Separated by four years and a few hundred miles, North Carolina State football coach Chuck Amato laughed at the notion his former place of employment, Florida State, has slipped a notch and his former boss, Bobby Bowden, has lost a step–or two–on the competition.
“Did you see that game they played the other night?” Amato asked after the Seminoles, then ranked a modest 13th, opened the current season with a 37-0 win at North Carolina.
A little more than a month later, the critics who questioned Bowden the past two years have quietly disappeared. With five straight wins, all but one of them easy, there is no talk about whether the 73-year-old coach should continue on the job he has held since 1976.
Going into Saturday’s game against second-ranked Miami in Tallahassee, the Seminoles are ranked No. 5 in the country and shooting to give Bowden his third national championship. But Bowden can’t forget the flak he took when Florida State finished 8-4 in 2001 and 9-5 last season.
It ended a run of 14 straight seasons in which the Seminoles won at least 10 games and never finished out of the Top 5.
“It makes you enjoy coaching a lot more when you can go 5-0 like we are now,” Bowden said earlier this week. “Again, you sure can’t get satisfied because it doesn’t take long to get back where you were if you’re not careful.”
Said Florida State athletic director Dave Hart, “Most people would be delighted to win our conference title, play in a [Bowl Championship Series] game and be ranked 15th in the country. Most people would think that to be a cause for celebration. Here it was a cause for concern in a lot of corners.”
Recently hired President T.K. Wetherell, a former walk-on who played at Florida State when Bowden was a graduate assistant coach there, believed that the school needed to be more diligent in investigating its problems and that Bowden needed to be a little more involved in the day-to-day operation.
“Bobby puts more pressure on himself than alumni or the university’s going to put on him,” Wetherell said recently. ” The issue with Bobby last year wasn’t the won-lost numbers, but it was how they lost at some places. That bothered him more than the record.”
The Seminoles lost in overtime on a rainy night at Louisville, starting a stretch of three defeats in four games that included a one-point defeat at Miami (Fla.) as well as a 10-point loss at home against Notre Dame. Florida State also lost at N.C. State and in the Sugar Bowl to Georgia.
Asked if the season caused any great introspection, Bowden joked, “I kicked my dog to death, that’s about the only thing different.”
But he quickly admitted, “I might be a little more directive now than I was a year ago.”
Bowden re-established the team’s Unity Council, a group of players that represented a cross-section of Seminoles both academically and racially to monitor behavior in the dorms, work ethic in the weight room and performance on the field.
It also meant Bowden coming down from the tower during practices and being more visible–and vocal–on the field. While he hasn’t given up his early-afternoon power naps, Bowden has realized the importance of showing fans, media and prospective recruits that he is not slowing down.
All Bowden has to do is look at what his friend, 76-year-old Joe Paterno, is going through at Penn State to realize that he is another losing streak away from hearing the same whispers that gained momentum last season. Hart knows that Bowden’s age makes him more vulnerable than it might a younger coach.
The Seminoles have gone back to a familiar formula this season–winning with their defense. Florida State ranks first in scoring defense and seventh in overall defense. Junior kicker Xavier Beitia has more points (39) than the defense has allowed (36).
Bowden, who comes into Saturday’s game one victory behind Paterno in their race to become college football’s winningest coach, has no plans to retire. Five games into this season, Bowden and the Seminoles have worked hard to get back into familiar territory.
Saturday will be an indication if they’ll stay there.
