And Wetherell would have had to accept it

According to various reports, Wetherell and athletic director Randy Spetman met with Bowden this morning and gave him two choices: retire or come back as head coach in name only If he did the previous, they would say it was his choice. If he did the latter, offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher would take over almost all the day-to-day operations of the Seminoles team, including hiring assistants, running practice, and calling the plays. Simply put, Bowden would merely be an ambassador with the title of head coach, a figurehead, a head coach emeritus in some sense But really, there was only one thing Bowden could do Bowden could have chosen to hang it up. But his comments from the past few days show anything but a desire to do that. I want to coach next year, but let me say I need to go home and do some soul searching, Bowden said following the Seminoles 37-10 loss to Florida on Saturday, the team's sixth straight loss to their in-state rivals. It completed a 6-6 season that easy could have been worse, trailing into the final minute against FCS-side Jacksonville State and two-win Maryland.

Moreover, ESPN's Mark Schlabach reported Sunday that a source close to the legendary coach said that Bowden planned to come back in 2010, that he wanted to coach one more year. Unless Wetherell had a really convincing heart-to-heart, I doubt he convinced Bowden that Bowden wanted to retire. How do you convince a man that he wants to give up what he's done for nearly three dozen years and still loves Quite simply, you can't At the very least, I know I can't. Even Wetherell, who played for Bowden when Bowden was the wide receivers coach in Tallahassee in the mid-1960s, wouldn't know how to do that. No, Wetherell convinced Bowden that he needed to retire, that the only choice was to retire, that Florida State and Bobby Bowden needed Bobby Bowden to retire That T.K. Wetherell needed Bobby Bowden to retire.For his good and for the team's And Bowden was not happy about it. He knew Bowden had too much pride to accept being a figurehead.

He had been the boss ever since Jim Carlen left West Virginia for Texas Tech in 1970, almost forty years ago. By comparison, Fisher, Bowden's heir-designate, was four years old when Bowden coached his first game at West Virginia. And Wetherell expected Bowden to agree to work for Fisher Somehow, the ultimatum was leaked to the public, whether by design or not, who knows But it was leaked And more likely than not, it was a bluff. If Bowden wanted to return, if he wanted to be the head coach in 2010, he would have been. He could have told Wetherell, I'm taking my swan song and then you won't hear from me again. I'm not an ambassador, I'm the coach. And Wetherell would have had to accept it. He wasn't actually going to fire Bobby Bowden, at least not this year Bowden was going to get one more year if Bowden persisted.