"Bye Bye Bobby"

Bobby Bowden who turns 80 November 8th has come under a lot of pressure from fans and boosters of Florida State University the past few years. This year however it has become a bigger distraction for the FSU program. Bowden's future at the school came under scrutiny this week when the chairman of the university's trustees, Jim Smith, said the coach who once made the Seminoles a national powerhouse should leave after this season and that the Bowden-Fisher arrangement is not working. In 2007 FSU named Jimbo Fischer the “coach in waiting” to Bobby Bowden. I am not a big fan of teams doing this because situations like this one at FSU can end up turning out bad for the program. Bowden has said again and again that he has no plans of leaving after the year. Another are of concern is that after this season Jimbo Fisher has control of all coaching staff duties. This means that the current offensive coordinator can hire and fire other assistant coaches as hepleases. When have you ever heard of that before? After next season he might not want to leave, and that will create some sticky matters. When the 2010 season is complete if for whatever reason Bowden is still the head coach they will owe Jimbo Fisher 5 million dollars. Uh oh!

Many people say that Bowden has done a lot for that program and should leave on his own terms whenever he sees fit. I agree with this, people know about Florida State University because of what Bowden has done with that football program. I don’t agree with the fact though that he gets to leave when he wants too. Since 2005 FSU is 31-21, unacceptable in my book for what use to be a team ranked in the top 10 year in and year out. Bowden needs to step down at the end of year and let the program rebuild. Kids these days when they are being recruited by FSU don’t know how much longer Bowden will be there. I know they got a coach in waiting with Fisher and people think that won’t hurt recruiting. The bottom line is that kids go to a school based upon how they will fit in to the system. Kids are unsure if the system will stay the same when Bowden leaves. It also doesn’t help when you lose to South Florida, and Miami is on the rise along with Floridawinning national titles. Bottom line is FSU is 2-3 this year and will most likely drop to 2-4 after Georgia Tech beats them Saturday. They still have to play Florida which will be a loss and will probably lose one more regular season game. So at best I think FSU loses 6 regular season games. So FSU president T.K. Wetherell sit down Bowden at the end of the year and have one of these two conversations with him.

If you tell Bowden he can stay, just give him a headset next year that’s connected to one coach and tell Jimbo Fisher to listen to Bowden and pretend to agree with him to his face but go and do the total opposite when it comes time to game plan or make on the field adjustments. Let Bowden think he is still in charge because in all reality that’s all he wants. Just ignore Bowden and you will probably have a little more success and as long as that happens I don’t think Bowden will be too upset about not doing what he asked. On the other side of this, if you have a football program where this is even up for discussion it is time to cut Bowden loose. This is beginning to turn FSU football into a laughing matter. Your 80 years old Bowden go retire and spend time with your family. I am sure they have some good retirement homes in Florida and you can meet all kinds of new friends and eat the good food they have. I know you’re probably scared about whatyou’re going to do with your free time besides dying, because lets face it, that could happen any day at your age. Let the program move on, you’ve done your part Bowden. You put Florida State on the map. In closing here are some classic Bowden quotes.

"A better ending could not have been scripted. Of course, if we had won, that would have been better. "

"If somebody mistreats you, treat 'em good. That kills 'em."

"To have the kind of year you want to have, something has to happen that you can't explain why it happened. Something has to happen that you can't coach. "