CLEMSON ? No easy way to put this, because picking on Bobby Bowden feels kind of like cutting in front of a senior citizen at the local dinner buffet.
We know the 78-year-old Bowden is in a heated race with Penn State's Joe Paterno for all-time wins among major college coaches (Paterno, 81, leads 376-375 at the moment).
But everything we've seen lately tells us that Bowden needs to end this pursuit and hang up his headsets. And that's assuming he actually wears headsets anymore.
You see, Bowden doesn't do much coaching these days. He just sort of hangs around and watches Florida State struggle to pull itself from a morass of stunning mediocrity.
Bowden's accomplishments at Florida State are some of the most remarkable and admirable in college football history. The 14 straight years of finishing in the Top 5 (1987 to 2000) might be a more impressive feat than the national titles in 1993 and 1999.
But Bowden has gradually become the most hands-off coach you'll ever see ? or have ever seen. He sees himself as the program's CEO, but he's more Chief Executive Observer than Chief Executive Officer.
Second-year assistant Jimbo Fisher has been named coach-in-waiting, and that's a joke of a title when your boss is a coach-in-snoozing. Fisher's the one making the decisions. He's the one chewing out players for making silly mistakes. He's the one wearing the headsets.
Bowden? He stands off to the side, communicating little with his assistants or players. There's even some lackey whose job is to shadow Bowden and keep him abreast of what's happening on the field.
Sad.
Before Florida State's opener against Western Carolina a few weeks ago, Bowden allowed television cameras into the locker room to film his pre-game speech.
"Play hard, men," he said in a weak, quiet voice, reading from a piece of paper. "Play hard, and hit hard."
Depressing.
Watch a Penn State game sometime, and you'll see Paterno obsessively pacing the sidelines and concerning himself with even the most minute of details involving his team. Something tells us Paterno doesn't have to write down his pre-game message on a piece of paper.
What kind of effect does it have on a team's identity, a team's morale, when its coach is a mere figurehead who's so thoroughly detached from the proceedings?
What are we supposed to think when Bowden tells a columnist from the Denver Post that he doesn't let the Seminoles' decline bother him much?
"It's one thing about being my age," Bowden told the newspaper earlier this week. "Who cares? Hey, I can step out tomorrow and go to the beach."
Bowden, bless his heart, needs to do himself and his sterling legacy a favor by following through and replacing this smokescreen with sunscreen.
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Charleston, SC Latest Sports News: Time for Florida State's Bowden to hang it up
