College football

Bowden doesn't want to turn on his son Jeff

Critics pressure Bobby Bowden to changes his offense - and take a look at his coordinator.

By BRIAN LANDMAN
Published December 22, 2004

TALLAHASSEE - Florida State coach Bobby Bowden received quite a few honors this season: A towering bronze statue and a dazzling stained-glass window greeting folks at the Moore Athletic Center, and the name Bobby Bowden Field emblazoned on the stadium facade near the scoreboard.

He gladly would have traded those tributes for a few more points.

"The production was not what I expected," he said.

If it had been, the defensively stout Seminoles (8-3) likely wouldn't be preparing for the Gator Bowl - and Bowden likely wouldn't be fretting over what could be the toughest decision of his career.

Speculation is rampant that he will make some changes to his long-tenured offensive staff, including the role son Jeff, the coordinator, plays.

The historically high-powered Seminoles averaged just 24.7 points (63rd nationally and fifth in the ACC) and 364.7 yards (67th nationally and fifth in the ACC) this season. Both numbers are the the lowest since 1981.

It didn't helped that they lacked stability at quarterback, bouncing between Chris Rix and Wyatt Sexton. Rix will start his career finale against West Virginia on Jan. 1. The Seminoles also have been plagued by injury on the offensive line and at wide receiver.

"All of those things lead to execution issues," Jeff Bowden said. "You Band-Aid here and there."

The longterm solution?

"I think we're definitely going to have to change our style offensively," Bobby Bowden said without going into detail. "I see what we need to add to what we've got to get us over the hump and make us a little more effective."

That doesn't necessitate staff changes. It also doesn't preclude them.

Assuming he doesn't fire an assistant (for just the fourth time in his 39 seasons as a head coach) or simply reshuffle the deck, the lone possibility involves someone leaving for another job, perhaps an administrative position. Bowden has talked informally to some coaches - former UF offensive coordinator Larry Fedora, to name one - about an unspecified position, suggesting a coach will be on the move soon.

"I really think there will be some type of addition to the offensive staff," said Terry Bowden, an ABC analyst who added he has no inside information from his family connections. "The whole point is dad wants to be successful. He's staying in this business to play for a championship. That's a national championship. And if he doesn't get the offense running better, it's not going to happen. So really, the monkey's on his back and I think he knows that. He'll make the decisions he's got to make, whatever that is, and everybody will handle it."

Serving as FSU's offensive coordinator can be a thankless job.

Bobby Bowden is renowned for his offensive creativity and unpredictability, so when the Seminoles roll up yards and points, well, that's Bowden being Bowden. When the Seminoles struggle, that's the offensive coordinator being clueless.

"I got a lot of nasty letters and calls," said Mark Richt, the FSU offensive coordinator for many of the team's halcyon days before taking the head coaching job at Georgia. "I had some guy who was the president of the Evict Richt Club trying to make my life miserable for some time."

Richt had his secretary screen his mail and he would steer clear of talk radio, newspapers and the Internet.

"I lost some friends over (not firing) Mark Richt," Bowden said.

After the Seminoles' lackluster 13-2 loss to Oklahoma in the 2001 Orange Bowl, the Bowl Championship Series finale, Richt said many fans were "excited to see me go."

That's when Bowden promoted his son, who had been the receivers coach since 1994. To avoid violating the school's nepotism policy, Jeff Bowden would answer to defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews, not his father as past offensive coordinators had. (Richt evaluated Jeff Bowden's job as the receivers coach.)

"I did have some reservations about the wisdom of it," then FSU president Sandy D'Alemberte recalled.

In such situations, if things went well, there would never be an issue. If they went poorly, there would be the implication that a son has a job he wouldn't have were it not for his father.

"When you hire your son, you know what's going to happen," Bowden said. "Unless you play great offense every week, he's going to catch it and a lot of people are going to (complain) out of spite. A lot of people are directing (the criticism) at me. But they like me and don't want to get on me, so they get on (my) boy."

Jeff Bowden said he wouldn't "trade the experience" of spending more time with his father, who is the all-time Division I-A wins leader with 350. It's a sentiment shared by other sons who have been, or still are, on their fathers' staffs.

Not that it's all hugs and kisses.

"It's hard enough working as a coordinator for a living legend whose background is in offense," said Skip Holtz, who spent five years working for his father, Lou, at South Carolina. "But you're also working for your father. It's hard on both parts."

After the Gamecocks struggled, Lou Holtz essentially demoted his son, taking over the play-calling responsibilities this past season. Holtz retired and Skip Holtz was recently named East Carolina's coach.

For his part, Jeff Bowden said he' has developed a "pretty dang thick" skin to seeing signs like "Send Jeff To UF" or hearing about the rants and acerbic Web sites like the one launched by a Bay area FSU alumnus, HireJeffBowden.com.

"How much does it bother me? I don't know if I can measure that," Bobby Bowden said. "I would be like any father of his son. When I first started coaching, the first thing you have to find out is, "Can you handle criticism?' So the plus of that is, he's getting a lot of criticism. This is good practice. That's what he needs."

But how much of the criticism is deserved?

In this case, it's difficult to know how many plays Jeff Bowden calls in a game. He sits in the booth and is in constant communication with Dickey and running backs coach Billy Sexton. If the offense bogs down, Bobby Bowden will pull on the headset and keep it on. That's a lot of cooks.

"I do meddle," Bobby Bowden said. "Jeffrey gets a lot of blame because he heads up our offense, but Jeffrey has to do a lot of things I tell him to do whether he wants to or not."

A coach must assess his talent. FSU had five first-round NFL draft picks on offense from 1995-2000: tailback Warrick Dunn, receiver Peter Warrick, offensive tackles Walter Jones and Tra Thomas and kicker Sebastian Janikowski. Since then? One, receiver Javon Walker. The coach also must weigh injuries and how the defense and special teams have played, which affect offensive opportunities.

"There's a bunch of things you have to throw into a pot and there's only one guy who knows them all," said Clemson coach Tommy Bowden, who fired his offensive and defensive coordinators after a 6-5 season. "My father obviously knows how to win football games and he's been making a lot of good decisions for a long time and I'm sure he'll do what's best for the program. But it isn't easy simply because family's involved."

Jeff Bowden has received high marks on his annual evaluation from Andrews. According to records obtained by the Times, Andrews wrote in last year's form that Jeff Bowden "Continues to make progress in becoming a more effective coordinator. Appears to be pushing to become a strong pace-setter and leader."

Do you demote that person a year later?

"As I evaluate, which I've had time to do now, I see things that we're going to have to change," Bobby Bowden said. "You don't know whether I'm talking about plays or people. I can fix our problem."

[Last modified December 22, 2004, 00:32:14]