The end of an era...

[BooCocky]

TALLAHASSEE -- Legendary Florida State coach Bobby Bowden, who built one of college football's greatest dynasties in 34 seasons with the Seminoles, plans to announce his retirement Tuesday morning, sources close to the situation told ESPN.com. Bowden, whose 388 career victories trail only Penn State's Joe Paterno as college football's winningest coach, met with FSU president TK Wetherell and athletic director Randy Spetman on Monday morning. According to sources, Bowden was given two options: return to FSU in 2010 as an ambassador to the program, in which he would have little input in the day-to-day operations of the program, or retire after the Seminoles' upcoming bowl game.

Sources told ESPN.com that offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher, who was named Bowden's eventual successor near the end of the 2007 season, has agreed to contract terms to replace Bowden after this season. The school's booster organization would have owed Fisher $5 million if he didn't replace Bowden by January 2011.

Bowden, 80, led FSU to national championships in 1993 and '99 and 14 consecutive top-five finishes in the Associated Press top 25 poll from 1987 to 2000. But the Seminoles finished 6-6 after last week's 37-10 loss at No. 1 Florida, which was the third time in four seasons that FSU lost six games.

That is brought to you by ESPN. Anyways, Bowden is the only reason why FSU was ever relevant. He pretty much turned the program around and now he is the main reason it is failing. He can't relate to his players anymore and I guess no one respects him any more. Where does this leave FSU? He still has name value but he wasn't able to always coach them. What is Bowdens legacy as a Head Coach? Where does he rank amongst the best CFB coaches of all time? Where does FSU go from here? Do they find a coach in the college ranks or do they go to Jimbo Fisher? My guess is they go to Jimbo Fisher.

 

[Tenta]

This is a very sad day in Florida State's history, and while I can truly understand a Noles belief that Bobby should be allowed to coach as long as he wants, it's time to face facts; there's reason to believe that Bobby's mental faculties were failing him at this point, and that his mind just wasn't sharp enough to coach at the level necessary to be a head coach, much less at a school with the tradition of Florida State. I remember a press conference Bobby had (I believe it was after the Clemson game), in which Bobby confessed he didn't know the score of the game for a good portion, and that he had a good bit of difficulty remembering key events in the game. While I'm all for legends and such, there just has to be a time where someone steps in, and says that if the coach can't remember key things like the score, he is lacking the mental capacity to be a head coach in any level, much less for college students.

Also, having a best friend that goes to FSU, he described to me the turnout for FSU's last home game against Maryland. Over twenty thousand seats were empty. I know, it's Maryland, and Maryland is dreadful. But to see that from such a storied program on it's senior day is almost horrifying. You don't mean to tell me that twenty thousand people could have wanted to go to that game. While we don't like to accept it, college football is a big business, and perhaps the biggest business of all college sports. You can't have a sight like twenty thousand empty seats if you're a program like FSU. Again, I give Bobby all the credit in the world, but this move just seems necessary, and extremely sad.

On a bright note, I'm excited to see Jimbo get a crack with this team. The guy is fiery, and is just what Florida State needs right now. I won't say he'll be able to bring in the best recruits, as it appears that Florida and Miami are passing him by. But there's no reason to believe that Jimbo can't turn things around. He's a great offensive mind, and seems to have the backing of the players.

Again, it's a sad day for FSU, but perhaps in this dark day, FSU can find some sunshine of hope.

 

[Shocky]

The difference between JoPa and Bowden is that Bowden actually plays a difficult schedule every year, whereas the clown known as JoPa hides out in the shit Big Ten, and schedules nobody out of conference to bolster his own win record. It's a shame, because Penn State has been such garbage that annually gets exposed by top 25 teams every year for the fraud they are, but yet remain at the top. Florida State plays pretty good teams all year (The play a Big East team in USF and the traditional game against SEC mainstay Florida). Eventually it just caught up to Bowden.

At 80 years old, no one should be coaching at a high level, anywhere.