FSU serves up cupcakes, walks away from a fight (pulled from FanBlogs)
To the Seminole nation - this is going to sting a little.
In light of the suspensions from last season's cheating scandal, FSU has altered its schedule and will play two DI-AA teams in the same season for the first time since 1988.
But Bowden acknowledged that wasn't an option this season because of FSU's investigation into academic fraud, which will leave his team without several starters for the first three games of 2008.
"We had to give up a Monday night game, which I hated to give up because of the [lost] exposure," Bowden said this week. "But there's no way we would be ready to play a ranked team at that time."
To his credit, Bowden built FSU into one of the greatest programs of the late 1980's and 1990's with one simple mantra - anyone, anywhere, any time. And it is that reputation that makes this schedule change all the more disappointing.
With one quote, Florida State coach Bobby Bowden all but conceded that he is playing for "the record". He is walking the sidelines for wins. He is running in the ring, trying to stay on his feet until the bell. He is trying to outlast Joe Paterno.
Not enough time to get ready for a ranked opponent? Puh-leeze. You've got all spring, summer and early fall to get ready, coach. That is a poor excuse, especially from one of the greatest coaches of all time.
And who said anything about a ranked opponent?! Hell, *any* FBS team would suffice, but the Seminoles didn't go down that road. They *chose* to schedule two cupcakes. They chose it.
I cannot help but recall the immortal words of President John F. Kennedy...
"But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?
"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."
FSU is choosing to schedule D-IAAs because they are easy, because the goal will not measure their skills, and because they are not willing to accept a greater challenge. And the whole thing just about makes me sick to my stomach.
Maybe Bowden had a sit down with Roberto Duran during the off-season. No mas. No mas.
FSU homers will try to dodge the subject by pointing to the Gators eight DI-AA games in the last twenty years versus FSU's three during that same span. Don't. Just don't.
This isn't about history - this is about now. This is about the future. This is about who FSU is and how we will remember Bobby Bowden - the man who told us just a few months ago that he didn't back down and wasn't about to start.
Umm... yeah. About that....
Florida State has lost an awful lot of games in the last seven years, but they never walked away from a fight... until now.