Sunday’s Food4Thought: Last of a Dying Breed
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The Florida State football team was feared, loved and respected during Bobby Bowden’s head coaching reign. In light of the recent news of Bobby’s coaching retirement (link here), I’d like to offer a lot of stupid people some great advice.
And I’ll start with a faint memory I have after the FIRST game of the 2009 football season when I read a FB status that said something along the lines of, “I’ll be the first to ask it, does Frank Beamer need to be fired?” written by our esteemed CEO. Really? The Frank Beamer that has practically made VA Tech football relevant by his-own-self? The Frank Beamer that led a Big East school not named Miami to the National Championship game against Bobby Bowden’s Seminoles in 1999? Has any other Big East school done that since Beamer’s been there? The grass is always greener on the side when you have exactly no clue what you’re talking about…
Which brings me, dag-gum-it, to the forced retirement of Coach Bowden. All Bobby Bowden did at FSU was win ballgames, 18 times in his 34 years at the school he won 10+. His teams were ranked in the top 5 at the END of every season from 1987-2000. That last stat won’t ever happen again. Remember a couple years ago when boosters at Michigan got involved with Loyd Carr (head coach, national championship winner) and wanted him fired? Well, they got their wish and Michigan has had two of the worst seasons in their illustrious history the last two years. Remember when Jerry Jones (owner of Cowboys) wanted to get rid of Jimmy Johnson? Switzer (the next coach) won a Super Bowl, but Jerry’s team hasn’t won a playoff game in 10 years. Remember between 2000-2004 when Joe Paterno (national champion) at Penn St had 4 losing seasons? He won 11 games in 2005 and has won 9+ the last 4.
Bobby Bowden has a statue of himself outside Doak Campbell Stadium. Bobby Bowden has more wins than all but one coach in NCAA history (Joe Paterno). Bobby Bowden got punk’d during the season when a booster called him out, then was asked to relinquish his role as head coach and just become a figure head for the program a couple days ago. At 80, maybe he should have made that step himself. But what you don’t see when you’re sitting in the stands, what you don’t see when you’re donating money or tailgating is that Bobby Bowden only knows football, only cares about football, and only wants to coach football at the school and the program he built. It’s his empire and if he wants to see it run into the ground, then so be it.
Having reached the peak is tough for Bowden, it put an asterisk on him that losing 40 games in the past 9 years is not tolerable. But success in the sports world is no longer just tied to wins/losses. It’s tied to us asking all our coaches win now and in doing so, coach, don’t worry about walking all over kids, taking advantage of poor families with big dreams, asking schools to cut corners for grades/SATs, or negotiating playing time, numbers, cash, etc. with agents/Nike/apparel companies/recruiting websites/grandmothers of a 3 star recruit. The coaches make a huge salary, true. The coaches are egotistical and arrogant by stepping into the limelight and they should be held to a high standard. That’s true too. Just remember one thing, only one team wins a national championship each year.
Food4Thought:
Sports is like our society, we have those who have it all, we have those with very little and we have a lot of us in the middle; dreaming to be where the rich are and hoping to not ever fall into being po’. Sports gives us a few great programs who rise to the top each year, a few who are very, very bad and the rest that are mired in “just ok” records. It’s interesting that what we see in our teams is ourselves. When they don’t win, we want to rake them over the coals. When they do win, we can’t get enough of ourselves. What I would suggest you do, as you watch ol’ ball coaches, especially the guys who build/have built programs (Bob Knight, Bobby Bowden, Frank Beamer, Joe Paterno, Gary Williams, Jimmy Johnson, Coach K, Steve Spurrier, Bill Parcells, etc.) learn something from them because they are a dying class. And just when you think about firing Frank Beamer at Va Tech for going to the Chic-Fil-A Bowl and winning 9 games a year, think about holding your mediocre life to the same standard. And if you’ve made it to the peak, always remember where you came from…BELIE DAT.
How your teams are doing?
The Washington Redskins (3-9) lost to the Saints today but played admirably for most of the game which at this point is all we can ask of them. We can stop the ridicule of Devin Thomas, Malcolm Kelly, Fred Davis and possibly Vinny Cerrato (for drafting them) because it seems as if they are arriving.
The Washington Capitals (18-5-6) beat the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday night 8-2 w/o the most exciting man in hockey, Alex Ovechkin, who is serving a 2-game suspension for a knee-to-knee hit against the Carolina Hurricanes. The Caps were 3-0 this week.
The Washington Wizards (7-11) lost at home by two the Toronto Raptors on Saturday. The Wizards went to 2-1 this week.
udothedishes…
Related posts:
- Sunday’s Food4Thought
- Step Backwards our Communities are Dying
- ’09-’10 Men’s College Basketball Outlook
- Outraged: NCAA Football Bowl Season
- Updates on ACC, Big East, and CAA teams from the Metro Area
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Iconic coaches need an advocate like you. I hear what you’re saying but I will make these two points: (1) Notwithstanding the program that the coach built, no one is bigger than said program nor is anyone bigger than their respective game. Maybe the ousting of Bowden was a bit unceremonious but FSU football has to keep it moving. (2) It may be true that the longer a good coach stays somewhere the better chance that program has to win but at some point the coaches philosophy, spiel, and demeanor wears thin and someone new is needed to take the team over the hump. I know you were trying to prove a point but you made it seem like I don’t recognize what Beamer has done for VT when I do. As someone who’s been around the insides of coaching like you have, I think you have a certain mentality that is pro everything coaching. The bottom line in this case is right or wrong, no one has a free pass no matter how much good they did in the past. As far as VT goes, 9 or 10 wins a season is awesome and maybe all we can hope for but at some point we want to be a program that thinks in Championships not above-average seasons and maybe Bud Foster and not Frank Beamer is the man to facilitate that paradigm shift.
What I think I relate more to than just “pro everything coaching” is pro everyone who’s a good coach and who’s proven they can win. Al Groh hasn’t proven to be a winner (Jets or UVA) and was kept on 2 seasons too long. What I don’t like about Bobby Bowden is that he knows it’s time and he should have made the decision himself. Two, I see your point about getting over the finish line, believe me, I am a South Carolina Gamecock through and through and have enough agony already about the Cincinnati Bengals. To me, it’s hit or miss that Bud Foster’s (or asst coach X, former head coach Y or Utah/Boise/Cincy coach Z) the one that’s gonna take you to the mountaintop. I respect Steve Spurrier a ton, he dominated a decade, and is now winning 7 games a year at USC. Has the game changed, has he been humbled, etc – YES. But, has any South Carolina team ever been good in 107 years? No, that’s why we have 1 conference championship! Same with USC Basketball….the one trend between the last 5 coaches at USC is that they’ve all been fired! Is that an indictment more of the coach or the program, the school? I do see your point and I know you know the history of Va Tech football. Sometimes the coach does need to step down and know that his message is not being heard – sometimes it’s because they’re too old and can’t relate to players (possibly Bowden) and sometimes it’s because they just suck at life (Quin Synder, former Mizzou bball coach). That is the one thing that ruins coaches today – HUMILITY. Knowing when to step down, knowing when the paycheck may not be the most important thing, but impacting the school you’re at and learning your craft may be (my point on Craig Robinson). We live, though, in a world where coaches wants instant gratification, fans want instant success and it is corrupting the teaching of players and turning college sports into minor league sports. And, it’ll only get worse. So while you have a guy like Bobby Bowden at your school, who has made an impact and built a program, I think you should look back and admire him. Hopefully he looks back and says, “da-gum-it, I just can’t get it done anymore and walks away.”
no brevity