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Pastimes : College Football: Nits, Gators, Bruins, Vols - Whoever! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MythMan who wrote (7176)	11/27/2002 7:25:04 AM
From: Nittany Lion	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 11146

Controversy @ FSU? I'm shocked! Bowden's decision to bounce McPherson has a history To say Bobby Bowden has been soft on discipline is being easy on the coaching patriarch. The dean of dad-gum is also the king of second and third chances, a guy who once referred to a Florida State player’s indiscretion by cracking, “I’m praying for a misdemeanor." The Bowden school of discipline's philosophy has been to discreetly handle transgressions in-house, to get a kid up at 6 in the morning to run the stadium steps. To suspend a player, the thinking goes, adversely affects the team and thus punishes innocent players. Just look at a couple of recent examples, and believe us when we say there is a lot more history here. When strong safety Derrick Gibson stood accused of soliciting sex from an undercover policewoman, Bowden asked only that he apologize to his teammates before the 2000 season. The season before, bad-boy kicker Sebastian Janikowski blew off curfew and still played in the Sugar Bowl, where FSU handled Virginia Tech for the national title. Bowden joked about the offense and Janikowski’s Polish heritage, saying, “We have a Warsaw rule that if he’s breathing and alive he will kick off in the game." So when Bowden finally puts his foot down you’re left shaking your head. His dismissal of quarterback Adrian McPherson is so out of character that you can only imagine how egregious the crime must be. Or perhaps the get-tough call came from AD Dave Hart or higher ups. Or here again, maybe Bowden is simply so down on McPherson that he ran him off. As far as we can tell, McPherson’s alleged role in Tallahassee police's investigation of a $3,500 forged check is his first offense at FSU. According to his attorney, Grady Irvin, McPherson hasn’t been charged or even interviewed by police. And if you listen to Irvin, the sophomore QB told coaches of his possible involvement before they let him start last Saturday’s game at North Carolina State. So why is Bowden being such a stickler now? Time may tell, perhaps. And let’s also be careful about making McPherson out to be the victim here. He may indeed yet face legal issues. When asked if he expected police to charge McPherson, Irvin told us, “There is a possibility." He wouldn’t go into detail. But other Seminoles have had their day in court, and been welcomed back into Bowden’s program, including Heisman Trophy candidate Peter Warrick who got busted in 1999 for petty theft. As the coach told 60 Minutes a couple years ago, “Bobby Bowden will discipline your child but he’s not going to kick him on the street unless he has to." What’s different here, Irvin suggests, is McPherson -- a hotshot recruit who arrived on campus last fall as the only Florida high school athlete ever named both Mr. Football and Mr. Basketball -- posed a unique challenge to Bowden from the early days of the season. He expressed an interest in transferring, with his name linked to the South Florida program. He also lobbied unsuccessfully to be redshirted this fall. “I do know that Adrian McPherson was not Bobby Bowden’s choice to be the No. 1 quarterback," Irvin says. “Chris Rix is his choice, and unfortunately there are members of his coaching staff that disagree with that -- including Bobby’s own son [Jeff, the offensive coordinator]. ... And when Adrian said he was contemplating transferring this year, Coach Bowden didn’t like it. He said, ‘No, you made a commitment and you stay here.’ Adrian had threatened to transfer. “This was very early in the season when he learned he was not going to be the starting quarterback. Adrian started to gripe about it. Bobby was [upset] about it -- ‘Who is he to threaten me?’ No. 2, Adrian wanted to be redshirted to put a year of separation between him and Chris Rix. He told coach he didn’t want to play this year. He wanted to save another year of eligibility. “It was Bowden’s thought -- ‘Yeah, you want to redshirt this year so you can transfer. It ain’t happening.’ And he put him into a football game that he didn’t need to go into at all. Bowden just wanted to hold onto him." Bowden had a near mutiny on his watch last month after players lobbied him to insert McPherson into the lineup ahead of Rix. McPherson struggled as the starter in the N.C. State loss and Bowden was ready to open the job up before uncharacteristically cutting him loose. Now, his team 8-4 and far removed from the national title chase, you wonder if Bowden has the energy to keep the ship afloat. He’s never wanted to stay around for meaningless games. So you wonder if retirement isn’t weighing more on his mind as the headaches mount. Mike Fish is a senior writer for CNNSI.com.