Sports: Bowden: Paterno the best ever

Bowden: Paterno the best ever

By BRIAN LANDMAN

DURHAM, N.C. -- Florida State's Bobby Bowden knows he's in a race and he knows his position.

"It's (Mark) McGwire and (Sammy) Sosa," he said. "The bad news is, I'm Sosa." Bowden is fourth on the list of Division I-A coaching wins with 316, eight behind leader Paul "Bear" Bryant. But Penn State's Joe Paterno entered Saturday's opener against Miami needing one win to tie the Bear's mark.

"When Joe retires, he's going to go down, to me he already is, but even more so, as the most successful and probably the greatest football coach we've had," Bowden said of his good friend. "I mean that looking at it in all areas. What he's done academically there, what he's done physically as a football team, what he's done with the character of his players, the years he's put in all at one school. I just think he's going to go down as probably the greatest; I'm talking about going back to (Knute) Rockne and all of them."

BLOCK PARTY: FSU blocked two punts, both recovered for touchdowns. The last time the Seminoles blocked two punts was against North Carolina on Sept. 28, 1996. They blocked one punt all of last season.

SECOND-QUARTER OUTBURST: FSU's 31 points in the second quarter were more than it scored in any quarter last season.

ST. PETE ADDITION: Redshirt sophomore walk-on Jesse Stein, who graduated from Shorecrest Preparatory in 1999, kicked off for the Seminoles to start the game. Stein was a Class 2A first-team all-state pick as a kicker and punter and played one season at Air Force before transferring to FSU in the spring of 2000.

FIRST TIMER: Although FSU knew it would be turning to a large number of neophytes, it didn't expect that redshirt freshman defensive tackle Travis Johnson would be one of them. But when Bowden suspended sophomore Jeff Womble for his arrest on marijuana possession, a charge that was subsequently dropped after Womble, 20, completed terms of a pre-trial intervention program, it opened the door for Johnson, 19.

He was a USA Today first-team All-America pick coming out of Notre Dame (Calif.) High in 1999. He had the first FSU sack midway through the first quarter.

FAME BOUND: Former All-America cornerback LeRoy Butler, a fixture in FSU lore thanks to the "puntrooskie" trick play against Clemson in 1988, will headline the group of four former standouts inducted into the school's athletic Hall of Fame on Friday. Joining Butler, in his 12th NFL season with Green Bay, will be offensive lineman Clay Shiver, 1950s baseball star Bob Clem and women's track and field 15-time All-American Angela Wright.

UNFAMILIAR SETTING: Although this is FSU's 10th year in the ACC, Saturday was its third trip here. Duke, needing cash, sold its 1995 and 1999 home games against the Seminoles and moved them to Orlando and Jacksonville, respectively.

UPON FURTHER REVIEW: Sunshine, which carried the game live on pay-per-view, will replay it tonight at 7 and Monday at 12:30 p.m.