FSU's Bowden trying to reverse a painful slide to mediocrity

GREENSBORO -- Bobby Bowden points a forefinger at his left temple and runs the finger down the length of his face, stopping at the jawbone.

"I still have no feeling from here to there," he said.

These things sometimes happen when you're three months shy of 80.

"I had that dadgum shingles for so long," he said. "That six weeks about put me away. It's awful. You know, I always thought it sounded kind of cute: ‘Shingles, something I wouldn't mind having. It kind of tickles.' Worst pain I've ever been through in my life."

Shingles often occurs in older folks who had chicken pox. The chicken pox virus stays in the body, dormant for decades, and then returns to infect nerve roots.

For Bowden, the intense pain lasted two weeks. A lesser level of pain lasted another month. Now he's down to a numb side of the face that, according to his doctors, could stay numb if the virus badly damaged the nerves.

He has other aches and pains, mostly related to football. They're more mental and metaphorical than physical. He symbolizes the Florida State program in all its glory, but the gloss dulled in recent seasons.

At the peak, his Seminoles won two national championships. They finished 14 consecutive seasons with at least 10 wins and final AP rankings among the top five. They haven't made the top 10 in eight years. The Seminoles won eight straight ACC championships and 11 in 13 years. Since then, FSU has gone 12-12 in the league.

Bowden blames faulty player evaluations during recruiting, which gradually diluted the talent pool. He ridicules published prospect rankings and indirectly rips his scouts.

"Forget the five-star stuff," he said. "We get a lot of five-stars. A lot of those five-stars have played like one-stars, two-stars."

He used to plug phenomenal athletes into vacant positions and keep rolling.

Since winning the mythical national title over Virginia Tech 10 years ago, FSU's reliable defense has developed holes and his pass-oriented offense has failed to develop quarterbacks.

Bowden reels off the neon names: Heisman Trophy winners Charlie Ward and Chris Weinke, plus Casey Weldon, Thad Busby and Danny Kanell. Eric Thomas, Danny McManus and Peter Tom Willis also delivered brilliant seasons. Among the eight quarterbacks, only Weinke (class of 2000) started more than 24 games.

The coach prefers the old pattern: Sit, learn and start when you're a redshirt junior, which means you're a senior in calendar years. "The last 10 years, I've started at least three freshmen," he said. "That's not healthy."

The recurring issue runs deeper than the marquee position, of course. Bowden measures talent another way going out: "How come our kids are not getting drafted?"

Last spring, second-rounder Everette Brown was the only Seminole drafted. As recently as 2005 and 2006, NFL teams selected eight FSU players.

Extra baggage

The downward trend hasn't stripped the program of all respect. ESPN resumed the prime-time telecast of the Labor Day opener between rivals FSU and Miami. Bowden would rather play Maine, his original first opponent, or some other team he could beat in a ragged debut, but he recognizes the value of broad exposure. At the ACC's preseason football sessions here, 56 media voters chose FSU as the Atlantic Division champ over Clemson (14), N.C. State (10) and Wake Forest (7).

In March, the NCAA Committee on Infractions put FSU on a four-year probation because academic aides helped athletes in 10 sports cheat on online courses and write papers.

The school reported the violations to the NCAA and imposed internal penalties, including the suspension of 23 players for the 2007 Music City Bowl. The NCAA tacked on modest additional reductions of available scholarships through 2011 but made big headlines by ordering forfeits of games involving the cheating athletes.

The upshot: Unless FSU's appeal changes the verdict -- a highly unlikely outcome -- Bowden will give up 14 wins. At present, his record at Samford (Ala.), West Virginia and FSU is 382-123-4, or one victory behind the top division's all-time leader, Joe Paterno of Penn State.

"I'm still thinking they'll come to their senses," Bowden said. "Somebody ought to say what's happening in this world. They're just going to kill a good dadgum competition, because if they take those games away, that game's over…. It won't bother me one bit. I don't live and die on stuff like that. I mean, I'd love to have it. I'd love for my children and my grandchildren to be able to say that's their old man up there, but if that happens, I won't lose a second of sleep over it."

Bowden said he always considered Eddie Robinson of Grambling State (408 wins) the real career leader, but yesterday he nominated John Gagliardi of Division III St. John's (Minn.), who won 461 games. Regardless of definitions, he backs the FSU appeal, arguing that the school didn't know about the cheating and acted promptly when it was uncovered.

"As soon as we spotted it, we turned ourselves in," he said. "As soon as we found out which kids were involved, we suspended them immediately…. What did they do to the other students? Gave them an F. They gave the players an F. That should be plenty."

The dangling forfeits add psychic weight to FSU's increasingly heavy baggage. A fan uprising uprooted Bowden's son Jeff from the offensive coordinator's job three years ago. Boosters bought him out, behind daddy's back.

President T.K. Wetherell, who played for Bowden, endorsed a succession plan that would install offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher as the head coach by Jan. 10, 2011 or Seminole Boosters Inc. would have to pay Fisher $5 million.

As a practical matter, Bowden operates on one-year contracts and thus has one or two seasons left. Son Terry Bowden, head coach at North Alabama, told a Birmingham paper that FSU should let daddy coach until he's 83, if he wishes. That might sound crazy to the boosters with checkbooks, but daddy offered another view in response to a reporter's question: "How bad would you feel, though, if the decision you made cost the university $5 million?"

The coach grinned. "You ever heard of me and Jim splitting?" he replied. "Me and him could make two and a half off the deal."

Bowden will leave soon, and he intends to leave them laughing.

■ Lenox Rawlings can be reached at lrawlings@wsjournal.com.