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Bowden Bowl Won't Be Missed

Tribune photo by COLIN HACKLEY

The awkward competition between Tommy and Bobby Bowden is one good by-product of Clemson firing the younger coach earlier this season.

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 6, 2008

Updated: 11/06/2008 12:23 am

The Bowden Bowl? It's history.

And that's just fine with Florida State coach Bobby Bowden.

When the Clemson Tigers (4-4, 2-3) come to Tallahassee for Saturday afternoon's ACC Atlantic Division game against the Seminoles (6-2, 3-2), it will be just a football game, not a family affair. That was assured Oct. 13 when Tommy Bowden was forced out at Clemson, after a 72-45 record and eight bowl appearances (but no ACC titles).

The Bowden Bowl was a novelty in 1999, when the elder Bowden won his 300th career game against his son.

Since then, it has been a necessary evil for both sides.

"I think Ann Bowden's wife and Tommy's mother might be a lot more loose for this ballgame," Bobby Bowden said Wednesday during the weekly ACC teleconference. "It takes out the fact that somebody in your family has to lose and somebody has to win. I will miss seeing Tommy out on the field before the game. You hardly get to see your children during the season. That might be the only thing I miss."

Bowden has outlasted three of his sons in coaching - Tommy, Terry (formerly at Auburn) and Jeff (who was bought out as FSU's offensive coordinator in 2006).

"That's amazing, but I'll kid them about that when we vacation this summer," Bowden said. "I feel lucky to have coached as long as I have. We all know the consequences of winning and the consequences of losing."

Even without a Bowden Bowl subplot, FSU has enough incentive. The Seminoles have lost three straight times (and four times in the past five seasons) to Clemson. If FSU wins out - and Wake Forest loses once - the Seminoles will go to the Dec. 6 ACC Championship Game at Tampa's Raymond James Stadium.

"I'll be as fired up to beat Clemson as I would be for any other opponent," said Bowden, dismissing any talk about "punishing" Clemson for pushing aside his son.

Actually, Saturday's game does have one tiny wrinkle.

It's Bowden's 79th birthday.

NO DREW: When Seminoles offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher selected sophomore Christian Ponder as FSU's quarterback, it sent senior and three-year starter Drew Weatherford (of Land O' Lakes) to the bench. Bowden still marvels at the maturity Weatherford has displayed this season while playing sparingly (just two pass attempts in two mop-up appearances).

"It is tough, so doggone tough," Bowden said. "I would think Drew is in the minority of kids who can handle it like that. A lot of them displaced starters jump up and transfer, become a thorn in your side. He has been one heck of a team man."

Bowden said it was Fisher's decision alone. Knowing Bowden's time-honored preference for experience, would he have made the same call?

"I would hope I'd have enough guts to do what Fisher did," Bowden said. "I think it was a gutty call."

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