• Follow us on Twitter @buckeyeplanet and @bp_recruiting, like us on Facebook! Enjoy a post or article, recommend it to others! BP is only as strong as its community, and we only promote by word of mouth, so share away!
  • Consider registering! Fewer and higher quality ads, no emails you don't want, access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Even if you just want to lurk, there are a lot of good reasons to register!

Paterno vs Bowden

Jump to latest Follow Reply

Are Paterno and Bowden overstaying

  • Yes, they are staying longer than they should.

    Votes: 23 82.1%

  • No, They should stay as long as they want to.

    Votes: 5 17.9%
  • Total voters
    28
  • Poll closed .
Sort by date Sort by votes
I think the answer to the poll question is.....both. Yes, they're staying longer than they should, at least from the perspective that Penn State and Florida State are no longer the feared powerhouses they were in their prime and probably won't be as long as those two are still coaching. But I'd say they've also earned the right to dictate the terms of their own departure. If they haven't, who has?

After all, Penn State and Florida State aren't exactly dragging bottom, either. They're still good teams. They're still going bowling. And bringing in another coach won't necessarily put those programs back astride the college football world. Look at Nebraska. Look at Miami. Look at Alabama. All three used to be titans on the landscape, and don't have the excuse that their coach is an octogenarian and can't relate to the young'uns these days.
 
Upvote 0
2005-12-12-in-bowden-patern.jpg
clear.gif
clear.gif

AP photos

Currently JoPa is ahead by 1:

Paterno...376-125-3 (played 4 games so far this year)
Bowden...375-126-3 (played 3 games so far this year)

Oh, the suspense!!!

Who is forced to retire first?
Who ultimately leaves coaching with the most division 1A* wins?
It could go "down to the wire" and be a "photo finish". :biggrin:

*I really don't think either will pass Eddie Robinson's 408 wins. :)
Eddie Robinson (football coach - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
Time for Florida State's Bowden to hang it up

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.

Entire article: Charleston, SC Latest Sports News: Time for Florida State's Bowden to hang it up
 
Upvote 0
I tease my PSU alum wife all the time about how involved/concerned and agitated Paterno is. It's a great thing to watch a dude so obviously doing what he was meant to do.Albeit not as well as we do:wink2:

In almost every post game, he has a quote in there like "We're just not that good" or something so similarly old school, you wonder why psu doesn't go back to leather helmets.
 
Upvote 0
FSU, Bowden deal 'very close'

Coach Bobby Bowden and Florida State have agreed in principle to a one-year contract extension, according to a report in the Orlando Sentinel.

Seminoles athletic director Randy Spetman told the Sentinel that financial details were still being worked out.
"We're very close," he said, according to the Sentinel.

Bowden, 79, had said earlier this month that he was planning on returning this fall for his 34th season. However, his contract, which paid him a little more than $2 million in 2008, expired Jan. 4.

Bowden's 382 career wins are one fewer than Penn State's 82-year-old Joe Paterno, who is the winningest coach in major college football.

Entire article: Bobby Bowden and Florida State Seminoles have agreement - ESPN
 
Upvote 0
I hadn't thought that JoePa was going after Eddie Robinson's number, but Paterno only needs 26 wins over the next 3 seasons to get past Coach Robinson's record of 408.

So something like 9-4, 8-5, and 9-4 gets him to 409. That's very possible as long as his health holds out through 2011.

Should we tell JoePa that John Gagliardi at St. John's (Division III in Minnesota) has 461 career wins?
 
Upvote 0
BB73;1392868; said:
I hadn't thought that JoePa was going after Eddie Robinson's number, but Paterno only needs 26 wins over the next 3 seasons to get past Coach Robinson's record of 408.

So something like 9-4, 8-5, and 9-4 gets him to 409. That's very possible as long as his health holds out through 2011.

Should we tell JoePa that John Gagliardi at St. John's (Division III in Minnesota) has 461 career wins?
Click to expand...


Div 1AA record of 408
Paterno is #1 at the highest level of college football.
 
Upvote 0
BigWoof31;1392922; said:
Div 1AA record of 408
Paterno is #1 at the highest level of college football.
Click to expand...

Of course.

But the 408 is still the record for Division I football, when it's not broken out into FBS(1-A) vs FCS(1-AA), so JoePa would still be breaking a record.

robinson_winner

In 1997, the FWAA coaching award was named after Eddie Robinson, a coaching legend at Grambling State University for 55 years. The late "Coach Rob" has more Division I victories (408) than any other coach.
Click to expand...

And I made the link an article talking about Saban just to be mean. :tongue2:
 
Upvote 0
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Neither coach will voluntarily retire first.

One person's view point on WikiAnswers:

qbar_q.gif
Were Division 1-A and Division 1-AA wins combined when Bobby Bowden surpassed Joe Paterno as the coach with the most victories?

abar_a.gif
Answer Bobby Bowden record is a fraud

YES THEY WERE. That's why Bobby Bowden did NOT surpase Joe Paterno as the head coach with the most Div 1 A wins. Bowden had 31 wins at Howard College (now Samford University). Bobby Bowden's 366 total coaching victories ranks first all-time among all Division I-A head coaches. Paterno is second with 363 but therein lies a controversy as 31 of Bowden's career victories were earned while coaching at Howard College, now known as Samford University. Samford does not play major college football, and all of those 31 victories at Howard/Samford were earned against teams not currently in Division I-A, including wins over The University of Mexico, Gordon Junior College, Millington Naval Air Station, and the Tennessee Tech Freshman Team.

WikiAnswers - Were Division 1-A and Division 1-AA wins combined when Bobby Bowden surpassed Joe Paterno as the coach with the most victories
 
Upvote 0
OK, its been a couple of years now since this was first posted. My views on the "race" have changed.

At this point in time I personally am embarrassed to watch these two old men act like 12 year olds in pursuit of this record. It's gone from nice story to slightly annoying to very annoying and has come to final rest at the pathetically sad stage.

Note to both; you are human, you are going to die like the rest of us. You can't escape it and letting the whole world watch your juvenile attempts to try and do so at your respective ages cheapens what would otherwise be outstanding legacies.
 
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top