Q & A: Bobby Bowden

Even though Saturday's game against Troy didn't have the nightmarish ending that Bobby Bowden was beginning to fear in the fourth quarter, the 24-17 victory was another of those scares that he won't soon forget.

During his Sunday breakfast with writers, the Florida State coached compared the near upset to a 17-14 victory over Southern Miss in 1979 and a fierce fourth-quarter comeback over Georgia Southern in 1988 that actually resulted in a fairly comfortable 28-10 win.

“Those were the same type of nightmares,” he said.

Still baffled by his team's inability to run the ball effectively, Bowden tried to rationalize that it doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing.

“This whole thing of having to establish the run to win - we've already proven two weeks in a row that ain't right,” he said. “Now the odds might be better. But to think that you have to out-rush somebody or have to gain 150 yards to win - I think Steve Spurrier proved that wrong.”

Bowden still believes the bigger issue Saturday was the quick turnaround from Monday's 13-10 victory over Miami. Although the Hurricanes are bowing out of future Labor Day games, the ACC would like to keep FSU in the mix. Bowden is agreeable, but is now more inclined to accept an open date the second weekend of the season, even if it means playing 11 consecutive games afterward.

“You don't want to play games on a Monday and a Saturday. You don't want to do that. You pick an opponent you think you can beat. That's the only way you'll do it. And dadgum, we nearly got beat . . . Maybe we won't have to do that anymore.”

The real nightmare could come today when Bowden and his staff learn more details about the injuries suffered by nose guard Paul Griffin (left knee), defensive tackle Letroy Guion (right ankle), nose guard Emmanuel Dunbar (low back) and linebacker Derek Nicholson (right ankle).

I don't know how much input you have with that decision, but does it cause you to think that you need to take a year or two off from that Labor Day game?

BOWDEN: Well, I'd hate to give up that game, even though we're not going to do it with Miami anymore. But I'd really look at that Saturday, whether we'd want to play that next Saturday. Be sure that thing is vacant.

. . . You just don't have time to prepare . . . We played our game on Monday night, and if we could have had (Troy's) film from the previous Saturday and had it all broken down so we could go out there Tuesday and practice against Troy (it might have made a difference). But we didn't get their film until Tuesday afternoon, and I don't blame them. They weren't going to give us there film until we gave them ours. So we didn't have enough time to prepare.

Troy plays and beats (Alabama State) 38-0 and you don't know how good they are, or how good the other team is.

That's the game where they unveiled the five wide receiver set because they didn't have it last season, right?

BOWDEN: I don't think they did. I didn't look at any film from the previous year . . . They changed offensive coordinators (Tony Franklin) . . . You know what offense that was? That was the Oklahoma offense that they beat us in the Orange Bowl with. That's the first time we've seen that offense since that (2000) Orange Bowl.

There offensive linemen split that far. You nearly have to learn a new game.

Then we lose three defensive tackles. Lose one who has been playing about as good as anyone on our team right off the bat in (Paul Griffin).

Any further word on Griffin?

BOWDEN: I haven't heard a word, but it didn't sound good, what I heard last night.

Do you know more about the other three players who were injured, Letroy Guion, Emmanuel Dunbar and Derek Nicholson?

BOWDEN: I did see Guion, and he felt like he was going to be OK. Now (Dunbar) has been hurt. If we had three and a half weeks of practice, he missed three weeks with a back. I think he got it hurt again last night, but it has nothing to do with football. It's a disc. So I don't know what our situation is there. We'll probably have to move (Justin) Mincy back in there.

Coach, it seemed like your players weren't a lot more athletic than the Troy players. They really were quick and they seemed to have a lot of people there. There was not a lot of separation on routes. Were you taken by surprise how quick they were? They ran an odd scheme, but it just seemed like they were there when you tried to make a big play. They always had someone around the ball.

BOWDEN: Well, yeah. They impressed me more with their hitting than their athletic ability. They didn't miss tackles and they'd knock the heck out of you. When they tackled us down field, they hit our kids, boy. They were a team with 28 Florida boys on it, so they wanted to show you should have signed them than some other guys. Then they were hungry and all that stuff. It was just one of those scenarios, if you win, be happy. I'm happy.

I'm happy because I could be sitting here with the worst loss of my life.

Drew Weatherford had the longest run from scrimmage this season with an 11-yard gain. While it's still only two games in, is the personality of this offense it's going to throw and it's not going to be a team that has 300 yards passing and 200 yards rushing?

BOWDEN: You know what my answer to that is, who cares? Who cares how you do it. This whole thing of having to establish the run to win - we've already proven two weeks in a row that ain't right. Now the odds might be better. But to think that you have to out-rush somebody or have to gain 150 yards to win - I think Steve Spurrier proved that wrong . . . Steve would go out there and beat you with the passing game and then we'd have the game locked, he'd start running it. He'd come up with 120 yards rushing, and you'd say, 'Boy, he runs the ball good.' Yet he won it throwing the dang ball. That's kind of what we were going to do last night.

Maybe sometimes you are playing somebody that you are very superior to. They are fired up, you're not. They're executing, you're not. So you just out-personnel them. And maybe you have to throw and catch to do it.

Does that worry you that down the road it may make it tougher to get the great running back to come to your program?

BOWDEN: Nah, that will help us. We'll be able to tell them, 'We'll be able to run if we get you, son. You could solve all our problems. We can't run. We need you.'

I sure would like to run better. When do you have to run? Why do you even have to run? Well, third and one, you better be able to run. We ran and we were successful. Well, when you get on the goal line, you better be able to run. We got on the goal line and we ran. Who says you have to run it on first down, but on third and short you better be able to run the dang ball. We were able to do that. But we ain't happy yet, but it's not alarming me that much, you know.

Is the difficulty running with the offensive line or the tailbacks?

BOWDEN: I would say it is a miss here and a miss there. When you talk of an offensive line, you're talking plural. Well, it don't take but one man to mess it up . . . One guy . . . Or a back break the wrong way. Several times last night if a back had gone here instead of there, he would have made good yardage. We're not making wise decisions in there yet, I don't think.

Did you talk to Tommy last night?

BOWDEN: No, I haven't talked to Tommy.

What does Clemson's loss do? It almost seems like it is a potential for a letdown. The game had a chance to have quite a bit of hype to it.

BOWDEN: I was really hoping that there'd be a day where we could both come into this game undefeated. I was hoping there would be a day, and I thought this might be it. We nearly spoiled it but we lucked into a win.

It would have really meant something for both of us to come in undefeated. That doesn't make our job any easier that they got beat . . . They lost to Boston College the same way last year, in overtime . . . But we know what they can do because they showed us last year. That's probably all the motivation we need. Now whether we can do it or not is another thing.

Are you frustrated that there were a lot of backups that didn't get in the game?

BOWDEN: Dadgumit, I've been through it before so many times where you planned to play a lot of people and it didn't work out that way. I just wish'd we could. I wanted to get Xavier (Lee) and I wanted to get some of those other running backs, some of those other fullbacks and receivers in the ballgame. Boy, when you are behind or its tight, you are afraid to play too many . . . I talk to (quarterbacks coach) Daryl (Dickey) and said, 'Should we get Xavier in there and see if it gets something happening? He never did feel like, and I agree with him, that it just wasn't the right time.

. . . You hate to destroy the rhythm when a guy is starting to get the feel of it, and you take him out. That's why we stayed with (Weatherford), and he got hot as a firecracker when he had to.

Has your philosophy changed then? When Charlie Ward was here and had some rough moments as a junior, you would sit him down a few series so he could watch what defenses were doing. Is that the offensive coordinator? The quarterbacks coach?

BOWDEN: At that time we didn't know what we had. We didn't know if Charlie was going to be good enough or not. For three or four games, he did so many good things, you knew he looked pretty darn good. But he did so many bad things that you wondered if you should be playing him. He worked his way out of that, boy. He got to where he had no bad games.

But has the philosophy evolved? Back then, you'd put Danny Kanell, a true freshman, in and let Charlie watch.

BOWDEN: That's what we said. Now whether we really believe it, I don't know. It was just that Charlie was doing so bad, what else do you have. All you've got is a freshman and he ain't ready. I guess we were hoping we could get him on the sideline and talk to him. Maybe unravel what was happening.

I think the main thing we found was the shotgun. That solved his problem. We were trying to work out of the I-formation and it just wasn't his thing.

You seemed to have a little more urgent pace about you offensively last night, and not just when you were behind. The tempo and getting plays off had more of a no-huddle feel to it. Is that the way you are going to have to go? Your plays were coming a little bit quicker and there seemed to be a better flow.

BOWDEN: It's something that I don't think you can improve on enough. If we did that, I'm glad. It didn't seem like we had a lot of trouble. I remember someone (from the stands) yell 'Watch the clock. Watch the clock.' I looked up there and we had 12 seconds left. That's all day long. When a quarterback has 12 seconds, he can sit back there and light a cigarette or something. He has plenty of times. So maybe we were getting plays off quicker. That'd be a good sign.

What do you say to your players when even your seniors were having trouble holding on to the football?

BOWDEN: That usually goes back to mental. That's mentally. I told the kids, probably started off about Tuesday . . . How many times have I said this? I've been coaching 54 years, and I've probably said it every year. 'Men, the only way they can beat us is by fumbling, and penalties and turnovers, and breakdowns in the kicking game. That's the only way they can beat us. We've got superior material. So what happened? We fumbled how many times? Seven times, and turned it over how many, three? Interceptions? One. (Fumbled) punt returned. Missed field goal. That's how you get upset, and we did all of them and didn't get upset.

Now you have 17, 18, 19 and 20 year old guys. You are saying all that and they aren't paying a big of attention to you. They are thinking, 'We ain't got any problem. We just got done beating Miami.'

You've been through this with so many of these same players and they keep saying the right things. 'We've got to be up and ready to play every week.' Human nature is some of it but is that disappointing to see that they weren't mentally ready to play?

BOWDEN: You know, if we had lost, it would have been awful. But we won the game . . . So there is a great lesson there. I guess every team has to go through it. Every team I've ever had responded that way. That's just boys . . . You try to tell them, 'Men, this can be a war. This can be tough.' And you really don't' believe it. They can tell you don't even believe that. It's a trap. It's a trap.

But there are enough players who have been trapped on this team in the last couple of years that you'd think they would be prepared. What they have been saying is they have learned from those mistakes. We've learned from the mental letdowns.

BOWDEN: (Laughing) They didn't do it, though, did they? In their behalf, we didn't prepare them good enough because we couldn't. They kept running some of the craziest stuff over there. We didn't see it the week before. We didn't get a chance to study it. We didn't get a chance to prepare for it. They threw some stuff at us last night that I'm sure our kids hadn't seen, so we couldn't practice against it. What are you going to do about it? Well, you have to do this and that. We gradually got better at it. But I was thinking last night, 'Lord, we did not practice enough. We did not practice enough.' Why are you fumbling? Quarterback, why did you throw that pass over his head. We were not sharp at all. We got sharpe enough at the end. We were getting better.

You nearly have to look to the other side. They didn't quit. They never quit. They kept fighting. They kept hitting. They kept hitting hard. They made enough plays to win.

The ACC wants you to play that Labor Day game again, but against a different opponent. Is that something you are in favor of doing?

BOWDEN: I'd like to play it, but I'd just like to check that next weekend out. You've got to be careful. It's just so much (public relations) for your program. People all over the country get to see your team, see your boys. It helps you. You just can't buy that kind of p.r. for recruiting playing in a game like that.

What do you feel about your team at this point? You said last night it may take a couple of more games, but what have you seen?

BOWDEN: We've still got room for improvement. You'd hate to look at this team and say, 'Oh boy, that's as good as they'll ever get. Florida State is maxed out.' We ain't close to maxed out. The key is going to be trying to improve. I don't think we could beat Clemson playing as good as we did against Miami or Troy. We'll have to play better. We'll have to improve.

Are you concerned about being mentally ready for Clemson?

BOWDEN: I don't think we'll have any problem getting up for Clemson for the fact that they beat you so bad last year. I think that game last year they scored early two times, and we came back and tied it up at the half. So you say, now we're ready to go. We came out the second half and they scored the first three times they get the ball. There were 21 points we couldn't answer. We didn't have to have a close game this week to get up for that dang game.

Have you seen enough of Clemson quarterback Will Proctor, and has your son Tommy seen enough of him, to get the sense that he can get it done for them?

BOWDEN: . . . I must have seen a half a quarter, and what I saw of him at that time was pretty good. He must have been pretty darn good. They got beat on a blocked extra point, so he must have kept producing ... They've got a good running game. That's where they are ahead of us. I still don't know why we don't run better.

I take it like it is, but I can't understand it. We are working on it harder. We are doing it harder, and working it harder and longer.

But you didn't try to establish the run early? It was like you were a heavyweight throwing haymakers. 'Let's get these guys out of here.'

BOWDEN: That's kind of the way it was. In fact, I encouraged them to start the game in a two-minute offense. I encouraged them. I thought there vulnerability was against the pass, so why go out there and mess around with the running game . . . Then we tried to mix it, but the firepower came throwing.

You play a team like that, you need to put them away early. Then it becomes a rout. We could never come close to putting them away. They put us away. They take the opening drive. They get the kickoff out to the 49, and that's a bad sign. They drive it down to our five and we intercept it in the end zone.

. . . Then they're down on our 10 yard line and we blocked a field goal. The defense had to save themselves twice .. We couldn't put them away. They were putting us away.

Now at the end of the game, we had them. We got them on the ropes. But I was glad to see it over. I was glad to see it end. Take my ball and go home.

What were your impressions with the way Brandon Warren played for a freshman tight end?

BOWDEN: He made a great catch. Him and (Caz) Piurowski, I really like those two. They got their chance because (Charlie) Graham got hurt. One of them brings one thing to the table. The other brings something else. And yet the blend is real good. Piurowski is big, over 6-7, 270 and maybe the softest hands on the team, and is just going to get better, better and better. Then you've got Warren whose body is more mature, faster, quicker, great hands. That was a great catch out there, great catch.

At what point did you start thinking this is going to be a long night?

BOWDEN: I could sense it even in the second quarter because we weren't getting anything done. What were we at the half, 0-3. One thing about it, I remembered the past where we've always been able to come back, but I'm wondering how. Then you go out in the third quarter and we scored the first two times we had it. That was a good sign. But they kept coming back and scoring and that was a bad sign.

What do you like about Tommy's team?

BOWDEN: Balance, balance. Balance and experience. To show you how this injury thing plays a part, I don't know if Boston College would have beat them if he hadn't lost two starting linebackers. Boston College scored their last touchdown running straight up the gut . . . He had a pretty good nucleus coming back. Now you take us last night, we lose three defensive tackles and I don't know what that's going to mean.

Coming into this season, I thought (Clemson) had a veteran team that if his quarterback came through, it could make the difference. His run-pass balance is good. In fact, it's real good. Ours is not.

. . . He spreads it out and runs it . . . Offensive football today is a game of formations. When I used to work with the offense, you lined up in one formation and played the whole game. You could tell everything the other team was doing. If they did this, you'd go there. If they did that, you'd go here. If the do this, you'd do that. But now it's put this formation in, and they do this. Put this formation in, and they do that. You are always trying to match up some kind of mismatch. But that's the way the pros play it. College is more or less the same way.

But the whole thing gets down to you've got to block. You always have to block. I don't guess that will ever change. Blocking and tackling.