I can tell you watched many games. [Jeff Bowden Era. Rainbow Offense] Myself too. Jimbo coach in waiting was brilliant and struck gold.
My grandfather was a deacon at Bobby’s church and, although a Gator, thought the world of him I had the honor of meeting him at a FCA banquet about ten years ago. What a kind, generous spirit with time for his family, friends and church.
He definitely put FSU football on the map . They were doing nothing until he became coach. I kinda became an FSU fan when they came into the ACC and really brought big time football to the conference. I was on the FSU site for many years, they kept up with football recruiting as well as the quest for an ACC channel better by far than any of the other sites. Plus Bowden was a class act. Yes, he screwed up by bringing his son into coaching. At the expense of pissing of FSU fans, the people on Warchant, are the most fickle , hard to please of any site that I have ever seen . They pounded Bobby, then when Jimbo came on board they never seemed pleased with him either . So, look at the state of FSU football today vs Texas A&M..
Left for more cash at A&M if I’m not mistaken
The "fans" might have run him off. Plus, I think he went through a divorce, some of us know how that goes. At any rate, he might have become disenchanted with FSU for several reasons. Plus , A&M offered him a ton of cash. And no, he did not get fired. Has been a while since I kept up with this , so I hope I am telling you correctly.
He felt he didn’t have the admins full support esp as it pertained to facility upgrades and the like. He wanted a Dabo or Saban situation where he was given a blank check. Burn out as well as the divorce were key factors as well. Just needed a change of scenery He left Taggart some good skill people but the Oline was atrocious and the roster was littered with low character guys
Sorry to repeat some of what u said. He held on to oline coach Rick Trickett much too long. He was good back in the day, but his drill sergeant routine (former Marine) led to high attrition and difficult recruiting After Pruitt left after title year his DC Charles Kelly was a disaster as well
Spot on. Famous photo of a toppled over Christmas tree left in front yard he was so eager to get out of town
Thank you for the correction. I trust my memory too much. I should have taken 30 seconds to confirm
Jimbo was a good coach amd brought fsu back. However he was going through so much personally and obviously wanted more from the university. He also held them captive every off season with whatever high profile job was open at the time. Not really a good way to foster a healthy relationship. I honestly dont feel he is a good representative or leader or young men...great coach though
Like i said...it was my first love. I grew up in jacksonville in the 90s. I honestly appreciate jimbo for his time but he didnt want to be at fsu so i didnt want him there. Bobby loved fsu. I dont think jimbo ever did
Part of getting him to fsu as the offensive coordinator was giving him the coach in waiting title. Nobody knew exactly when bobby was gonna retire but it could only be a few years before jimbo would become the head coach. While at fsu jimbos wife was cheating on him. There are crazy rumors in Tally about who with. Jimbo looked tired and drunk half the time. He hated doing the stuff that coaches have to do like make booster appearances. In turn the boosters and administration hated jimbi back. Is agent Jimmy Sexton was constantly having his name come up in coaching searches every year to leverage a raise. Jimbo was a top 5 paid coach at fsu yet he never seemed satisfied. He actually was right about the current arms race but fsu isnt tamu and cant just give him a blank check. Once the chinks in the armor showed he bailed
Interesting info. Had not heard part of it before.
It was hard to get teams to come to Tall. In 1981 they played five straight road games: ohio state Norte dame Nebraska LSU and Pitt (a natl power in that era) won three of the five iirc
Play anyone anytime
Could be wrong but I think there were a seasons worth , perhaps hpnole could shed some light on this, but at some point there were some violations re an online music class some of the players were taking
Sounds familiar. They should have hired the same law firm as unc cheater did. OFC
If i remember correctly fsu self imposed a bunch of penalties. Cant remember if the wins were part of that. Fsu doesnt have nearly as deep of pockets as unc
Again, correct me if I am wrong, but, those vacated wins put Peterno ahead of him in wins. The whole thing stunk. Because of some players breaking rules, they had to sit those players , and lost a bowl game, vacated wins, etc. Then the Holes got caught for 18 years cheating -the whole damned school, and nothing happened. There was talk on the FSU site, about suing the NCAA to get the wins back, but nothing ever happened.
