This Gator is Going to Miss Bobby Bowden

I'm going to miss Bobby Bowden.

Not because he has taken FSU and turned them into a Gator whipping boy. That's not the Bobby I miss. I miss the younger Bobby. I miss the Bobby that used to bring it every week, year after year.

I miss the Bobby that would beat the other team's brains in and then give the media that "aw shucks, we were lucky to win. yaknawit?"

I miss the Bobby that would take his team to Columbus, Ann Arbor, Lincoln, or South Bend, maybe all in a row, and pitch the rock all over the yard and walk out of there leaving the home crowds scratching their heads.

One thing you cannot say about FSU during the Bowden era, they were boring.

FSU made college football fun.

Before Bowden, college football was three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust. Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler, Barry Switzer, and Bear Bryant lived by the motto that "three things can happen when you throw the ball and two of them are bad."

Bobby showed them that the good thing is worth the gamble. By opening up the offense, you can recruit fast kids. Kids want to score touchdowns. Kids want to make plays.

Bobby wasn't at it long before the rest of the college football realized that the road to the national title was through the sub-tropics of Florida.

You either had to beat Bobby to win the title, or beat the guy who did. The Bear himself always said that "if Florida ever gets a coach, we're all playing for second place." Well, he was right. Of course he didn't know that FSU would be the "Florida" that did it first. But it forced Miami and Florida to keep up or get left behind. It also gave them a blueprint.

Miami soon became "Quarterback U" and Florida was right behind them. Steve Spurrier brought his gunslinger mentality and when the three forces collided, it was huge. Every "Sunshine State Showdown" was a game for the ages.

We have Bobby to thank for it.

Whenever I see Bobby on TV, he reminds of my grandfather. He too was from Alabama. He spoke like Bobby. He had a nickname for everybody. Bobby's is "buddy". To talk to him you think he's a hayseed. But in reality he's pretty sharp. Or at least he was. If anything has been proven by FSU's recent slide it is that a young Bobby Bowden was the difference maker in his prime.

Can FSU ever get back to powerhouse status? Sure.

The way to do it is to go back and look how Bowden did it before. Start taking on the big boys again. Schedule some big time out of conference games. Don't be afraid to run a trick play. Get that gun slinger mentality back.