Some highlights:
This is not the way Bobby Bowden, a man I consider to be the greatest major-college coach of all time, should end his career -- as a bitter Little League father who cannot accept that his son just might not be good enough to be an all-star.
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Peter Tom Willis, the former Florida State quarterback who is now a color commentator on Seminole radio broadcasts, said on the air during the loss to Clemson that the Seminoles needed to scrap "this high-school offense."
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Bowden's son, Terry, a former head football coach who now does a daily radio show in town (4-7 p.m., WHOO, 1080 AM), has questioned Florida State's offensive philosophy on the air and has called this year's scheme "a jump-ball offense."
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For four years, we were led to believe that the old quarterback -- Chris Rix -- was the problem. Now the problem is that the new quarterback -- Drew Weatherford -- is too young and the offensive line too banged up. What's the excuse going to be next year -- not enough depth at tight end?
Rix became a punching bag and a punch line for many of us in the media. He became the convenient fall guy when the program began falling. Did we have it all wrong? Was he the victim and not the villain?
"My son was made a scapegoat for the offensive ineptitude," said Chris Rix Sr., the father of Florida State's much-maligned former quarterback. "Funny, but the many problems Chris was blamed for are still there now that he's gone.
"My son was never developed like he should have been. He was stuck in second gear his whole time there. Chris was recruited by Mark Richt to play quarterback at Florida State, but when Coach Richt left [to become the head coach at Georgia], we weren't playing for Florida State anymore. We were playing for the Bobby Bowden Friends and Family Network."
Interesting.
[Photo: This statue honors Bowden's attempt to point the blame for FSU's offensive problems at the media, fans and players instead of his son.]
8 comments:
More from the story....
'The year before Jeff took over at Florida State, the Mark Richt-coordinated unit was ranked No. 1 in the nation in total offense. In the five years since, FSU has been ranked Nos. 26, 32, 37, 61 and 42.'
Randy Sanders is available (thank goodness).
Actually, to a certain extent a Dad should be loyal to his son before anything else. But then again he's being paid $2M to win so he might have to choose son or $$. If he chooses Son I'd admire him too because, and I'm certain he won't live below the poverty line, there's something to be said blood (Jeff) is thicker than water (FSU).
Finally, who gives a hooey what Terry has to say!! If I were Dad I'd call him and say shut up or your out of the will.
I agree to an extent, but at what point does parental loyalty actually become a disservice to your child? Jeff got thrown to the fire too early and has now made a gigantic boob out of himself for the last 5 years. Daddy's loyalty is guaranteeing that he'll never be an OC at a major school again.
The little league comparison is apt, because no matter how cool the coach's semi-retarded son was everybody hated him if he didn't actually deserve the position given to him.
Your post got me a little nostalgic, so I went back to check out FSU's stats during that 2000 season, Richt's last as the Noles' OC. Mother of God, dude. Homes was dropping 50 points on people like it wasn't no thang. 63 points on Duke. Another 63 on a UNC team that finished with a winning record. 58 on N.C. State, who was bowl-bound. 54 on Clemson, who was not only bowl-bound but coached by Bobby's son, for Christ's sake. (So blood apparently isn't thicker than water in all instances.) FSU's only shit-the-bed performance offensively that season was against Oklahoma in the national-title game, by which time Richt already had one eye on his new office in Athens.
FSU's records since then: 8-4, 9-5, 10-3, 9-3, and (soon to be) 7-5. This after never having to endure more than two losses in a season for the duration of the Richt era. Seriously, does Bobby not think in his heart of hearts there's some correlation here?
My only guess is that Bobby's seeing the writing on the nursing-home wall and is getting set to retire soon -- and, knowing that there's not a chance in hell his successor keeps Jeff around, has decided to give sonny a nice comfy nest while he still can.
Dude,
Why all the hate for Bobby Bowden? What did he do?
While I agree that Richt's departure hurt their offense (recruiting, development, scheme), I think losing Van Halanger was the bigger loss. Florida State has been pushed around, and they have lost the "swagger" that their defense had. Their offensive line is weak and pathetic, which not only hurts their running game, but doesn't give the quarterback any time to find a receiver. Once he finds a receiver, they aren't physical enough to go up and get the ball. That all falls back on the strength and conditioning.
RE: Chris Rix
His father is trying a little history revision. Rix could not hold on to the football. He made huge mistakes in the biggest of games, all of which cost him losses. You can't move blame from a guy who throws every pass off his back foot into double coverage to the offensive coordinator. You may can blame Jeff for not developing Rix, but from what I saw/heard, he had a fifty-million dollar arm.....that's it....no brain...not even a ten-cent brain. There was a vacancy sign in neon lights flashing. Rix sucked...end of story.
I agree Rix sucked. But WHY did he suck? Why did he actually REGRESS during his senior year? Poor coaching. You've got to remember--in the PROS you expect players to coach themselves! In COLLEGE, you have to COACH THEM!!!!
I refuse to believe that Rix was so incredibly stupid that he couldn't have been developed more effectively.
Rix had the talent to be big time. He just had a very bad QB coach and a weak offensive coordinator.
And there was no better option being groomed to sit him.
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