That empty feeling
posted by LW, Thursday, November 05, 2009
One of the more stunning sights of last weekend was the jolting number of empty seats at Doak Campbell Stadium for Florida State's game against N.C. State.
The picture above was taken just before the Seminoles took the field. That's the first thing the team saw as it exited its tunnel in the north end zone.
The attendance at that game is irrelevant in the context of Saturday's big tilt in Death Valley, but it paints a pretty good picture of overall FSU fan discontent. Or maybe the more precise term is disinterest.
In this story, some folks say they just have better things to do.
"When we were winning, it was fun and worth it," said Bob Sanders, a former season-ticket holder. "Losing — it's not fun. I don't pay to do things that are not fun when I can pay to do things that are fun."
Florida State's athletics department and the city of Tallahassee lose out on a ton of revenue when their home games are a virtual ghost town, and maybe that's something Bobby Bowden needs to consider as he stubbornly hangs on and tries to resuscitate this once-dominant program.
As the criticism has mounted, the 79-year-old Bowden (he'll turn 80 on Sunday) has repeatedly said his age wouldn't be a factor if the Seminoles were winning.
Well, yeah. But the problem is, the Seminoles aren't winning. And last I checked, wins and losses were the measuring stick for coaches.
Some of the statistics Florida State has compiled during its plummet to mediocrity are as staggering as those compiled during its era of dominance.
Once upon a time -- in the 1990s -- this program lost one time in 58 games at Doak Campbell.
In their last nine home games against Division I-A competition, the Seminoles have lost six. And they were lucky to get out alive earlier this season against Division I-AA Jacksonville State.
Saturday's 45-42 escape of N.C. State snapped a five-game home losing streak against I-A competition (last win: last year's 41-27 victory over the Tigers).
If the Noles drop their next two at Clemson and Wake Forest, Mickey Andrews' sendoff in the home finale against Maryland could be greeted with more crickets chirping.
Our friends at Warchant.com have some good analysis of Saturday's game, complete with a prediction of Clemson 40, FSU 31.
Warchant publisher Gene Williams is participating in this week's "Enemy Lines" segment, by the way. No one knows the inner workings of that program better than Gene, so we're looking forward to getting more of his insight.
Bowden says he'll make the call on Andrews' replacement with input from coach-in-waiting Jimbo Fisher.
The Greenville News had a good story on Tommy Bowden yesterday, but I missed it because it wasn't up yesterday morning when I was posting links.
Looked for it this morning and it wasn't there.
But it is on The State's web site. Go figure.
The GN, by the way, is in serious contention with The Post and Courier for the dubious "Worst Newspaper Web Site Ever" honor.
The P&C still has the lead, though, by virtue of its total disappearance last weekend.
Anyway, back to Ed McGranahan's story on Tommy:
The Bowdens live in a condo at Panama City Beach, Fla. He runs five miles a day, and he and Linda walk another five. He sold the house in Clemson and said he might build one in Florida if he does not take a coaching job.
As yet, there are not any openings, but rumors on the message boards have linked him to at least four schools.
"I'm going to see what comes up in November," he said during one of those walks this week. "This is the time of the year when things start happening.
"I'd entertain any opportunities, so I'll sit back and wait, but I surely enjoy what I'm doing."
In the meantime, Bowden said, his toughest decisions on game day are omelets or pancakes for breakfast and which dip he will have with his chips. After breakfast he runs on the beach, exercises and "by 12 o'clock I'm on the couch for about 12 hours."
"It's a great day," he said. "I can watch Rich Rodriguez and know what he feels like and watch my father and know what he feels like and Dabo."
Also in The State, really good story on DeAndre McDaniel by Paul Strelow.
I remember my interest being piqued recently when Dabo Swinney said McDaniel was "a pain in the butt" to recruit. Strelow got to the bottom of it with some revelations about McDaniel's background:
"I didn't have no bad friends. But a lot of my friends didn't go anywhere and probably would have tried to persuade me to do things that I wasn't supposed to do. So I wanted to stay away from that."
It seems the influences included the mother he said he still loves and has occasional contact with.
According to Leon County criminal records, Wendy Richardson has been charged with 46 counts from 1991 through May 2009, ranging from grand theft to cashing false checks to drug possession.
Also in the Greenville News, Scott Keepfer writes about the wild ACC. In doing so, he terribly disappoints me by quoting Mike Hogewood instead of Doc Walker.
Here's what Hogewood said:
“It's the most unpredictable I've seen it in years. I think on a national level it may hurt the ACC, but it's great fun every weekend. From a broadcaster's perspective -- and a fan's -- I think it's fantastic.”
Here's what my man Doc would've said:
"Man, you got a bunch of werewolves in this conference. It is flat-out nasty with all the cyborgs flying around the ACC. I mean, these guys are football players."
In the P&C, Bobby Bowden downplays the revenge factor as he prepares to face the program his son used to coach.
As a subplot, Bobby Bowden might be extramotivated in a return to Clemson, which allegedly forced out his son last fall. Bowden downplayed the revenge factor Wednesday.
'Tommy's got no hard feelings,' said Bowden, who added he's 'gotten pretty good' at being gracious to coaches replacing his sons, as three of them — Tommy, Jeff and Terry — have been fired."
I doubt the folks at Clemson are shaking in their boots at the prospect of facing the wrath of a man who's long been in la-la land on the Seminoles' sidelines.
This is a man, remember, who still takes naps in the tower overlooking the practice fields as his team practices.
The man might be the best coach in the history of college football, given what he took over in Tallahassee. But for the good of himself, his legacy and his program, he needs to make like a tree and get outta here.
LW
For questions or comments on this blog entry, please visit The West Zone message board.
Link to this entry - Discuss this entry - Return to Blog Home
One of the more stunning sights of last weekend was the jolting number of empty seats at Doak Campbell Stadium for Florida State's game against N.C. State.
The picture above was taken just before the Seminoles took the field. That's the first thing the team saw as it exited its tunnel in the north end zone.
The attendance at that game is irrelevant in the context of Saturday's big tilt in Death Valley, but it paints a pretty good picture of overall FSU fan discontent. Or maybe the more precise term is disinterest.
In this story, some folks say they just have better things to do.
"When we were winning, it was fun and worth it," said Bob Sanders, a former season-ticket holder. "Losing — it's not fun. I don't pay to do things that are not fun when I can pay to do things that are fun."
Florida State's athletics department and the city of Tallahassee lose out on a ton of revenue when their home games are a virtual ghost town, and maybe that's something Bobby Bowden needs to consider as he stubbornly hangs on and tries to resuscitate this once-dominant program.
As the criticism has mounted, the 79-year-old Bowden (he'll turn 80 on Sunday) has repeatedly said his age wouldn't be a factor if the Seminoles were winning.
Well, yeah. But the problem is, the Seminoles aren't winning. And last I checked, wins and losses were the measuring stick for coaches.
Some of the statistics Florida State has compiled during its plummet to mediocrity are as staggering as those compiled during its era of dominance.
Once upon a time -- in the 1990s -- this program lost one time in 58 games at Doak Campbell.
In their last nine home games against Division I-A competition, the Seminoles have lost six. And they were lucky to get out alive earlier this season against Division I-AA Jacksonville State.
Saturday's 45-42 escape of N.C. State snapped a five-game home losing streak against I-A competition (last win: last year's 41-27 victory over the Tigers).
If the Noles drop their next two at Clemson and Wake Forest, Mickey Andrews' sendoff in the home finale against Maryland could be greeted with more crickets chirping.
Our friends at Warchant.com have some good analysis of Saturday's game, complete with a prediction of Clemson 40, FSU 31.
Warchant publisher Gene Williams is participating in this week's "Enemy Lines" segment, by the way. No one knows the inner workings of that program better than Gene, so we're looking forward to getting more of his insight.
Bowden says he'll make the call on Andrews' replacement with input from coach-in-waiting Jimbo Fisher.
The Greenville News had a good story on Tommy Bowden yesterday, but I missed it because it wasn't up yesterday morning when I was posting links.
Looked for it this morning and it wasn't there.
But it is on The State's web site. Go figure.
The GN, by the way, is in serious contention with The Post and Courier for the dubious "Worst Newspaper Web Site Ever" honor.
The P&C still has the lead, though, by virtue of its total disappearance last weekend.
Anyway, back to Ed McGranahan's story on Tommy:
The Bowdens live in a condo at Panama City Beach, Fla. He runs five miles a day, and he and Linda walk another five. He sold the house in Clemson and said he might build one in Florida if he does not take a coaching job.
As yet, there are not any openings, but rumors on the message boards have linked him to at least four schools.
"I'm going to see what comes up in November," he said during one of those walks this week. "This is the time of the year when things start happening.
"I'd entertain any opportunities, so I'll sit back and wait, but I surely enjoy what I'm doing."
In the meantime, Bowden said, his toughest decisions on game day are omelets or pancakes for breakfast and which dip he will have with his chips. After breakfast he runs on the beach, exercises and "by 12 o'clock I'm on the couch for about 12 hours."
"It's a great day," he said. "I can watch Rich Rodriguez and know what he feels like and watch my father and know what he feels like and Dabo."
Also in The State, really good story on DeAndre McDaniel by Paul Strelow.
I remember my interest being piqued recently when Dabo Swinney said McDaniel was "a pain in the butt" to recruit. Strelow got to the bottom of it with some revelations about McDaniel's background:
"I didn't have no bad friends. But a lot of my friends didn't go anywhere and probably would have tried to persuade me to do things that I wasn't supposed to do. So I wanted to stay away from that."
It seems the influences included the mother he said he still loves and has occasional contact with.
According to Leon County criminal records, Wendy Richardson has been charged with 46 counts from 1991 through May 2009, ranging from grand theft to cashing false checks to drug possession.
Also in the Greenville News, Scott Keepfer writes about the wild ACC. In doing so, he terribly disappoints me by quoting Mike Hogewood instead of Doc Walker.
Here's what Hogewood said:
“It's the most unpredictable I've seen it in years. I think on a national level it may hurt the ACC, but it's great fun every weekend. From a broadcaster's perspective -- and a fan's -- I think it's fantastic.”
Here's what my man Doc would've said:
"Man, you got a bunch of werewolves in this conference. It is flat-out nasty with all the cyborgs flying around the ACC. I mean, these guys are football players."
In the P&C, Bobby Bowden downplays the revenge factor as he prepares to face the program his son used to coach.
As a subplot, Bobby Bowden might be extramotivated in a return to Clemson, which allegedly forced out his son last fall. Bowden downplayed the revenge factor Wednesday.
'Tommy's got no hard feelings,' said Bowden, who added he's 'gotten pretty good' at being gracious to coaches replacing his sons, as three of them — Tommy, Jeff and Terry — have been fired."
I doubt the folks at Clemson are shaking in their boots at the prospect of facing the wrath of a man who's long been in la-la land on the Seminoles' sidelines.
This is a man, remember, who still takes naps in the tower overlooking the practice fields as his team practices.
The man might be the best coach in the history of college football, given what he took over in Tallahassee. But for the good of himself, his legacy and his program, he needs to make like a tree and get outta here.
LW
For questions or comments on this blog entry, please visit The West Zone message board.
Link to this entry - Discuss this entry - Return to Blog Home
Donnie Patterson. Donnie Patterson is the founder of Patterson Tax Service, located in Easley, S.C. He has been active in tax preparation since 1970, and offers a full range of tax and bookkeeping services.
Larry Williams. Larry has covered the daily beat at Clemson since 2004. Williams, who worked for the Charleston Post & Courier from 2004-08, joined Tigerillustrated.com in November of 2008. He may be reached by email at ldubya08(at)gmail.com. Replace (at) with @.