To the numbnuts at FSU who are pushing for Bobby Bowden to step down and retire. Just have that Seminole guy on that horse that throws the spear before every home game run you over the next time you have a thought. I don’t know who you are, nor do I give two wipes of two-ply about what you think. You must understand one thing; you mean nothing to that university while Bowden means everything. The school would still be unknown, or at the best on par with Troy if he hadn’t shown up.
Prior to the post of head coach being filled by Bobby Bowden in 1976, there was practically nothing there for the university. Believe me when I say that nearly nobody wants to live in Tallahassee when there are some very nice places just to the west and on the beach. What was there was an all-female teaching school. Sure, they might’ve had males start attending before he got there, but it doesn’t matter. Bowden grew that little school into a football powerhouse, and by powerhouse I mean a true powerhouse for well more than a decade. He shifted the balance of power away from the Big 10 and other northern schools. The University of Florida wouldn’t have had the success it’s having now if it wasn’t for Bowden being too damn good at recruiting and they started getting table scraps at the swamp at the beginning.
We see the trickle-down effect still happening with Southern Florida and to a lesser degree Central Florida. Hell, you’ve seen the SEC grow around him because all schools around him are SEC while FSU is ACC now, but was independent for a long time. You’re even seeing little old Troy starting to pack a bite. This is the Bowden effect, and it is caused from a few attributes of his. He’s a nice good ole boy that knows how to run a football team. It’s no accident that he’s sitting atop the wins list with Joe Paterno.
By far the best way to grow a little school in Florida into a monster powerhouse of a football school is to head to the snowy north and tap into the powerhouses of the day. He had something all those schools didn’t, beautiful girls on campus, and I’m not talking “oh, she looks like in that coat” kind of beautiful. I’m talking tanned, fit, beautiful girls who love the outdoors and the beach. He’d bring the recruits down and almost never talk about football. He’d just walk them around campus to look at all the girls and tell them they dress like that year-round. When he began, the ratio was probably 20 girls per guy, a college football player’s dream. Let’s just say he didn’t have a problem collecting blue chip athletes.
Bowden is currently in his 34th season at FSU with a stupid record of 309-91-4 during the previous 33. In those years, he’s had 20 bowl wins, two national championships, and a perfect season. Since joining the ACC in 1991, he’s won the conference 12 of the 18 years. That’s not just winning games occasionally; that’s winning the entire conference 67% of the time.
Fuck the boosters for getting spoiled by possibly the best college football coach in history. I’m an Irish fan through and through, and it pained me when FSU won out over Notre Dame in the early 1990s. It also pains me to say this, but I can’t deny the truth. Bobby Bowden is a modern-day Knute Rockne and in many ways much better. Bringing a team from obscurity to the power that is the top can only be achieved by a select few, and every one of them has earned every right to decide when they want to leave. Rockne left under his own decision, and Bowden should too.
How old are the asses trying to force him out anyway? Do they even remember a day without Bowden coaching the Noles? They’re spoiled from his success, and he might very well be having a losing season this year. A single losing season doesn’t justify a firing or forced resignation, nor does a 3 year drought on conference championships. Every business ebbs and flows, and the fact that Bobby Bowden has successfully lead the Seminoles to a winning season, every fucking year, after his first year with irrational, hormonal kids is mind blowing.
So numbnuts, how about you do us all a favor and grab one of those spears and play a nice little game that’s called seppuku? I bet you’ll enjoy it thoroughly. Bowden has earned every right to decide when he rides his golf cart into the sunset and not be told what to do by some pencil-neck who couldn’t physically flip a paper bag over on a good day. He was continuously told that he could coach as long as he wanted to for a good fucking reason. The entire success of the university has ridden on his shoulders for decades. The money from his successful football program grew the school and allowed opportunities to students otherwise unavailable. Fuck it, just go slit your wrists and stop badgering people.