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Coach calls team a title contender

TALLAHASSEE -- Florida State coach Bobby Bowden is 72, but he's not old school. He doesn't poor-mouth his team, and he's not one to shy away from the preseason predictions that his Seminoles could challenge for another national title.

"There are probably about 10 teams in the country right now about like us; that can win it all if two things can happen," he said Sunday. "No.1, avoid injury, and 2, get a couple of breaks; get a couple of good bounces you didn't practice. Would we be one of them? Yeah, we'd be in that pack."

INTERESTED OBSERVER: With his left knee in a cast after surgery, touted freshman receiver Chris Davis rode around in Bowden's golf cart during the team's second practice Saturday night.

"He let me chauffeur him," Bowden said.

It was the only easy part of the visit for Davis, the former St. Petersburg Catholic star who tore his anterior cruciate ligament working out last month and had season-ending surgery a week ago.

"This is my first time ever to have a serious injury," he said. "I was already down from that, but a lot of people have told me to try to look at it from a good point of view and just take it from there."

So how difficult was it merely to watch?

"It wasn't too tough with some of the drills they were doing," he said, laughing.

NUMBER CHANGE: Freshman linebacker A.J. Nicholson started practice wearing No.53, which Devaughn Darling had at the time of his death in February 2001. But members of Darling's class, the juniors, came to Bowden and said they wanted to continue honoring that number until they graduate.

"We're trying to move on the best we can, but it's still a sensitive issue with a lot of the guys," junior linebacker Michael Boulware said. "We don't want to make it any harder than it has to be."

"They were pretty concerned about it," Bowden said. "And I said, 'We'll just go ahead and set that baby aside."'

UNEXPECTED FAN: Junior defensive tackle Darnell Dockett, who went to high school in Maryland, admits his favorite pro team has been and still is the Redskins. Yes, even with Steve Spurrier as the coach, the same Steve Spurrier who accused Dockett of dirty play after last year's FSU-Florida game.

"I hope he does with the Redskins what he did at Florida," Dockett said. "There's some plays I hope he doesn't try, but I hope he wins."

THE LAST WORD: "I'll write Steve and thank him for putting those spears on their helmets. They looked exactly like ours." -- Bowden on Spurrier's Redskins debut, a 38-7 victory over the 49ers on Saturday night at the American Bowl in Osaka, Japan.

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