FSU Football: Shadow of Bobby Bowden always hangs over any head coach

FSU football will have just their third head coach in the last four decades – but it’s the legacy of the longest serving coach that will always loom.

Alright, FSU football fans who may be newer to this world and still can’t legally buy alcohol – it’s time to gather around and allow Papa Jason to tell you a story about the Seminoles football program when it was in big trouble and the man who came in to save the day over four decades ago.

You see, before the Noles were involved in a 14-year dynasty era during the 1980’s and 1990’s your parents told you about – and before a certain former head coach led us to three straight ACC crowns and a national title this decade, the Florida State program was arguably one of the worst in the country.

In the first 29 seasons of Seminoles football, the team had a total of 14 seasons at .500 or below and had been to a total of seven bowl games. After Bobby Bowden was hired before the start of the 1976 season, the Noles had exactly one losing year and and went to 31 bowl games over the next 34 seasons.

For all the talk about how former head coach Jimbo Fisher helped bring the FSU football program back following what many call the “lost decade”, he was never going to reach the level of love that Bowden had for taking the program from death’s door and building it into a national name. While his three and a half decades were mostly brilliant, they will also be a burden for all who follow.

From Fisher to (new coach) and for those who follow, the shadow of the man who has the field at Florida State’s stadium named after him – along with a statue and giant stained glass mural at the stadium – is going to hover over the program for decades to come because without Bobby Bowden, there might not even be a football program in Tallahassee.

For those who rooted for the Seminoles starting in the 1980’s and extending into the latter part of last decade, Bobby Bowden can do no wrong and the way he was removed from the program – forced out, if you will – still does not sit well. Everything that is done by those who followed will be compared to the nearly three and a half decades that Bowden patrolled the sideline.

Is it fair? Not at all. It must stink for those who lead the program to know that – at least for the time being until the generation that only knew Bowden starts to fade away – everything they do is going to be compared with what he did.

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Is it going to continue? You bet it will. Until a coach can come in and have consistent winning the way Bowden did for a decade and a half, that’s the way it’s going to be.