Bobby Bowden: Why he’s the greatest college football coach of all time
By Kelvin Hunt
Play Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere
Bobby Bowden’s willingness to play anyone, anytime, and anywhere was unheard of at the time.
Think about it, an independent football team who already played Florida and Miami every year would schedule other top programs.
FSU played five consecutive road games in 1981 against Nebraska, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, and LSU.
The Noles finished 6-5 that season, but three of their wins came in that five-game road stretch. Coach Bowden would agree to things unheard of nowadays, agreeing to play road games without the opponent traveling to Tallahassee.
FSU played Nebraska four times between 1980-86, and all four games took place on Nebraska’s home field. Nebraska never traveled to Tallahassee.
What about No. 1 FSU traveling to No. 3 Michigan and beating them like a drum in 1991? Michigan has never traveled to Tallahassee.
Not only was FSU a program trying to build from scratch, but they were building while taking on some of the toughest competition in the nation as an independent program?
What other college football coach has done that and achieved the same amount of success as Bobby Bowden?