When do you tell Dad it’s time to move out of the house? How do you break it to him that there’s a home down the road with a comfy seat, just like the one he has been sitting in too long?
It’s no longer fun cleaning up after him. It’s too sad to explain it to friends and neighbors. The house is a disaster, the paint is peeling and people are starting to talk.
At Florida State, talk is getting ugly. The Seminoles’ 21st century dive has plunged this 1993 and 1999 national champions into the depths of the Atlantic Coast Conference Atlantic.
The president of Seminole Boosters Inc.’s Palm Beach chapter asked FSU president T.K. Wetherell to make Bobby Bowden, the winningest coach in Division I-A history, resign. Message boards are bleeding red and not garnet (“Honestly, what would it take to get Petrino or Rodriguez here?”). Even callers are grilling Bowden on his call-in show.
“Florida is a very unforgiving state when it comes to winning or losing,” Charlie Barnes, president of Seminole Boosters Inc., said Wednesday from Tallahassee, Fla. “There are 15 million people, all living outdoors, all fast and all making money. We’re a fast-moving state with high expectations in everything.”
Don’t expect Bowden to leave. Not now. Not at season’s end. Wetherell isn’t your average president. He played for Bowden. In fact, Wetherell still holds a school record with a 100-yard kickoff return. He is steadfastly behind Bowden and says it every day.
However, the smart money in Florida is Wetherell and athletic director Dave Hart will force Bowden to make changes on his offensive staff, primarily with his embattled son Jeff, the offensive coordinator.
“I don’t think he’d get half the criticism if his name ain’t Bowden,” Bowden said at his weekly media luncheon Monday. “How can I have nine coaches and it’s always one guy’s fault?”
Well, it isn’t. There’s plenty to blame for the Seminoles’ free-fall, which is uglier than a plucked mallard falling toward a mud bog.
FSU, favored to win the ACC and picked for the top 10 in some preseason polls, is 2-3 and in last place. It’s 4-3 overall for the first time since 1978 and has lost two conference home games for the first time.
The same school that finished in the top four every year from 1987-1999 is unranked and in danger of finishing out of the poll for the first time since 1983. It hasn’t finished in the top 10 in six years.
Its 348.2-yard average, 57th out of 119 teams, marks its third consecutive season averaging less than 380 yards, the first time that has happened since 1979-81.
Fans and the media are carving up the Seminoles like a fall turkey. The Orlando Sentinel’s columnist Mike Bianchi jokingly suggested the Seminole Tribe of Florida, which has terrific relations with FSU, is even embarrassed, telling Wetherell, “Hey, you ever think about changing your name to the Cherokees?”
Where’s the blame? The popular paddling boy is Jeff Bowden, the son whose ascent to offensive coordinator in 2001 coincided with the arrival of freshman quarterback Chris Rix, whose progress chart flatlined for four years.
However, the blame is finding its way to where the buck always stopped: his dad. Wanting more of a balanced attack, Bobby occasionally takes over play calling and uses more of an I-formation rather than the spread his son prefers. The Seminoles are 95th nationally in rushing (102.3), right behind Florida Atlantic.
Through it all, Bobby seems oblivious to the criticism. The day after Saturday’s 24-19 home loss to Boston College, Bowden said, “I know this sounds crazy, but I feel real good about our program right now.” Then again, this came one day after he responded to a question about an FSU roughing-the-kicker penalty with, “I don’t even know if we were trying to block the punt.”
Even two time zones away, it’s sad. He appears drowning in denial. On Wednesday’s ACC conference call, he said: “The advantage of coaching as long as I have is I’ve been through this before. I’ve coached 54 years and I haven’t had 54 winning seasons. But it’s like this: A writer told me fans are upset. I said, ‘Who’s upset?’ He said, ‘Fans.’ ‘Well, name one.’ He named a guy. I said, ‘Name two.’ He couldn’t name another one. There are 300 million Americans, and one guy’s mad at me.”
FSU visits Maryland on Saturday and also has lose-able games against Virginia, No. 24 Wake Forest and No. 9 Florida. Barring a turnaround, this winter will get ugly. Jeff Bowden should be reassigned and running backs coach Billy Sexton and quarterbacks coach Daryl Dickey probably aren’t shopping for beachfront property, either.
What of Bobby? This is hurting him more than he shows. Barnes has been friends with him ever since they arrived in Tallahassee 30 years ago. Barnes knows about his street brawler past as a youth.
“He’s very much like a boxer rather than a team player,” Barnes said. “They win or lose as a team. But a boxer knows when he doesn’t win, it’s something he didn’t have inside.”
Davis to North Carolina?
Butch Davis is reportedly the top candidate at North Carolina, which fired John Bunting on Sunday. Davis, who led Miami to three Big East titles and has been out of coaching since resigning from the Cleveland Browns in 2004, has said he’s interested.
However, he also reportedly told friends he wants to see if the Alabama job opens even though Mike Shula is in no apparent danger of losing his job at 5-3. Also, Davis is considered a top candidate to return to Miami if Larry Coker is fired.
The other four candidates at Carolina, according to the Chapel Hill (N.C.) News, are LSU offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher, Navy coach Paul Johnson, Tulsa coach Steve Kragthorpe and West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez.
North Carolina, 1-6 and 17-37 in Bunting’s last four-plus years, is willing to jump the salary from Bunting’s $858,600 to $2 million.
Hokies’ victory helps Boise State
Virginia Tech’s 24-7 upset of Clemson on Thursday puts Boise State one step closer to a coveted BCS bowl. The Western Athletic Conference leader, ranked 15th in the BCS, needs to finish in the top 12 – or in the top 16 and ahead of one of the six BCS conference champions – to qualify for one of the five $14 million BCS bowls.
Clemson (7-2, 4-2 Atlantic Coast Conference), was the lowest-ranked leader of a BCS conference, at No. 12. The next highest-ranked ACC team is No. 17 Boston College. Expect Clemson to drop. Boise State (8-0, 4-0) hosts Fresno State (1-6, 1-2) on Wednesday.
“I still think I’m confident that a 12-0 Boise State will finish in the top 12,” WAC commissioner Karl Benson said Thursday night.
Staff writer John Henderson can be reached at 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
STICKING TO HIS STORY
FREEMAN REMAINS PRINCE CHARMING
Ron Prince is on the verge of lifting Kansas State to a bowl game in his first year but is insisting on force-feeding prize true freshman recruit Josh Freeman to the Big 12 wolves. The player whose signing and Prince’s infatuation helped convince three quarterbacks to transfer is really struggling.
He’s 52-of-128 (41 percent) for 121 yards a game with zero touchdowns and – gulp! – eight interceptions. Freeman is not even close to the top 100 passers in the country.
Texas A&M sophomore Stephen McGee, who redshirted in 2004, said something curious when he told The Kansas City Star: “Every freshman thinks he’s ready. I thought I was ready, but now I know it was huge waiting and learning the system, getting in reps, having the time to prepare.”
Kansas State (4-4, 1-3 Big 12) has winnable games with Iowa State at home and road games at Colorado and Kansas. It might behoove Prince to play Dylan Meier, the less-
dynamic but steadier senior who threw only one interception in losses to Louisville and Baylor before getting benched.
But Prince won’t budge, saying of Freeman: “I think he’s responded to it beautifully. He’s a very mature, poised kid, great attitude, tough. He’s our starter, and I’m pleased with that.”
