TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -Bobby Bowden isn’t crazy about playing South Florida for the first time.
The venerable coach of No. 18 Florida State knows the Bulls (3-0) are hunting credibility and he doesn’t want them winning at his expense Saturday.
“We hate for them to get the credibility with us because it hurts our recruiting,” Bowden said. “But it’s something that’s inevitable that would happen.”
On the other hand, it’s a game South Florida coach Jim Leavitt has been craving to play.
“No question about it,” Leavitt said, adding that for USF to “really change history,” it has to eventually beat one of the state’s so-called Big Three – Florida, Florida State and Miami.
A history buff himself, Bowden would’ve preferred seeing Florida State began its relationship with USF after his retirement.
pany the way it is.”
But Bowden doesn’t lose at home in inaugural matchups.
The second most winning coach in major college football history with 384 victories, Bowden is 29-2 at Florida State in games when facing another school for the first time – both defeats were on the road. The losses were at Tulane in 1983 and at No. 5 Michigan in 1986.
The Seminoles are 6-1 against ranked teams in initial showdowns and 3-1 against teams ranked in the Top 10 – Nebraska in 1980, Ohio State in 1982 and West Virginia in 1982. Bowden has consistently referred to the 19-14 victory at Nebraska in 1980 as the game that put his program on the national stage.
“What he’s done there is extraordinary and will never be done again,” Leavitt said. “Everything about him is pretty doggone impressive.”
A win at Florida State on Saturday would have similar impact on the Tampa school, which already owns some impressive wins over the likes of Auburn, Kansas, Louisville, Pitt and West Virginia and North Carolina and North Carolina State from the Atlantic Coast Conference.
A signature win over one of the so-called Big Three in talent-rich Florida would redefine the Bulls’ status and perhaps create a power shift in the state.
“If they give him the facilities they need he’ll have as strong a program there as there is in the United States,” Bowden said, adding “they’ve built their program as quick as any 1A school I can remember.”
Bowden knows something about building programs, inheriting a Florida State team 33 years ago that had won just four games in three previous seasons. Now he’s working on his 33rd straight winning season.
To get established, Florida State traveled all over the country to play powerhouse teams. Ohio State, Nebraska and Michigan are among schools who refused to come to Tallahassee so Bowden’s teams beat ’em in their own stadiums.
Now Leavitt is working on a similar scenario.
And the story line for Saturday’s game got more intriguing after USF lost its star quarterback, Matt Grothe, for the season with a knee injury last week. They’ve replaced him with redshirt freshman B.J. Daniels from Tallahassee.
Making his first start in front of more than 80,000 fans in his hometown won’t shake Daniels, his coaches claim.
“The kid’s built with confidence. He just exudes it,” USF coordinator Mike Canales said. “It won’t faze him a bit.”
Bowden wants to determine if the Seminoles are the same team that routed Brigham Young 54-28 last week or the one that needed to score in the final minute to defeat lower-division Jacksonville (Ala.) State.
“We must be concerned about ourselves,” Bowden said. “We have to be concerned about us playing our best no matter who we’re playing.”
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