Four football coaches. Two aging legends. A now-bruised icon. A fellow in a sweat to prove he's worthy. Joe Paterno. Bobby Bowden. Steve Spurrier. Ron Zook.
For each, an intriguing time.
Paterno, at 77, just signed to work through 2007. Until he's 81. Is the onetime Brown quarterback and English Literature major aiming to outlast Amos Alonzo Stagg, who was on the field into his 90s?
Winning seasons are now scarce at Penn State. Demands enormous. Paterno, in 37 seasons, set the victory bar extraordinarily high. You wonder, will they continue to sell 110,000 tickets at Beaver Stadium if puny records throb on, further eroding Nittany Lions football stature?
Even devout Penn State boosters are mumbling, debating whether Joe Pa has stayed too long. They love him, but doubts fester. I don't want to see Paterno get beat up. I admire him too much. I want Joe to depart on his own terms, but he has begun to dare fate.
Bowden turns 75 in November. Florida State endured a moderate dropoff from its spectacular 1990s but Bobby's suffering didn't approach that of Paterno. He passed Joe in career wins, now No. 1 by 342-339. Paterno will not recapture the lead ... unless Bowden surprises us by being first to retire. FSU's immediate future appears far more sizzling.
Murmurs around Tallahassee say Bowden deeply craves one more national championship. He has two, same as Paterno. But first the 'Noles must prove they're kings of their own state, which means beating the Miami Hurricanes, an agonizing nemesis for FSU even in the best of times.
Critics blamed FSU's miniswoon on many things. A segment always cries, "Bobby's gotten too old." Me, I'm against age discrimination. A more valid claim is that FSU lost longtime assistant coaches who were vital in the Bowden machine.
Chuck Amato finally got a chance to be in charge and N.C. State has flourished under the former FSU line coach. But how will it be now that a whopper of a quarterback, Philip Rivers, is gone from Raleigh?
FSU's far bigger vacuum involved the departure of Mark Richt, master scientist behind the 1990s offensive firepower. Now at Georgia, he has built a national championship contender and become one of America's hottest coaches. FSU's offense has been a few thumps shy since Mark moved away from Tallahassee.
That brings me to Spurrier. After 12 brilliant seasons at Florida - his alma mater, locale of Steve's 1966 Heisman Trophy season - he seized the NFL coaching stab Old Ball Coach long craved.
It was a fabulous flop, a 12-20 record for $10-million in salary during two seasons with the Redskins before Spurrier bailed to make room for the comeback of three-time Super Bowl winner Joe Gibbs.
So what now for Steve? He's 59 and isn't talking publicly about his future. It's a near-lock Spurrier will be back in coaching in 2005. Not in the pros, where his stock plunged, but with a college program he deems as having a solid chance to strut among the best.
Where? I don't think it'll be with the Gators. North Carolina, you hear, has communicated with Spurrier. Amazing, when you know his history.
Steve specializes in stirring hatred among his biggest rivals. During a remarkably successful late-'80s era at football-sickly Duke, Steve won an ACC championship and succeeded in making the Tar Heels despise him as deeply as any Vols, Bulldogs or Seminoles.
But UNC is desperate to leap from the ACC football dungeon. Spurrier could cause that to happen. I also hear ripples involving Texas, where the Longhorns can't get over the Oklahoma hump under Mack Brown, who ironically was a late-1980s Stevie whipping boy while at UNC. Think about it: Spurrier maybe going against his former UF assistant Bob Stoops, now coaching a Sooners colossus.
I've got another potato to toss into the pot. What if Mike Shula can't get Alabama's juices boiling? Would that not be a spot for Spurrier? Crimson Tiders are hungry. They know how Steve ruled the SEC while at UF.
Okay, that leaves Zook, 50-year-old coach of the Gators. Spurrier's successor. He is 16-10 and, in Steve's wake, that is considered a failure. Sour taste lingers from a 37-17 crunching by Iowa six months ago in the Outback Bowl.
Around Gainesville, you hear many voices saying they hope Zook makes it, because he's so likable and a nonstop worker. Locals love what Spurrier achieved but many decry a habitual unwillingess to participate in many civic happenings. Zook tends to show up, always with a smile.
Still, the Zook doubters are many. UF has seven games that appear highly winnable, so Ron's fortunes are likely to come down to dealing with FSU, Tennessee, Georgia and LSU. He needs to win at least two of those. Another 8-5 will not cool unhappiness. Selling 90,000 seats for home games could become more of a job.
