AJC > Sports > Blog > Archives > 2005 > November > 30
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Bowden needs to make changes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This is a big Saturday in the life and legacy of Florida State coach Bobby Bowden.
Bowden, who has won more games than any coach in Division I-A history, is facing the real possibility of losing for the fourth straight time in Saturday’s ACC championship game against Virginia Tech.
That’s bad enough at place where two losses in a season used to send the entire city of Tallahassee into mourning. But there is also a good chance that Florida State is going to get embarrassed for the third straight game when it takes on the Hokies.
The focus of the fans’ discontent has to fall somewhere and you can’t fire the coach whose name is on the field. So it is Jeff Bowden, the son and offensive coordinator, who is catching the heat.
The Florida State offense is, to put it gently, awful. The offensive line is so beat up right now that it probably wouldn’t matter if Norm Chow was calling the plays. But the fact is that since Mark Richt left and Jeff Bowden took over, the creativity has waned.
Despite his public persona as everyone’s favorite grandpa, Bobby Bowden is a very stubborn and competitive man. He is digging in his heels over Jeff Bowden. Playing calling, he has told those close to the program, is not the problem.
And who’s going to tell Bobby Bowden he needs to do something? The president of the University PLAYED for him, for gosh sakes. He’s forgotten more football than most administrators will ever know.
But at some point there has to be change just for the sake of change. There is always a need for new ideas and a new approach. Tommy Tuberville had to do it at Auburn and now the Tigers have won 22 of their last 24 games. Phillip Fulmer finally had to do it at Tennessee after a 5-6 season. Joe Paterno finally gave Galen Hall permission to open up the offense at Penn State and the Nittany Lions won a Big Ten championship.
Plan A is not working at Florida State. It hasn’t worked for a while. Bobby Bowden is the head coach and is paid $2 million a year to make tough decisions and to fix problems. A 7-4 Florida State team that is getting ready to be 7-5 constitutes a problem.
