Joe Paterno, your NCAA coaching wins record is safe.
That’s because Florida State coach Bobby Bowden, who trails Paterno by just five wins for the all-time NCAA Division I mark, is retiring after the Seminoles’ bowl game this season.
“We’ve got one more game and I look forward to enjoying these next few weeks as the head football coach,” Bowden said Tuesday in a statement released by the school.
Bowden met with his team Tuesday afternoon following two days of conversations with school officials, including Florida State president T.K. Wetherell and athletic director Randy Spetman.
The legendary coach had said he wanted to return in 2010, but apparently Bowden’s two options were either to retire or basically be just a figurehead for the program with more responsibility given to coach-in-waiting Jimbo Fisher, the team’s offensive coordinator. Fisher now will become the first head football coach FSU has hired in 34 seasons.
Bowden, 80, has won 388 years in 44 seasons overall as a head coach. He won two national titles with Florida State in the 1990s, and from 1987-2000 his Noles won at least 10 games and finished ranked in the top five of the AP poll.
FSU and ACC officials are trying to get the Noles into either the Jan. 1 Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, or the Dec. 29 Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando because Bowden wants to coach his final game in Florida. The Gator Bowl reportedly has eyes for West Virginia as its Big East choice opposite the ACC slot, and WVU is where Bowden was offensive coordinator from 1966 to 1969 and head coach from 1970 to 1975. So an FSU-West Virginia matchup is very possible in that game as a final tribute, in a sense, to Bowden.
Florida State finished this regular season with 6-6 record after starting the year with a preseason No. 18 ranking. The Noles also lost to all three of the BCS programs in Florida this year: USF, Miami and Florida, with two of those defeats coming in Tallahassee.
Here are the all-time wins leaders in Division I-A (x-active):
1 x-Joe Paterno – 393
2 x-Bobby Bowden – 388
3 Paul “Bear” Bryant – 323
4 Pop Warner – 319
5 Amos Alonzo Stagg – 314
6 LaVell Edwards – 257
7 Tom Osborne – 255
8 Lou Holtz – 249
9 Woody Hayes – 238
10 Bo Schembechler – 234
11 Hayden Fry – 232
12 x-Frank Beamer – 228
13 x-Mack Brown – 213
14 Jess Neely – 207
15 Warren Woodson – 203
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