On Bowden, Spurrier and the 'Noles-Gator rivalry

By Charlie Barnes, Executive Director - Seminole Boosters

Some are just scribbles from conversations, often no more than passing pleasantries over the phone or at an FSU game with a loyal Booster. Many are from e-mails or personal letters; more than a few are from the internet. In the spirit of tidying up my desk to make a neat appearance in the New Year, here are a few of the inquiries to be answered at some point.

Question: “When will Coach Bowden retire and who will the next football coach be?”

My Answer: My guess – and it is only a guess – is that four years ago he leaned toward retiring after the 2005 season. That will be his thirty-year mark and I don’t think he anticipated that The Dynasty would end abruptly as it did. The last four years have been more characteristic of the pre-Dynasty era in terms of wins-losses and personnel controversies. I believe that he is committed to stay the course and see the program placed on solid footing once again, and that will likely mean some time beyond 2005.

Solid footing is probably the wrong term because most programs in the country would consider themselves doubly blessed to have just exactly what we enjoy now. It’s more accurate to say that Bowden desires to see FSU once again performing at Dynasty levels, with the attendant national respect from sportswriters and TV commentators, as well as success on the field against highly ranked opponents.

When he speaks directly to recruits he tells them the truth: that he will retire when he feels he cannot coach another four years. Fortunately for us and for those recruits, he looks great, his energy level is high and his thinking is clear. If there is a date certain for retirement, he’s the only one who knows what it is. My guess – and it is only a guess – is that he will extend beyond the 2005 season.

As far as guessing who will follow him as the next great Head Coach of the Seminoles, I think the best course is to wait until Bowden’s retirement and then survey the field. Other universities have made the mistake of locking in a replacement early with generally unhappy results.

Names bandied about by fans over the last five years include Brad Scott, Tommy Bowden, Chuck Amato, Mickey Andrews, Mark Richt, Mack Brown, even Howard Schnellenberger who remains a favorite among Seminoles of a certain age. In almost every case, at the time these names were mentioned their stars were very much in the ascent. FSU alumnus Mack Brown (running back 1973) is the exception; Mack has always been saddled with the reputation, fair or no, of being unable to win the big game. It should be noted, however, that Mack has certainly been able to land the big contract. His most recent deal with Texas guarantees him $25 million.

When Coach Bowden informs Dave Hart that this will be his final season, I imagine that Hart will consult closely with President Wetherell and one or two other trusted greybeards. The “hot” coaches of 2005 were not necessarily the brightest flashes on the radar screen just a few seasons ago, and some of yesterday’s bright lights have already faded.

One thing of which I think we can be sure is that the day that Bobby Bowden rides off into the sunset, he will literally do just that. He does not intend to stay in Tallahassee beyond the day he retires. When he arrived in Tallahassee as the new Head Coach in 1976, no fewer than five former FSU Head Coaches still lived here: Ed Williamson (1947), Don Veller (1948-1952), Tom Nugent (1953-1958), Bill Peterson (1960-1970) and Darrell Mudra (1974-75). “None of them ever tried to interfere with anything I was doing,” said Bowden, “But every time there was any question to do with the program, the press immediately went to one of these fellows to get their opinion. I’m not going to stick around town and be a media source once the new coach is in place.”

If he’s asked who he thinks will make a good successor I’m sure he’ll supply his opinion, but he has no desire to make the decision or to state a public case for the new guy.

Question: “I saw that Coach Bowden and Steve Spurrier actually embraced at the Gator Bowl Hall of Fame luncheon in Jacksonville! What is the Seminole Boosters’ opinion now of Steve Spurrier?”

My Answer: Let me assure you that the Booster organization has no official opinion on the subject of Steve Spurrier. However, my opinion is that he is exactly the man he appears to be, which is probably the most unkind thing I can say without being ungracious.

Steve Spurrier and Bobby Knight are two heads on the same body. Both are spoiled, self-absorbed, unsportsmanlike boors in pursuit of victory. They share belief in the fiction that the final score is ultimate vindication. No amount of charity work or aesthetic personal life can offset the virulence that spews from their behavior on the field or on the court.

I’ve never heard it said that Steve Spurrier is not a good husband and father, and he has no reputation as a cheater. There is no question he’s a brilliant coach. But his acid personality poisoned a good rivalry between Florida State and Florida. I’m not surprised that Coach Bowden was a gentleman at the Hall of Fame banquet. Bowden is an unfailingly gracious and forgiving man.

I have three very large files stuffed to bursting with Spurrier outtakes from newspapers and magazines, which I kept current until he abruptly resigned at Florida. It would please him I’m sure to know that I’ve spent that much time and effort on him.

We all move on and people forget. We forget the arrogance that led him to engage a caterer for an elaborate post-game victory celebration inside the locker room at Doak Campbell Stadium in 1990. He had assumed victory over the Seminoles in his first contest against us, and why not? Back in the 1960s the Gators won almost all the time, and now he imagined with the return of Himself we upstart Seminoles would be put back in our place, and taught a humiliating lesson by our betters.

Of course it didn’t turn out quite that way. Spurrier’s plan worked fine for exactly one play. On the second snap of the game Lawrence Dawsey took off for the endzone leaving Gator defenders gasping. Our ‘Noles never trailed in a 45-30 win.

He was like an irritating rash, always under our skin. He broke our hearts in 1996 and again in 1997. But we broke his too, harder and more often. The famous “Choke at Doak” in 1994 was among the most humiliating losses of his career, and the debacle that followed in New Orleans, where Gator players attacked each other with table knives at a team dinner before losing the re-match to FSU must have left a doubly sour taste. I’m not certain, but my guess is that in his long and successful tenure at Florida, FSU is the only regular opponent against which he suffered a losing record.

I was almost disappointed when he turned down the Gators for South Carolina this fall. Coach Bowden had beaten Spurrier pretty handily before, and it would give me a chance to open up those fat files again. Two of my favorite items from those folders include Sports Illustrated’s glee in reporting how Spurrier had awarded himself the game ball after Florida’s 1999 Orange Bowl victory over Syracuse, and Chicago Tribune columnist Bernie Lincicome’s 1996 description of Spurrier as a “sniveling, twitchy dipstick.”

Perhaps Florida State will cross paths again with him in a bowl game; I’m sure he’ll do well at South Carolina and will continue to fire poison arrows toward anyone he sees as a threat. As Coach Bowden said after the Gator Bowl Hall of Fame a month ago, “He’s Tommy’s problem now.”

Question: “Do you think the Seminole-Gator rivalry is still considered one of the great college football rivalries in America?”

My Answer: Well, yes and no. If you mean deep, visceral hatred, our rivalry with the Gators doesn’t compare to rivalries like the one between Auburn and Alabama. In Alabama, you are required to choose sides at birth, and then you are expected to heap hostility and abuse on the other side until you tip over into the grave.

Our rivalry with Florida has matured. It is not as visceral, as hateful as some others.

Something happened this winter that fairly illustrates the reality of the Seminole-Gator relationship.

Tom Dewitt is a name familiar to many Seminoles. He worked in the FSU department of biological science and was the sound engineer for Gene Deckerhoff. He was 45 years old; he and Kitti had been married since they were nineteen.

Tom Dewitt posted on the Warchant message board under the name “nolepro.” He also posted frequently on the Gator Bait message boards using his ‘Nole identity. The use of anonymous nicknames sometimes tempts, maybe even encourages vile comments, irresponsible and outrageous remarks.

But the Gators knew Tom only as an anonymous Seminole who was sensitive, thoughtful, insightful and a rival worthy of respect.

He slipped and fell, 15 feet to the ground, while working on his roof. Some badly broken bones were the only damage and it seemed that he could knit back together and all would be fine. But Tom slipped away. It was sudden, unexpected, devastating.

His Seminole family on Warchant established a memorial fund to benefit the Jefferson County Humane Society. Contributions began to flow in, and then a remarkable thing happened. Gators, lurking on our Warchant board, saw that “nolepro” had died. Very quickly, a stream of contributions from Gators began to appear, and grow into a substantial amount of money.

Sherri Dye, licensing director for the Seminole Boosters, laughs and says, “We have to work to out-contribute them. The Gators will beat us if we let them.” But she is serious when she speaks of how this one episode changed her perception of the rivalry.

“Without exception, everyone from the Gator board remarked that he was their favorite rival poster. I was truly amazed at their response to our loss, as virtually nobody over there had ever met him in person. It will be hard for me to blanket all Gators as the ‘enemy’ from now on, because I saw a remarkable gesture of human kindness from them and a sincere sense of loss displayed with every comment they made. I just can’t look at them the same anymore.”