changed since Bowden came on the scene. Florida was a non-factor until Steve Spurrier showed up, and now Urban Meyer has ramped up the pressure even more. Miami is showing signs of becoming a major player again and Florida State cannot afford to fall further behind in the recruiting wars to its two major competitors.

School President Wetherell and AD Spetman can only hope that Jimbo Fisher is capable of taking on the in-state rivals. The question they have to answer:

Is the program bigger than Bobby Bowden.

Article Tags:

Bobby Bowden, College Football, Florida State Seminoles, Grumpy Old Men, Jimbo Fisher

18 Responses

The General said:

November 30th, 2009 at 8:16 pm

Nothing I have seen from Jimbo Fisher makes me think he will stop the slide at FSU. Quick, name all the successful people you know named Jimbo.

What? Zero? Not a fucking coincidence.
Jackanape said:

November 30th, 2009 at 8:22 pm

Bobuh says not so fast…
t1climb1 said:

November 30th, 2009 at 8:23 pm

From 1987-2000, Florida State averaged 11 wins a season and finished in the Top Five all fourteen years.

This bears repeating. Just let that soak in. Wow.
sizzlechest said:

November 30th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
dedfischer said:

November 30th, 2009 at 8:59 pm

“Quick, name all the successful people you know named Jimbo.

What? Zero? Not a fucking coincidence.”

Not so fast my friend.
Nordberg said:

November 30th, 2009 at 9:10 pm

Bowden took over at FSU about six months before I was born.

Or, another way, Bowden took over at FSU right after Darrell Royal retired.
srr50 said:

November 30th, 2009 at 9:12 pm

Bowden makes me appreciate Darrell Royal even more. He was a fierce competitor who realized when the the hounds were getting after him and when the fire inside began to egg, so he walked away.

Not many of his ilk can do that.
CrazyJoeDavola said:

November 30th, 2009 at 9:28 pm

I hope Mack is taking notes. The last thing I want for him is to ever get anywhere near what’s happened to Bowden over the past five years. I don’t ever want to see him get in a position where people just kind of shrug their shoulders at regular blowout losses to our in-state rival.

Because I, and pretty much everyone in Longhorn fandom, have already experienced that bullshit in my lifetime.
Woody Bombay said:

November 30th, 2009 at 9:33 pm

Mack won’t let that happen.

Remember seven or eight years ago when the conventional wisdom from aggies and other rivals was that Bobby would retire and Mack, because he was such a slick, snake-oil opportunist, would jump at the chance to return to his alma mater and leave Texas in the lurch? That was funny.
Woody Bombay said:

November 30th, 2009 at 9:38 pm

I don’t see how there’s any way Bowden can stick around after this.

http://deadspin.com/5401798/bobby-bowden-acts-his-age-forgets-score
Travis said:

December 1st, 2009 at 6:58 am

I know this doesn’t relate , but they said on rivals radio this morning that Carlos Dunlap was charged with a DWI last night at 3:30 am, refused to take the breathalizer test.

Thats a HUGE loss on their defensive front, but of course knowing how florida is they will probably only sit him the first half of the bama game.
UT_BKC said:

December 1st, 2009 at 7:30 am

“From 1987-2000, Florida State averaged 11 wins a season and finished in the Top Five all fourteen years. ”

“This bears repeating. Just let that soak in. Wow.”

What is even more impressive is that they only played 7 games a season back then.
BatesHorn said:

December 1st, 2009 at 7:37 am

First, let me echo the “wow” over Bowden’s career success, and specifically, for his willingness to use Charlie Ward in such an inventive fashion. In many ways, he sowed the seeds for the success of today’s run/pass spread option offenses. It has been sad to see him fade into irrelevance over the last decade.

Second, depending on what Maryland does in the next couple of days with Ralph Friedgen and who Virginia hires, Joe Paterno may be facing some trouble in the next couple of years if the DC talent pool that Penn St. has so adroitly mined over the last few years were to suddenly dry up.
Travis said:

December 1st, 2009 at 8:48 am

He was a legend and he will be missed, but his time had come and gone a few years ago but him and Jo Pa are so stubborn and want the record that they have just been waiting on the other to hang it up. I would put money on it that Jo Pa will go ahead and retire after next season because he won’t have to worry about losing to bowden anymore.

You get the feeling that he was just hanging on because with all their young talent, most likely 10 starters back on offense next year that they should be right there with the ACC leaders and have a shot to win another conference championship and maybe a bowl game to go out on top.

It will tear him up if they do good next season and jimbo gets the credit for it, I think thats why he’s been so damn unreasonable with this whole thing.
UT_BKC said:

December 1st, 2009 at 11:15 am

A few years ago they were tied for the overall record and had about the same season record. I was hoping they’d end up matched up in a bowl game that would decide the record (both retired afterwards). Since then JoPa has held and ‘outlasted’ Bowden by having less mediocre (and some even decent) teams compared to Bowden. Not exactly the thrilling end I was hoping for.
Art Vandelay said:

December 1st, 2009 at 12:45 pm

srr50,

From a Sports PR perspective I think this is the equivalent of the Celebrities Die in Threes theory. Charlie Weiss, Tiger and now Bobby Bowden. Bet you wish you were still in the business??? (you may still be in the business, so apologies in advance)
RRR said:

December 1st, 2009 at 4:06 pm

If not for a few famous wide-right FG, Bowden has four national titles. In the late 80′s Miami was the only team that could beat him.
hodad said:

December 2nd, 2009 at 4:52 pm

JoePa didn’t really “outlast” Bowden. What actually happened is that Bowden had twelve wins stripped from him in the last couple seasons for their academic cheating scandal. FSU and Bowden appealed in hopes of getting those wins back so that Bowden had a chance of beating JoePa but they lost the appeal and PSU seems to be back on track for 10+ win seasons yearly while FSU can’t seem to get past seven.

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18 Responses

The General said:

Jackanape said:

t1climb1 said:

sizzlechest said:

dedfischer said:

Nordberg said:

srr50 said:

CrazyJoeDavola said:

Woody Bombay said:

Woody Bombay said:

Travis said:

UT_BKC said:

BatesHorn said:

Travis said:

UT_BKC said:

Art Vandelay said:

RRR said:

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