+7
Jim Smith, the chair of the Florida State's Board of Trustees, says that after nearly a decade of decline, this needs to be the last season for Bobby Bowden.
It looks like for now, Florida State won’t ask Bobby Bowden to step down as coach this season:
A succession plan for coach-in-waiting Jimbo Fisher to assume greater responsibility before next season has been discussed, though, according to the source.
If Bowden stays for the 2010 season, the source said, Florida State officials want a plan in place in which Fisher would have control over the Seminoles’ football operations — for example, recruiting, coaching and practice.
Former Seminole quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Chris Weinke doesn’t want the relationship between Bobby Bowden and Florida State to end ugly:
“That’s my worst nightmare. He doesn’t deserve it to end ugly. I understand [the fans] frustration, but at some point you have to take a step back and look what this individual guy has done for the university. That’s the way I feel, and I am going to always feel, and nobody is going to change my mind. He doesn’t deserve it to end ugly — it’s not right.”
Urban Meyer is no surprise in being among Bobby Bowden’s supporters: he has never lost a game to Bowden since arriving at Florida, so he should support the man’s survival. Neither is Deion Sanders, though in the case of people rallying to Bowden, it is strictly “round up the usual suspects” at this point.
The very scenario Alligator Army predicted below? If you care to see it illustrated, LSUFreek has that taken care of for you like the considerate sports satirist he is.
The coup that Smith is trying to pull off will be epic in scope and probably finish with drunk frat boys pulling down Bowden’s statue and the ACC having to send in representatives to establish a green zone around FSU’s athletic facilities. Putting Fisher into power will not solve FSU’s problems because this one trustee will have ultimate power. Also, Fisher sucks too. The problem with FSU is the same problem Notre Dame and Nebraska have had recently. They think since they have a history of success, they are owed success. Florida thought this too and hired Ron Zook. It took hiring outside the family and cleaning up the program for Urban Meyer to be successful. FSU appointing Fisher will just be a new puppet to attach to the strings. After he fails, there will be another coup and we will laugh, imagining FSU as a third-world country run by people who always think they are right, even in the face of another loss to an in-state rival.
“I’m disappointed in Jim Smith. I’m disappointed in some of the other supposedly money people they need to stay out of the coaching part. But that’s my opinion. I’m just the coach’s wife. And naturally I’m supportive of him. I’ve been with him for many, many years.”
Imagine someone’s spouse being disturbed by the suggestion someone else could do their job better than they could. Shocking, really. According to Joe Schad of ESPN, the going-on behind the scenes involves straightening out contractual wrinkles with Jimbo Fisher, including expanding Fisher’s authority to hire and fire coaches as well as solidifying his salary once he takes over for Bowden. If you doubted Bowden was nothing but a pure figurehead at this point, you will have no reason to believe otherwise after the new contract negotiations are complete. From the way it sounds, Fisher is the head coach there next season in practice and possibly title, with Bowden serving as a kind of glorified mascot for the team.
Bobby Bowden has been the coach of Florida State since 1976. He has over 360 career wins. The man even has a statue outside of FSU’s Doak Campbell Stadium. But now it is clear his better days are behind him.
National titles and top-ranked recruiting classes have been replaced in Tallahassee with dysfunction and incompetence. Bowden’s “Decade of Decline” has resulted in an upset fan base, angry donors, rumors of coaches fighting each other, players and coaches seen arguing on the sidelines at the recent Boston College game, inane quotes, and a recent 4-6 record the last 10 games against FBS teams. And those are just some of the transgressions highlighted in the impassioned post at Tomahawk Nation, where news of Jim Smith’s “enough is enough” statement is being met with relief, and hope that change is soon to come.
It started eight years ago with Bobby Bowden hiring friends over the most qualified available coaches. It cast doubt in the mind’s of Florida State fans as Bowden strong-armed the ’Nole’s administration to skirt state nepotism laws and have his son hired as offensive coordinator.. It continued with poor recruiting evaluations and lazy, outdated recruiting practices. It snowballed with a general decline in passion for coaching and the corresponding drop in effort and accountability. A head coach’s public disdain for his university and its fans after Florida State finally forced out maligned recruiting coordinator Jeff Bowden didn’t help matters. Never accepting or even publicly acknowledging Offensive Coordinator’s Jimbo Fisher’s Head Coach in waiting (HCiW) succession plan, and allowing other lame duck but loyal assistants to undermine the future of the program set the Noles back too. Call it the “Nepotism Era” or if you prefer, the “Lost Decade.” But Florida State University Board of Trustee’s Chairman Jim Smith, one of the original six to bring Bowden to Florida State in 1976, is calling for its end.
But perhaps the clearest sign that it is time for a change at Florida State: Bowden has lost the team, to the point that even some of the players no longer “see him as the leader,” with one even saying, “You get used to it. He’s like a grandpa. You know you shouldn’t disrespect him.”
The gradual decline of Florida State under Bobby Bowden has hit some sort of crux, or at the very least has reached a new and critical stage of intensity. Jim Smith, the chair of the university’s Board of Trustees, has said publicly that "enough is enough," and this should be the final year of Bowden's tenure.
"But I think the record will show that the Seminole Nation has been more than patient. We have been in a decline not for a year or two or three but I think we’re coming up on seven or eight. I think enough is enough."
The issue has come to a head following FSU's 28-21 loss to Boston College, a game featuring red-zone fizzling by the FSU offense, long bombs allowed to a Boston College team that had less than a 100 yards total against Clemson, and sideline meltdowns between players and coaches.
One message board rumor even had coach-in-waiting Jimbo Fisher and longtime assistant Chuck Amato fighting over who was going to give the pregame speech. A rumor like that is instructive: even if untrue, the mere fact of its plausibility is testament to the deep well of dysfunction the Seminole football program has been thrown down by Bobby Bowden.
FSU President T.K. Wetherell Speaks on Bowden
Florida State president T.K. Wetherell released a statement this morning concerning Bobby Bowden’s future:
Check out the entire statement over at SBN’s Tomahawk Nation. And while the skepticism may be mounting in Tallahassee, it certainly bodes well for Bowden that he’s got a cozy relationship with Wetherell to lean on as he tries to thwart his critics.
As long as he’s got the support of the most powerful man in the university, Bowden’s not going anywhere, and Florida State will go 8-4 until he’s 90 years old. Yay!
Oct 07 10:44a by Andrew Sharp - 0 comments