In a recent thread, we once again saw a Bobby Bowden loyalist overreacting to the criticisms leveled by TN towards the latter part of Coach Bowden's career.  I take the view that Bud and Co. have simply been letting people know when the Emperor was out without his clothes.  It is not belittling the man's entire career to point out legitimate problems that were the result of Bobby's decisions and leadership style.  Bobby was a "CEO" coach, hence the tower for example.  That is fine, I can respect that.  The problem is, if that is the type of system that you run, then the things that you are accountable for consist of hiring decisions, firing decision, and other big picture stuff.  If you want to run the team from the tower, you better be willing to ride herd on the coaches you observe from on high and make sure they are producing the results you want.

Anyway, to the title of this post.  Scheduling and strength of schedule seem to have hit a nerve with some of the old timers.  I remember going to some games in the early 80's against some real patsies.  So, I though I would look back and jog my memory.  I remember 1981 as well as anyone.  This is the root of the Road Warrior reputation.  Time and again, the argument against scheduling soft OOC except for the game against Florida brings out the cries of blasphemy.  The old school guys want to return to the "glory days" when we would play anyone anywhere.  

How did FSU schedule in the 80's and 90's?  Lets look shall we?

In 1983, FSU played :

4-7 LSU

4-7 Tulane (FSU lost, but was later awarded a win by forfeit when Tulane played an ineligible player)

4-6-1 Cincinnati

3-8 Louisville

6-4-1 Az State

5-6 South Carolina

Went 1-3 against top 25 teams

1984 FSU schedule included:

2-9 East Carolina

5-6 Kansas

5-5-1 Memphis St.

3-8 Tulane

5-6 Az State

6-5 Temple

6-5 UT Chattanooga

Went 1-3 against top 25 teams

1985 FSU faced:

1-10 Tulane

2-7-2 Memphis St.

5-6 UNC

5-6 South Carolina

4-6-1 Western Carolina

6-5 Tulsa

Went 2-3 against top 25 teams

1986 FSU challenged:

4-7 Tulane

3-8 Wichita St.

3-8 Louisville

3-6-2 South Carolina

6-5 Southern Miss

6-5 Florida (Lost)

Went 0-3 against top 25 teams

1987 FSU’s 11-1 Seminoles included wins over

5-6 East Carolina

5-5-1 Memphis State

3-7-1 Louisville

6-4-1 Tex Tech

6-5 Southern Miss

6-6 Tulane

6-6 Florida

7-4 Furman (included as soft because of the teams it beat for those 7 wins.)

1988:  FSU as an independent went 11-1 again,

Beating the likes of

5-6 Tulane

3-8 East Carolina

4-7 La. Tech

3-8 Va. Tech

Only played 4 road games

1989:

10-2 season for the Noles with victories over:

5-6 Southern Miss

4-7 La State

4-8 Tulane

2-9 Memphis State

6-4-1 Va Tech

6-4-1 South Carolina

They also played 6 home games that year, and a neutral site game in Jax.

1990 included some strong teams, but also:

5-6 East Carolina

4-7 Tulane

5-6 La State

1-10 Cincinatti

4-6-1 Memphis State

12-3 Ga Southern, (lower div. school)

Once again, 6 home games and a neutral site game in Orlando

To be honest, I got tired of looking at all the schedule table and transcribing them.  The point is that after 1981, we scheduled more home games than away games, we kept an open date prior to the game against UF, and we played a lot of teams with weak records.  I didn't have time to dig into every team we played, but many of the teams we faced with winning records racked up wins against weak competition.  Yes we played some strong teams, several in fact each year.  We were also an independent and needed to do this to make up for a lack of conference play.  There were a lot of wins against 7-4 teams or 8-5 teams that equate to our current conference schedule against teams like Clemson, NC, GT, etc.

1981 created a myth, it is the exception to the rule.  schedule info courtesy of www.nolefan.org

I didn't want to hijack another thread, but some of the comments I keep reading about USF have me worried.  It seems that there are a lot of FSU fans that think USF is just a flash in the pan.  I think we underestimate them at our peril.  I will throw some points out for discussion with my view and ya'll have fun with this if you care. 

One of the reasons that this is an issue for me is that I grew up in Tampa.  I have a lot of family and friends that graduated from USF and are now season ticket holders for the Bulls games.  They are having a blast at the games.  They don't have NC expectations for a program that isn't even winning its conference.  It is easy to be a Bulls fan if you live there and a lot of USF grads stay in Tampa. 

Some folks on TN argue that USF has a much smaller fan base, and that it is a fickle fan base.  I think this misses the point.  Tampa is a big city that acts like a small town in many ways.  There are still a lot of areas around Tampa that are traditionally southern.  This makes them more supportive of college football than other metropolitan communities.  While the fan base may be smaller, it is much more concentrated.  I doubt USF would travel well yet, but it doesn't take as much effort to support a team that plays just down the street.  You can go to the game without making a long trip that takes up the entire weekend.  You can get a group together from your work or church to go to the game, bringing in more casual fans that wouldn't make a 4 hour drive or spend a weekend out of town.

USF doesn't need as much support from traditional boosters.  They can get corporate money that isn't tied to some emotional commitment that would be quit giving because the school mistreated a legend.  They are in the middle of a $600 million fundraising campaign and are upgrading their athletic facilities.  http://tampabay.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2009/10/26/story2.html?b=1256529600^2318991#

FSU has Tennessee Street and is a long way from the beach.  USF has Ybor City and other places to party and it is not far to the beaches.  I personally like the college town feel, but there have to be a lot of recruits that don't care about that as much.  

I know that many USF supporters want a stadium on campus, but I think it is a selling point to be playing on an NFL field.  USF and Raymond James stadium have been consistently improving the way they adapt the stadium for games.  They do a better job of getting the Bucs stuff covered up and are trying to give it a real USF feel.  Heck, a couple of years ago, they wouldn't paint the field with the Bulls logo, but now they do.  They don't have to spend money on a facility they only use a few times a year.

Another advantage for USF is the ability to travel in and out of Tampa.  Not only do you have the metro Tampa area, you are less than 2.5 hours from Orlando, Sarasota, Fort Myers, Lakeland, and all the growth to the north of Hillsborough County.  With Tampa's airport, it is cheaper for fans and students to fly in and out for games, you can probably find a hotel cheaper because the fans won't be taking up every room in town.  Good luck with that in Tally.

Well, I have to cut this short because I'm typing this at work.  My main perception of USF is that they have a lot to build on and are positioned better than just about any school to take it to the next level with just a little more effort.  I don't believe that they will surpass the Noles, but then again, FSU cannot rest on it's laurels.  It would be very foolish to simply dismiss USF because they are not a tradition rich program with generations of boosters.  The biggest threat is the one you don't see coming, so we shouldn't have blinders on.

I will miss Bobby Bowden.  I respect the man for many things he has done and for the success he brought to Florida State University.  I do believe that he came into a situation that was ripe for success, luck is usually when preparation meets opportunity, and Bobby was in the right place at the right time with the right approach. 

As I have read the comments section of each post the last few days, I keep coming back to the people that claim Jimbo will fail, or that TN will not be happy unless they can begin tearing Jimbo's program apart.  That is hogwash.  The best thing about Jimbo taking over is that he is not a legend.  He can be held accountable without the blinders of sentimentality and history.  Jimbo will not be able to get away with the same things that Bobby did.   No one expects Jimbo to accomplish 14 straight seasons in the top 5.  No one expects Jimbo to have the longevity that Bobby did.

All that TN has asked for time and again is for a coach that does not rest on his laurels and that works hard to make the program a success.  The thing that has frustrated so many of us in the last 9 years is that we have made all these mistakes specifically out of respect for Bobby.  The reason the Bowdens are so pissed is because we have been enablers as a program.  While Coach Bowden may be an egomaniac, which all successful coaches are at this level, I don't believe that he felt this entitled until the second half of his career.  When you live in an echo chamber where you can get your way on any issue, it seems unfair when you suddenly have to play by the rules again.  It pisses me off when people say that Bobby should be allowed to go out on his own terms.  What terms would those be?  Bobby has been dictating the terms for the last decade.  He was 70 in 1999.  Is it too much to ask that he be a bit more specific about his agenda.  How about just 5 years ago when he was 75?  The program was showing signs of decline then.  His basic approach has been, "I'll coach until I die, then it won't matter what shape the program is in, because I'll be gone".  Sure, he gave sound bites about how he wouldn't want to coach if they started losing, but we all knew he didn't mean it.  Look back over the last 10 years, he has not given us any reason to expect this to go down differently.

Yes, FSU has been unfair to Bobby Bowden.  FSU was unfair to give in to this man each step of the way.  FSU was unfair to let the man become more important than the school and the football program.  FSU was unfair to allow Bobby Bowden to be compensated for past performance rather than for the state of the program currently.  FSU was unfair to memorialize him before the end of his career to the level they have. 

It is not unfair to return to having high standards and expecting had work from a head coach and his staff at a major college football program.  It is not unfair to try to work things out behind the scenes for years until you have no choice but to go public.

Jimbo will not be Bobby Bowden.  Thank God!  Even if Jimbo fails miserably, I will always respect him for breaking this cycle of disfunction and freeing the program to judge the Head Coach on results rather than on reputation.  I would rather see several head coaches in the next 10 years than see us let the program spiral downward for a decade based on annual promises that we are a year away.  Even if Jimbo is not the guy, FSU has an opportunity to turn things around.  Jimbo is the first step in that direction.  I wish that Bobby had been the first step, but he was given every opportunity to be the guy.  Between circumstances like Micky's tragedy, where Bobby could have let the man go deal with his family and brought in a dynamic young DC, to telling TK to shut up about the online course and minimize the impact, Bobby could have steered the ship better.

Yes, with Bobby retiring, FSU will be just like every other program in the country (except Penn State).  Good.  It wasn't going to last forever no matter how hard you wished for it.  I'm not saying it is better, it is just the reality of the situation.  There are only so many ways this could have ended, and Bobby made it perfectly clear that this would be the route he would take if he didn't die.  It is no one's fault but Bowden's that it came to this.  

I've been thinking a lot lately about how we got into such a mess.  Now, I'll admit that we have some components that we could use to become first rate again, but they are being overwhelmed by a complete cluster-you-know-what by the administration.

I have sent Randy Spetman a few emails.  Always polite, always trying to frame things constructively.  The problem is that I don't have any leverage.  I'm not a booster.  I gave up my season tickets when I moved away from Tallahassee and could no longer make the trips on regular basis.  At this point, it seems like a silly thing to spend my money on anyway.  If UF fans can buy tickets from our fans, I should always be able to find a ticket .

That being said, the big money guys have got to start throwing their weight around.  This would not be happening at a middle tier SEC school.  Even if the boosters were drinking whatever koolaid Bobby was passing out, they would be on Spetman to treat Coach Trickett with some respect.  I don't know if it comes from Spetman being a retired Colonel but it strikes me as some type of vanity.  He doesn't want to be seen as giving concessions to anyone, he doesn't want to look weak.

I understand that Bobby has quite a way with the boosters, but in the end, results should be what matter when you are investing the type of money these guys give.  I guess my question is, how do you get the big boosters out of the echo chamber and start getting some pressure applied to institute some changes?

It shouldn't surprise me since it took them forever to make Bobby face up to the nepotism issues.  I guess a lot of them still think of Chuck and Micky as they were in the good ol' days.  

That is a really nice senitment that is based on the assumption that Bobby will approach his retirement in a rational manner with the interests of the school weighing just as much as his own self interest.  I don't see that happening.

A couple of observations, I apologize if I am rehashing stuff.

My perspective is that Bobby has already chosen the terms that he would go out on.  there is no way that the Head Coach in Waiting came about without his agreement.  Now that we are in the midst of "his terms", then it is no longer disrespectful or meanspirited to expect him to honor those terms both in word and deed.  He should be using the process to guide Jimbo in the areas that need improvement, such as fundraising and executive responsibilities.  Bobby should be handing over more and more of the hiring decisions to Jimbo so that he has his staff in place once he takes over.  

A side point is that Rick Trickett is probably the key factor in our improvement, moreso than even Jimbo, and definitely more than Bobby.  There is absolutely no reason not to get a deal done now that bowl season is over.  Other schools are not going to wait around for the end of his contract to show him some love.