Bobby Bowden Acts His Age, Forgets Score

Bowden may not remember what happened two quarters ago, but he remembers when FSU was good. That used to be enough for boosters, but after a mental lapse quite in character with an octogenarian, who knows.

Corey Clark of the Tallahassee Democrat knew he would ruffle some feathers when he posted a partial transcript of Bowden's postgame remarks after a comeback loss to Clemson; he even apologized in advance. But Bowden's supporters do no one any good by pretending this sort of thing isn't going on.

Bowden: "Both of us made errors. We probably scored on some of their errors — I didn't keep up with it. But we'd turn the ball over and they'd go down and score. Then we'd turn it over and they didn't score. They'd turn it over back. And the game kind of went that way. We felt very comfortable. We knew it was a battle.

"How late was it 24-21 in our favor? How late did it get? Did that get into the fourth quarter?"

Reporter: "Nine and a half minutes left."

Bowden: "Left in the game?"

Reporter: "Yes."

Bowden: "So you're feeling comfortable, but you know that it ain't won yet. Then of course the dam broke."

A few minutes later, Bowden was asked this question by another reporter.

Reporter: "In the second half, when it seemed like momentum started to switch, how hard was it to try to reverse that?"

Bowden: "You mean when they got it (momentum)? Well, actually … you know, they had to kick off to us. We had a what? A three-point ….? Did we have the lead at the half?"

(Reporter nods).

Bowden: "We had a three-point lead at the half, I think. Then they had to kick off to us. We needed to take it down and win the darn game right there. We didn't do it. They stopped us. Then we kicked it to them and then they probably scored."

Reporter: "They went ahead and then you guys came back."

Bowden: "Huh?"

Reporter: "They went ahead and then you guys came back again."

Bowden: "Did we get ahead of them again after that?"

Reporter: "Yeah."

Bowden: "Then we got back ahead, huh? Umm, it was going that way, you know it? I felt very comfortable that if they could score, we could score. That's the way I felt, you know it? We've done it all year. But then we started turning the ball over."

I'm not saying this is any worse than the senior moments we all have from time to time. I'm not saying Seminole backers should be terrified that he'll forget the score, or the down, in the middle of a game. I'm not saying Bowden's too old to be coaching football.

Oh wait. I am saying that.

What Are We To Think Of Bowden's Postgame Comments? [Tallahassee Democrat]