He has won two national championships and more games than all but one other major college coach. But today, his program is no longer the best — or perhaps even the second-best — in his state.
He's a Southern gentleman, devoutly religious, endearing him for well more than three decades to a region that places great value in both. And yet, he wonders aloud if he can keep his job and remain the face of a program and an entire university for one more year.
Bobby Bowden, 80, has decided he wants to stay another season at Florida State, his wife and associates say. There are others who want him to move on. FSU officials who'll make the decision with Bowden in the coming weeks aren't publicly leaning either way.
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The uncertainty irks Ann Bowden.
"Years ago," she said of her husband, "I said 80 is probably a good year to cut it off. But he was going great, had a legacy going and everything. And then, we (the Seminoles) took that downturn. I said, 'Look, if you want to stay on and try to get that back.
"His quarterback's going to be a senior next year, and he wants to be there for his senior year. That's only right. And all those young kids are going to be a year older.
He's planning on another year."
If FSU doesn't give it to him, she says, "You know, we don't need the university as much as they need us — as much as they need him and his connections and reputation and everything. If they want to pull that trick, we'll just shake the dirt off our feet and go to Europe or go on a long cruise or something." Her impassioned remarks Tuesday came 1 1/2 months after Jim Smith, a former Florida secretary of state and attorney general and president of Florida State's Board of Trustees, cited the Seminoles' on-the-field slide in Bowden's latter years and said he should move on. The two sides frame a delicate question.
Including a 5-5 record going into Saturday's game against Maryland, FSU is 36-26 in the past five years — a .581 winning percentage that is far worse than Florida's (.857) and also trails South Florida's (.633) and Miami's (.583) in the ultra-competitive state. And there are other troubling signs. The 'Noles' average home attendance of 76,005 is on track to hit an 11-year low. FSU had just one player picked in last year's NFL draft and hasn't produced a first-rounder the past two years, raising questions about the level of recruited talent.
Four of this year's five losses, however, came by an average of less than a touchdown, and the Seminoles led Clemson in the fourth quarter before falling 40-24. Only one senior will start Saturday on offense. Eleven freshmen and sophomores dot the two-deep lineup of a struggling defense.
Their coach says the program is poised to rebound. Should his Hall of Fame resume lend him a year of deference?
Behind the desk in his neatly kept, memento-filled office, Bowden fingered a spent cigar Tuesday morning and smiled. "I've made up my mind on what I want to do," he said. "But I have bosses, too.
"I wouldn't dare put words in their mouth."
He stopped short of a declaration, but Bowden made his hopes for 2010 clear when he asked longtime defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews to consider putting off his pending retirement and staying by his side for another season, Andrews said. Pulled by family obligations, the 67-year-old Andrews declined.
Ann Bowden also points to her husband's attachment to fourth-year junior quarterback Christian Ponder, the ACC's total offense leader before a dislocated right (throwing) shoulder ended his season at Clemson two weekends ago. He undergoes surgery Friday.
Bowden also coached his dad, David, a defensive tackle at FSU in the early '80s. Ann Bowden approached the younger Ponder on the eve of last week's win at Wake Forest and told him of Bobby's wish to coach him through his return from the injury and his senior season.
"That meant a lot to me," Ponder said. "To be the quarterback for his last season would definitely be special. Hopefully, we'd be able to send him out on the right note. I think that would definitely be some motivation for us."
That's assuming Bowden is back on the sideline.
FSU athletics director Randy Spetman said a verdict on his return will be a "partnership decision" reached by Bowden, school President T.K. Wetherell and himself at the end of this regular season. He doesn't discount Bowden's 387 wins in 34 years and the Seminoles' elevation to a dominant program in the late 1980s and '90s.
"You have to give that a great amount of thought," Spetman said. "How do you take care of that? What's the right direction?
"What's best for an individual who helped build the program and for the university?"
And so, one of the more eventful seasons in Bowden's long career lurches on. He and Florida State also are awaiting the outcome of the school's appeal of a portion of recent NCAA penalties — specifically, the erasure of wins in football and nine other sports in an academic fraud case involving 61 athletes. A tutor and academic adviser provided test answers and typed papers for them and other students.
Wetherell and Spetman attended a hearing on the appeal Sunday, and a decision by the NCAA is due in 6-8 weeks. Hanging in the balance are up to 14 football victories and Bowden's ability to reach what he called "kind of a hidden goal" of 400 in his career, though he insisted, "If they take 'em away, I'm still going to count 'em."
He claims not to be bothered by the lack of a guarantee he'll get another 12-, 13- or 14-game season to collect more.
"Bobby has a very strong faith," said Ann Bowden, who married him 60 years ago. "He gets up every morning at 4 o'clock. He reads all his books. He reads his Bible. He prays. He just believes that he is being taken care of by a higher power than trustees or anybody else. And whatever happens to him is going to be what was meant to happen.
"God takes care of His own. And if that's not in His plans for him, that's fine for us because he's had a great career. He's made his mark."
http://nolesports.tallahassee.com/articl...-s-Bobby-BowdenThe Bowdens need to go away as far as I'm concerned. The game has passed Bobby by, let it go already. Go out with class and grace, give Jimbo Fisher, the coach in waiting, his day in the sun.
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). We catch Coop walking in to give his post game presser. We ask him for a quick pic. He says "I'm sorry ladies, but I really need to get to this press conference. After it's finished, I'd be glad to" So we wait til after the presser, getting pics with players and just being generally goofy. So, the presser has finished, we're still hanging out like groupies. Coop walks out, sees us and says "Ladies, I promised to take a pic with you when the press conference was over. If you're still interested, I'd love to have my picture taken with you now"