Old adversaries meet again on the sidelines
By BRIAN LANDMAN
Published December 31, 2005
FORT LAUDERDALE - Florida State coach Bobby Bowden has always liked Galen Hall, the former Florida coach.
No, really.
Bowden first saw Hall, then a quarterback for Penn State, lead his team to a win against Georgia Tech in the 1961 Gator Bowl. His play prompted Bowden, a young head coach at Howard College, to visit Penn State in the offseason to study its offense.
"He looked like a guard," Bowden said. "Galen could have played guard for us; (he was) a big ol' heavy guy. I don't know how he played quarterback, but he did. I can remember his rollout passes just as plain as day. I kid him about it when I see him."
Which he will when the Seminoles meet Penn State in Tuesday's Orange Bowl. Hall, 65, is in his second year as the offensive coordinator and running backs coach at his alma mater. He had been out of coaching for a year, enjoying golf five times a week, and hadn't coached collegiately since his firing from Florida during the 1989 season in the wake of NCAA violations.
"This is the only place I would have gone back as an assistant, back to work for Joe ( Paterno), back to Penn State; it was a great opportunity for me," Hall said Friday afternoon. "Joe's special. He really is. He's a special person in my life. ... He recruited me out of high school, he coached me. We stayed close friends all through my career. I moved a lot more than he has (but) we always stayed in touch."
If he did get the yen to coach again, he said it likely would have been another stint as a head coach in NFL Europe (he was there from 1995-2000 with the Rhein Fire and, before that, with the Orlando Thunder in 1992). He said he and his wife, Elaine, still have many friends in Germany, and he enjoyed the league and saw it as a great teaching ground for players looking to be groomed for a shot at the NFL.
As for Bowden, Hall said he always has liked and respected him (yes, even while competing against him at Florida) and doesn't tease him about anything.
"We don't golf, so I can't kid about his golf," he said. "And I don't know how big his guards were at Howard (so) I don't know if I could have played one or not."
DAVIS TO START: Barring something happening in the next few days, FSU junior Buster Davis will move from middle linebacker to weakside linebacker to replace A.J. Nicholson, who has been suspended and is the focus of a police investigation of a rape accusation.
"I play both (positions) and I know the position," Davis said. "As a matter of fact, I started at (weakside) in the North Carolina game (last year)."
He had 11 tackles in that win.
Linebackers coach Kevin Steele said he will use freshman Geno Hayes there as well. Senior Sam McGrew will start at middle linebacker and freshman Derek Nicholson, A.J.'s brother, will be his backup.
"Most places, they'd be starting," Steele said of the freshmen. "We've wrestled with playing time anyway."
LINE CHANGE ... AGAIN: FSU senior offensive guard Ron Lunford figures to start in place of Cornelius Lewis, who is nursing an ankle injury.