Bobby Bowden on Steve Spurrier

welcome on Fox always a pleasure to be with the legendary Bobby Bowden who joins us now in our studios via telephone coach how you doing how's that golf game coming along doing good Paul it didn't get any better I got I got hit balls a lot or they don't play that often I try to play about once a week but I'm gone so much I'm miss alone at one-week miss you on the sidelines in Your Honor I have the garnet and gold helmet you designed back in 76 when you came to Tallahassee so we'll put that right in front of me yeah as we start to ask you college football questions and of course the biggest news of the day one of your great rivals through the years Steve Spurrier is stepping down at South Carolina here in midseason your reaction when you heard the news well when I got up this morning I get up between 4:00 and 5:00 and go out get the paper reading there was resigning and I didn't think he would but but yet it didn't surprise me that much you know and you know yah yeah I don't know if you remember Paul about 10 years ago oh no about 15 years when you made the statement I'm not going to coach as long as that oh man up at that far state and I was i I got I got it till I was 18 he he got out at night at 70 a veritable youngster at 70 what is the most difficult part as you get older in your career longer in your career and of course you work for the state from 76 through 2009 so you're talking about three decades here does it get harder Bobby as the years go on could you see that in Steve Spurrier yeah I think so I don't think you can stick you you you're not as close to it as when you you know I used to be I co I coached you know even this head football coach I've been coach kids and I call plays up until maybe 10 or 15 years before I retired that but then it it kind of gets away from you you're so involved as a head coach and going to meetings and taking care of other things that you're not able to study film like you'd like to and and I think it kind of gets away from you you had while he was at the University of Florida in the to the 90s some Titanic battles coach 13 games you were eight five and one against Steve when you think about him as an XO no football coach that you had to face what immediately comes to mind what comes to mind is I'd better get ready you better get ready for a day's work because that's what's going to take the beating and don't get don't get too heady if you happen to be ahead of him because he's coming back he was always in the game because he can throw the ball right and it was at the passing game that he brought in you faced coach by my count seven different coaches at the University of Florida from Doug Dickey through Charlie Pell Ron Zook under Urban Meyer and right in the middle of him is Steve Spurrier yeah what what made it different what made him unique against that litany of gator head coaches I'll tell you what made him unique against the nation before he q before he went to Duke right you had to run the ball to win that was common knowledge around coaches all over the country the Olsen you can't win unless you can run the ball that's what we all said that's what we all fault Steve came along and said oh yes you can you can win it through in the football and he did that he just is he is what the prize his approach what I'm going to run the ball so I can throw it was I'm gonna throw the ball so I can run and and now they were today now everybody's throwing it we go back 25 years ago they want yeah he was a passing quarterback in his playing days when he won the Heisman Trophy you of course faced him in 96 they wanted all with Danny Wuerffel at the helm of all the games that you played against him what immediately comes to mind for me is a 94 the fifth quarter in the French Quarter oh yeah join the two that was after the tie when you were down big at the half were you not to Florida and Doak Campbell Stadium recall take us back to that day you're all but dead and somehow you come back and tell that football I'll never forget that when we were planning our place and and with ten minutes to go we're behind thirty one two three I mean I'm sitting now thinking of what am I won't tell them after the game you know we getting killed and then all of a sudden we get a touchdown with ten minutes to go and then Florida comes back throws the ball wheeler snapped and scored another one they come back throw it some more we are septic scored another one and first thing you know we're in the game and so with about a minute I had to go we tied up 31 - 31 a lot of people said well why don't why didn't you go for - the reason I didn't go for two is because it was too great of a comeback to take a chance of not losing you know plus we had a bet and a half left and game and be honest with you I think we came back to about the 40 but four out of field goal range but that that was I think of that game a lot when I think in the Florida for the state games because we won national championships sometimes when we beat him and he won a national championship when he beat us so it was a great series man I remember in the Sugar Bowl when he won what was the hardest loss for you to take to Florida would it have been that game in 96 when they put a big number on the board what would've been the toughest I don't know it was although that would that would be second that would be big the biggest one came after that when we played them down in Florida and we were undefeated and if we beat that game we gonna play for the national championship and we are ahead of him in that game we had Janikowski Janikowski just kicked a field goal put us ahead and was about it about two minutes ago that son of a gun scored through he drove about 80 yards in two minutes and then beat us that without that would hurt worse a coach on the topic of painful losses and I know your your psychology in this game I've always found interesting you once said to me that the winds become commonplace when you're successful as you were the winningest coach in the history of the game but the losses will will begin to haunt you especially in your years do you think that perhaps that is began to mount for Stevens Owen for in the sec and they're having a tough time what was it like you used to say the losses were tougher to take and could never match the higher the wins if he's like me that is true and I think he is like me yeah those those losses just Kenya and the only again I think the more they kill you you know and and there's nobody they wanted to win any more than Steve yeah although we all do I don't know everybody wants to win more than he did and I can you could see it when he lost and I imagine this this I imagine going into this season just to not imagine what I imagine that he wasn't thinking about retiring but is this is these losses begin to creep up and creep up and they hurt so bad I think he probably so I just I've had enough isten fact he's sitting like a man he said he said I'm not the coach today I was 10 years ago and so there's a time for me to get out and I'm getting out so I think he he did the wise thing for him he said he's not retiring though Bobby he said it perhaps he'd like to coach high school kids or stay around the game in some fashion can you empathize with him in that did you ever have a longing perhaps to go back to the roots so I did but I was 80 I was 80 when I got outside I thought that enough you know but I could see him I could see him getting involved with some high school on the side or a bunch of kids because he loves to it's like checkers to him you never get too old to play checkers well he never gets too old to play for coach football even though if it's not in college one of the great benefits there would think coach have been 80 years old as you can shoot your age so true I wish I'm not mad I can't no man it's all I can do now to break man and I'm playing up as close as you get coach I enjoyed Paul yeah we enjoy having you with us thanks so much you have a birthday coming up so an early happy birthday to your coach Bowden thanks for your time Paul's I can good to hear from me again

Channel: Bally Sports Florida & Bally Sports Sun

Views: 42,146

Keywords: Bobby Bowden (Author), Steve Spurrier (American Football Player), Florida Gators, Florida State Seminoles, FOX Sports Florida, South Carolina Gamecocks Football (American Football Team)

Id: g-kjqXunVUo

Length: 8min 51sec (531 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 13 2015