9pm The Tony Barnhart Show
CBS College Sports
It sure looks like FSU head coach Bobby Bowden is coming back next year. The following excerpts from tonight’s show have Bowden doing more than leaning that way.
Tony Barnhart: Coach, just from talking to you, it sounds like you said you’re going to make the decision at the end of the year. It sounds to me like if you had to make the decision today that you’re sort of leaning towards coming back next year. Am I reading you right on that?
Bobby Bowden: You’re reading that exactly right. I’m strongly leaning…I just hope I can present a case out there that would warrant that.
Barnhart: Coach, you made it really clear that you’re going to wait until the end of the season, then you’re going make a decision. Does it make you angry or upset that there are people who are kind of pushing things now? They want a decision now. They don’t want to let the season play out. Does that bother you?
Bowden: Does it bother me? Not unless they have a lot of power. If they have a lot of power, yeah it bothers me….I don’t worry about things like that…That’s been going on since I was 65. Ever since I was 65, I was too old. And every time we would lose a game, that would come up. So I am kind of used to that
Barnhart: Has the program slipped in the last couple years?
Bowden: There is no doubt we’ve slipped. I mean, gee whiz. In the 90’s we won more games than any team ever has in the history of college football, including a couple of National Championships, and winning the ACC every year. Yeah, we have slipped, but who hasn’t.
(BARNHART ON FLORIDA STATE’S COACHING SITUATION):
Bowden cannot and must not be shoved out the door. He deserves every chance to right the ship. If he wants to come back for one more season and compete for a Championship, then he has earned that right many times over. But the school and Bowden must find a way to put some clarity into the future of the program, because if they can’t, it is going to end badly for him, for Florida State and for all of college football.
