Retirement

What happened to Florida State?

Growing up, Florida State was a power-house. Rivalry week meant the University of Florida Gators were fearing their Seminoles opponent. Bobby Bowden could piss off Steve Spurrier better than anyone else. Well, maybe besides The University of Tennessee Volunteers. They owned the state, all the kids wanted to wear garnet and gold if they had the chance to continue their football careers, the faithful Gator fan was made fun of because they were second-tier behind the 'Noles and everybody knew it.

The 2009 College Football season surprised us all by Florida State maybe having their "second-coming" when we saw them beat a Top 10 Ranked Brigham-Young University. Then, a loss to an unranked and new in-state opponent USF (the Uniersity of South Florida) had us all talking again about when Bowden is finally going to throw in the hat. Does the embarassing loss to the USF Bulls, led by their second-string quarterback, mean we should place our bets that Bobby Bowden is finally going to call it quits or should we place our bet that he's not stepping down until he can redeem himself against the Big East Conference's Bulls?

We can assume Bowden's days of beating Miami and Florida are over. Is the once dominating Florida State program really bad enough to say that smaller state schools such as USF or the University of Central Florida are surpassing it?

At what point does the love of the game, the love of coaching get defeated by the embarassment, inconsistency, and realization of present-day ain't no where close to the past?

In 1997, Dean Smith retired from coaching the Tar Heel basketball team because he was tired and had given it all he had to the sport. He explained his retirement was the right decision because he made a promise to himself that once he couldn't coach the way he used to and when the day came that he realized he couldn't teach the game any better, giving it all he had, he would retire. Does someone need to sit Coach Bowden down and explain that story, slowly and surely, to possibly give him the hint? What about Joe Paterno at Penn State? He and his team were completely, undeniably blown out and whooped by the Iowa Hawkeyes in Happy Valley, where Paterno has spent his legacy of a career.

When is retirement the only option? When do you call it quits on something you've done your whole life and given your heart and soul to? No one wants to see Bobby Bowden in the stands rather than the sideline. No one wants to see Bobby Bowden coach a fierce, championship contending team that scares Urban Meyer the way his past teams scared Spurrier and Ron Zook more than I do. No one wants to see Joe-Pa return for at least another couple of years more than I do. Penn State and Alabama will battle it out on the grid-iron in Week Two of the 2010 College Football Season. What fun would it be to play a Penn State team coached by anyone other than Joe Paterno? But how far away from the top do programs and coaches must fall before retirement is inevitable?

Paul W. Bryant coached the Crimson Tide to a win against Illinois in the 1983 Liberty Bowl at the end of the 1982 season. He had announced his retirement would come at the end of the season, before the season started. At the press-conference upon his retirement he was quoted saying, "without coaching football, I'll probably croak in a week."

Bear Bryant died on January 26, 1983 - 28 days after the Tide's 21-15 win over the Fighting Illini. Maybe not a week, but he died four weeks later.

Is this what Joe-Pa and Bowden fear? Are they hanging on to career; or life? Do they fear opponents and rival coaches like Urban Meyer; or do they fear not only the end of an era, the end of their coaching career, and maybe even the end of life itself?

I guess all we can do it wait and see how it goes... it's hard to stop and let a legacy speak for itself, especially if your Bobby Bowden and watching your beloved Seminoles slip away from competition against the Gators, and now the USF Bulls.