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Monday, Dec. 03, 2007

Timing is right for Bowden's farewell

Whether you admire him or hate his dad-gum guts, it's hard to dispute that Florida State head football coach Bobby Bowden has made a lasting impact throughout his career, both on and off the field.

With two national championships, an induction into the College Football Hall of Fame and 373 wins, Bowden has done pretty much everything that there is to do as a college football coach.

That's why there would be no shame if Bowden stepped away from coaching and do something that he is as good at as he has been at coaching - preaching from a church pulpit.

Judging from the Seminoles' results the past few years, now may be as good a time as any for the legendary coach to slip away from the sidelines.

Although the Seminoles did upset Boston College earlier this season, the win has turned out to be an aberration of Florida State's big-game performances. The Seminoles are 7-5, having lost in ACC play to Clemson, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and Miami. Perhaps more stinging is Saturday's 45-12 humbling loss to Florida, the fourth loss in a row to the Gators.

But Bowden's swoon goes further than just this season. From 1987-2000, Florida State won at least 10 games each season and finished each year ranked no lower than fifth in the rankings.

Since 2000, however, Florida State has put together just one 10-win season with its best postseason ranking being 15th. Coincidentally, long-time assistant coaches Chuck Amato, Mark Richt and Dave Van Halanger were gone to other jobs by the start of the 2001 season.

Growing up in Valdosta, I made it down to Tallahassee from time to time to see the Seminoles during their run in the 1990s. Florida State teams at that time just had a swagger about them that could intimidate some teams before they even set foot on the field at Doak Campbell Stadium.

All that is gone now.

Florida State, a school formerly known as the Florida State College for Women, now has a football team producing results that would be expected of weaklings playing against the big, bad leaders of the ACC.

Instead of looking forward to a bowl game in Tempe, Ariz., Miami or New Orleans, the Seminoles' best prospects for a bowl appear to be in either Nashville, Tenn., or Charlotte, N.C.

Nothing says have a nice and safe holiday quite like a cold and blustery day in North Carolina or Tennessee in late December.

Bowden can be given credit for trying alleviate the program's suffering before this season by hiring Jimbo Fisher to run the offense, Rick Trickett on the offensive line and Amato on the defense.

Those hires, however, have done little to turn things around in Tallahassee. Amato can do all the chest-bumping and wear all the red shoes and cool shades he wants, but those things don't change the fact that more needs to be done at FSU than merely bringing in a few new assistant coaches.

As hard as it would be for him to do, Bowden needs to hand over the reins of the Florida State program to someone else before his career is tarnished even more than it has been the past few years.