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- The ‘Head Ball Coach’ Steve Spurrier came out of left field and heaped effusive praise on the Florida State Seminoles and the late Bobby Bowden
- Bobby Bowden’s Seminoles were arguably Steve Spurrier’s biggest rival during his time as HC of the Florida Gators and this praise was certainly unexpected
- Read more College Football articles here on BroBible
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The Head Ball Coach, Steve Spurrier, must be getting soft in his old age. Spurrier went on the podcast of former Gainesville Sun sports editor Pat Dooley this week (full video below) and threw enormous praise at the late Bobby Bowden and the Florida State Seminoles.
Praising Bowden isn’t the weird part of Spurrier’s comments. Bobby was a legend recognized by everyone in College Football as one of the greats. It’s the manner in which Steve Spurrier really digs deep to talk about how dominant the Florida State Seminoles were.
Steve claims FSU could’ve been in the National Championship Game twenty times and calls it a ‘shame’ that Bobby Bowden didn’t win more trophies. How often have you ever heard a prominent College Football coach calling it a ‘shame’ that his bitter rival didn’t win more championships?!?!
Steve Spurrier Says It’s A ‘Shame’ Bobby Bowden’s Seminoles Only Won 2 National Championships
“Bobby Bowden — and all the great teams they’ve had there — it really is sort of a shame he only won two nationals. Because he played us and Miami. If he had said, ‘We’ll play the ACC, and if you boys are good enough to get to the national championship game, we’ll play you then … they would have been in it almost every one of those years. He’d have been in the national [championship] game at least 20 times.”
I’m a Florida State University graduate and a born-and-raised Floridian who grew up and discovered his passion for College Football at the height of the Bowden-Spurrier / FSU-UF rivalry. Never in a million years would I expect to see Steve Spurrier calling it a ‘shame’ that Bobby Bowden only won 2 national championships.
But it didn’t stop there!!! Steve Spurrier went on to discuss how the Florida State Seminoles being so dominant knocked UF down despite the Gators killing it in the SEC. Spurrier even went further and said he’s ‘thankful and blessed’ to have won a National Championship against FSU due to peculiar circumstances.
“We won a whole bunch of SECs, but unfortunately we played FSU when they’re Top 4 in the nation 13 out of 14 times. We sort of knocked each other out, and then Miami would knock FSU out a lot.
Our year, the Sugar Bowl got the ACC champ and the SEC champ. And the Rose Bowl got the Pac-12 and the Big Ten champion. If not, Arizona State would have played FSU, and we’d have been fighting for second place. So we were very fortunate. I’m thankful and feel blessed we got one national championship out of the two chances we had.”
Warchant Managing Editor Ira Schoffel explains howri during that era, the Rose Bowl didn’t allow for “Pac-12 and Big Ten champions from participating in the Alliance.” The ‘Alliance’ here refers to the Bowl Alliance which existed from 1995-1997. That prevented #2 ranked Arizona State from facing the #1 ranked Florida State Seminoles in the de facto National Championship and instead, the #3 ranked Florida Gators got a re-match against the Seminoles and won the natty.
Here’s the full hour-long interview with Steve Spurrier who seems as sharp as ever at the ripe age of 76 years old. Spurrier‘s comments about Bobby Bowden and the Seminole start around the 31:30 mark which I’ve set the video to start there. If it doesn’t, you can just skip ahead to that portion and/or watch the full hour-long interview.
Hearing Steve Spurrier praise the Florida State Seminoles and calling it a ‘shame’ that Bobby Bowden’s Noles didn’t win more National Championships has me feeling like I’m taking crazy pills. Maybe we really are living in the upside down.