Bluegrassrivals

TALLAHASSEE -- Legendary Florida State coach Bobby Bowden, who built one of college football's greatest dynasties in 34 seasons with the Seminoles, plans to announce his retirement Tuesday morning, sources close to the situation told ESPN.com.

Bowden, whose 388 career victories trail only Penn State's Joe Paterno as college football's winningest coach, met with FSU president TK Wetherell and athletic director Randy Spetman on Monday morning. According to sources, Bowden was given two options: return to FSU in 2010 as an ambassador to the program, in which he would have little input in the day-to-day operations of the program, or retire after the Seminoles' upcoming bowl game.

Sources told ESPN.com that offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher, who was named Bowden's eventual successor near the end of the 2007 season, has agreed to contract terms to replace Bowden after this season. The school's booster organization would have owed Fisher $5 million if he didn't replace Bowden by January 2011.

Bowden, 80, led FSU to national championships in 1993 and '99 and 14 consecutive top-five finishes in the Associated Press top 25 poll from 1987 to 2000. But the Seminoles finished 6-6 after last week's 37-10 loss at No. 1 Florida, which was the third time in four seasons that FSU lost six games.





[ame="http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4701625"]Sources: Florida State coach Bobby Bowden to announce retirement Tuesday - ESPN[/ame]

I wonder if Bowden and Joe Pa had a last longer bet?

I think Bowden should be able to decide when he wants to leave the program, because he is the on who put FSU on the map. But coaching is a job, and it doesn't matter who you are, if your not living up to expectations, your going to lose that job.

40 seasons is a long time. In 1970, he took over for Jim Carlin at WVU when Carlin left Morgantown for Texas Tech. Probably Bowden's biggest embarrassment was losing to Pitt in 1970 36-35 after being up 35-8. In his 6 seasons in Morgantown, Bowden was 1-5 vs Pitt and 0-6 vs Penn State. I still recall him being burned in effigy and ran out of Morgantown. WVU did not have the current stadium it has now, so Bowden felt that WVU was not making any moves to compete with Pitt and Penn State. If you have ever seen the movie "We Are Marshall," the scene is true that Bowden did provide assistance to the Marshall program after the plane crash.

Wonderful coach that will be remembered as a winner and running an NFL player factory. It would be interesting to know how many NFL players came through while he was the coach at FSU.