Why Can’t Bobby Bowden Just Let It Go?
So Bobby Bowden is doing a book tour this week and speaking out about the circumstances with which he left Florida State after another so-so season. Bowden says he wants to set the record straight and let people now that he did not retire, but, rather, was forced out by T. K. Wetherell, then the President of Florida State.
Here is the thing, Bobby, anyone with half a clue already knew you were not leaving of your own free will, so why bring it back up again. We all knew you were grasping at straws hoping you could turn it around the way Joe Paterno did after a string of mediocrity in the early 2000′s. Sure Paterno was able to hold onto his job despite a run of 26-33 from 2000 to 2004 which is a far sight worse than the 38-27 record you put up in the five seasons since 2004.
The thing is your teams were mediocre in what has been a pretty mediocre conference the last few years. You started losing home games to teams you never used to lose to, even on the road. You simply were not bringing in scads of elite talent any more. The fact is a lot of players Bowden used to recruit, red shirt, and squirrel away on the bench for two or three years started going to other schools like USF where they knew they would get a chance to compete and start by the end of the Sophomore year and would not have to sit on the bench for two or three seasons hoping they might get into a game.
Bobby says he wanted just one more year to have a go at it, but, would he have really left quietly after next season? What if the ‘Noles did the unthinkable and won 10 or 11 games next season? We all know Bobby would have kept his fat behind right there at FSU for another season. He wanted just one more year to see if he could recapture that magic and hang onto his job for another two or three years.
What really gets me about it all though is how he has said that his relationship with Wetherell may be irreparably damaged. You see Bowden thought he had Wetherell in his back pocket because he coached him back in the day and helped get his gig as the school’s president. He figured there was no way Wetherell would fire his old college coach.
It seems awfully petty for Bowden to hold any of this against Wetherell though. Has he not been paying attention to how unhappy the boosters have been with the program for the last two or three years? Does he not remember when a group of well-heeled alumni passed the hat to collect enough cash to buy out the remainder of his son’s (Jeff Bowden) contract so they could go out and hire Jimbo Fisher to replace him as the offensive coordinator?
Bobby has to know Wetherell was acting under the direction of the school’s board of directors does he not? I am pretty sure he was probably told that if he did not get Bowden out of the way they would probably find someone who would. It was either Bowden goes or both he and Bowden would go, ironically enough Wetherell has since left the school since then on his own accord. Sure Wetherell says it was his decision to let Bowden go, but does anyone really believe it was his decision and his alone to be made?
But I guess I just do not understand why he cannot simply let it go. He saw the writing on the wall when they hired Jimbo Fisher as his eventual successor. He knew the boosters were ready for a change. He would have a case if his teams were actually producing on the field, but they were not doing anything dozens of other coaches could have done in his place. He was no longer an elite head coach and it was simply time for him to go. It is sad that he could not come to those terms on his own, and it is kind of sad to see him speak out the way he has.
