OT: does Bobby Bowden actually, you know, coach?
Watching the game tonight, it was amazing to see Bowden. He doesn't wear the headset but beyond that, he seems like a complete spectator for every decision. Every late game huddle is run by the coordinators, often you would see Bowden ambling up to the outskirts of the huddle like he was just trying to hear what was going on. I'm ok with an executive, let your coaches coach strategy, but geez, I would think the HC should actually be making decisions as to what your team is going to do. Especially considering their clock management at game's end was very poor. Anyway, great game, and feel bad for the kid who dropped the ball.
September 8th, 2009 at 12:07 AM ^
Apparently no one was coaching when FSU's clock management was terrible in the last minute of the game.
September 8th, 2009 at 8:06 AM ^
I agree with that sentiment. I have no idea how FSU lost that game having the ball at like the 2 yd-line with 44 seconds left and a timeout. No excuse for that. They ran the clock about 22 seconds I believe, down to 22 seconds, then had to pass on all the following plays. If they take a TO at 44, or even just run an HB dive quickly, they probably get in and win. Terrible clock management. Bowden really needs to tie-up recruiting and get the hell outta there. Then again, I'm ok with FSU being mediocre, I just don't want Miami back in prominence b/c it seems a lot of guys we like from Florida seem to be looking at Miami.
September 8th, 2009 at 8:19 AM ^
I almost think coaches should have a designed "clock guy" (maybe a grad assistant?) to help them make these decisions, seeing how they continually screw them up. Coaches have a phobia of burning that final timeout, overlooking the fact that really, when you get into the final minute of the game, 20 lost seconds is probably worth more than a timeout.
September 8th, 2009 at 12:10 AM ^
No he doesn't coach. No headset and all he does is stand there kissing his own nat'l championship ring.
September 8th, 2009 at 12:14 AM ^
Joe Pa doesn't wear a headset on the sidelines either. Get to a certain age and it's no longer mandatory. Does the old man who coaches FAU wear one? I don't think so.
September 8th, 2009 at 12:20 AM ^
Coach Bill Snyder at Kansas State is old and he wears one. He is also as much of a legend to his program as the other two are to theirs.
September 8th, 2009 at 12:42 AM ^
A coaching headset age limit - haha!
I think Schnellenberger (FAU's coach) coaches in the style of his mentor Bear Bryant, who also did not wear a headset. Bryant seemed to feel that he WAS the CEO as head coach, and left the hands-on details to his coordinators (also better to avoid hearing about detailed booster or athlete issues you might want plausible deniability on).
JoePa and Bobbah Bauwdin are just long in the tooth, methinks.
September 8th, 2009 at 12:13 AM ^
He's just like JoePa. You sorta owe it to the one that took the program to the top to go out on his own terms, as long as he keeps the program competitive. FSU was the USC of the 90s. And #2 behind Miami in Miami's glory days.
September 8th, 2009 at 12:16 AM ^
Got to admit, its a great gig. He doesnt have to do much, gets payed millions of dollars, and gets to see 12/13 games a year from the best seat in the house.
September 8th, 2009 at 12:18 AM ^
Last year there was a story about how BB doesn't even know the names of all his players anymore. He just calls them by number. He leaves the running of the team to Jimbo (gotta love that first name) Fisher. I guess he just has veto power over whatever he wants, but doesn't deal in the actual details anymore.
September 8th, 2009 at 12:19 AM ^
has final say in all game situations. He called to go for it on the 4th down in the first half and and was talking with Fisher about what play to run on the last play of the game.
September 8th, 2009 at 12:33 AM ^
When he was telling Fisher what play he wanted, didn't it look like he was gesticulating it in thin air with his hands, as though he couldn't just tell him the name of the play? This would mean a) the head coach doesn't know the playbook anymore and b) opposing teams should really watch the FSU sideline for clues.
September 8th, 2009 at 12:38 AM ^
didn't see that, but oh my lord, I am so glad michigan has never had a coach so intent on continuing that they will stay in charge even when they don't even know the plays.
September 8th, 2009 at 2:02 AM ^
Its funny that if he were alive, Bo would actually be the same age as Bowden and 3 years YOUNGER than Paterno....
Imagine if Bo hadnt had the heart troubles and could still be coaching.
I remember one time, in an interview around 2000...Bo said that he wished he hadnt quit coaching so early at age 60 (60 seems so young now)... He pointed out that Jo Pa was still out there doing it...
September 8th, 2009 at 8:46 AM ^
I can't remember when it was repealed, but Michigan lost Ray Fisher, one of it's greatest coaches, to a forced retirement at age 70 in 1958 due to mandatory retirement. The guy was in the middle of a string of 5 straight seasons with a record above .600, and 18 straight winning seasons (he only had 2 losing seasons in 38 years as head coach), but because of the mandatory retirement rule, he was forced out because the university wouldn't keep anyone past the age of 70.
I don't think it would have necessarily affected Bo, as I believe they repealed the rule while Bo was head coach, but it was pretty interesting to find a school would release their coach at the arbitrary age limit.
September 8th, 2009 at 1:59 AM ^
"Roll that quarterback out...like this..."...
and they did it, almost worked
September 8th, 2009 at 2:01 AM ^
i saw that. Not sure what to take of it, but he was definatly telling Jimbo wat he wanted to see.
September 8th, 2009 at 10:00 AM ^
Nice. I saw that too. It looked like he was asking Fisher whether that one fella should stop at the fire hydrant or circle back around the Corvair. If we have any MGoLipReaders I would love for them to take a look at it.
September 8th, 2009 at 12:21 AM ^
He's just a figure head. If you can't score with that many chances than you don't deserve to win.
September 8th, 2009 at 12:38 AM ^
but he does a great job of flashing his national championship ring towards the camera.
September 8th, 2009 at 1:29 AM ^
I think the young kid standing by his side all game was wearing the headset for him.
September 8th, 2009 at 1:53 AM ^
As someone said above, Florida State football doesn't exist without Bobby Bowden. Same with JoePa and Penn State. They have coached (and won) for decades without major violations and seem like pretty cool people when you listen to them in interviews. And they will not be around much longer. They coach. Heck, they almost invented coaching given how long they have been around and they taught many of the assistant coaches who work for them much of what they know. We need more coaches like Bobby Bowden.
September 8th, 2009 at 2:04 AM ^
No we don't. JoePa and Bowden are examples of people who have no idea when to let go. They're not coaching anymore, they're not recruiting, they're just standing there because they don't know what else to do with themselves, retiring would be testing their own mortality. They're terrified of being Bear Bryant, retire from coaching and drop dead literally four weeks later... in a way, they figure as long as they coach they're immortal. Of course, they fail to consider what's going to happen when they pull a Bo and die before the biggest game of the season. How is Penn State going to win a Rose Bowl with that on their minds? How is FSU going to compete in the ACC Championship Game after that?
Bo had the chance to stay on while Gary Moeller ran the team and he laughed it off. It would have just been an ego trip and he wasn't prepared to do that. I'd suggest all coaches follow his model.
Now, of course, as people live longer the limits of when you should retire change. People don't die in their 60's very often anymore. If someone wanted to coach until they turned 70, I'd have a hard time faulting them. But into their 80's? That's absurd.
September 8th, 2009 at 3:14 AM ^
I do not disagree that 80+ seems absurd. But for a HC in division one, so does 70 and 60.
My original point was that we (or their fans) need to tread lightly on this one. They are more than just interchangeable coaches in a long line to those programs.
I will add one other point. About ten years ago, Paterno looked like the game had passed him by. Bowden was half a dozen or so games ahead in the all-time and everyone was writing JoePa's obituary. Last year, PSU beat OSU, won the Big Ten and went to the Rose Bowl. This year, PSU is the favorite to again win the conference and, before any vacated games, JoePa is two up on Bowden. Whether JoePa is coaching day-to-day or not is irrelevant. If he isn't, he has put together one heck of a team to get things done.
Fans of PSU and FSU should be very careful what they wish for. Some day (not too far in the future) both JoePa and Bobby Bowden will be gone. ND has not been the same since Lou Holtz was pushed out and there is no guarantee that whoever replaces Paterno and Bowden will do any better then these two legends are doing right now. That is just my opinion.
September 8th, 2009 at 8:41 AM ^
If you think Paterno doesn't recruit, you must not have the Big Ten Network in London! Those of us in the Big Ten footprint know well the wiles of Joe Paterno.
September 8th, 2009 at 7:05 AM ^
Brodie's right - we really don't need more coaches like Bowden. I'd be thoroughly and completely embarrassed if Michigan or UVA ran their football program the way Bowden has over the years. Semi-professionals, thugs, criminals, and cheaters - that's what's been the defining characteristic of Florida State football, IME. Bowden's coaching style today is little more than an extension of the way he's handled off-field affairs for the last 30 years.
September 8th, 2009 at 12:01 PM ^
Bowden's program has gone on probation twice under his watch, the second time resulting in two seasons being vacated. Just because he's old and has a soothing voice doesn't mean he's a man of great integrity.
September 8th, 2009 at 6:34 AM ^
For his part, Bobby mostly just sits there and talks about streets in Tallahassee.
September 8th, 2009 at 8:40 AM ^
Bobby Bowden doesn't so much coach as he 'rules.' He doesn't call plays, he doesn't make the minute decisions, he doesn't outwit his adversaries. What he does is delegate. He's the diplomatic leader, the head of state, the commander-in-chief, but for the most part just kinda hangs back until he feels he needs to step in and make a decision himself. Granted, we don't see what goes on during the week and before the team takes the field, but he's extremely hands-off with his staff during the course of the game.
True story: On the day of THE BRAYLON OT GAME in East Lansing, I was actually in Byrd Stadium to see the Seminoles visit the Terps. In fact, we scored face-value tickets in the FSU visitors section and had to sit all game through the tomahawk chop (no lie-- 28 times IN THE SECOND QUARTER ALONE).
Anyway, I marvelled during that game how far away Bobby was from the cluster of decision-makers on the Florida State sideline. It'd be like, 3rd and 3 in the red zone and he'd be standing thirty yards away down the sideline with the best seat in the house. Sippin on a Gatorade under his straw hat. NO grabbing helmets and yelling-- NO clipboards or headsets or telephones, despite things coming undone. He literally STOOD THERE and watched the game.
Epilogue: Florida State did indeed get upset by Maryland that day, and sometime in the third quarter I found a fellow Michigan fan several rows away from me-- he let me know that we were decidedly losing to Sparty. So with that on my brain, I tried to enjoy the rest of the game as best I could-- and I literally remember saying "well, Chad's a young QB, we can't expect everything, blah blah" as we slowly made our way back to the car. It was then, in the car while driving back home, that I got to listen as the Braylon magic happened-- UNBELIEVABLE. It was almost midnight when I finally got back home, and I literally fired up the VCR and watched the game in its entirety. The #1 jersey never looked so good. Great memories.
September 8th, 2009 at 11:28 AM ^
A lot of head coaches don't coach. They delegate. Head coaches are often CEOs of their teams. They make sure their assistants are doing their jobs, and the assistants make sure their players are doing their jobs.
Bobby Bowden's value to the program isn't in his knowledge of X's and O's. It's in his ability to run the program, maintain discipline (or try, anyway), give a face to the university, hire good assistants, recruit, etc.