For starters everyone, I respect all of you because you have to act like adults to keep posting here. There's a lot of agree to disagree. Know this: many times I have ONE opinion and then I do this moronic thing called looking at the data, and it often overturns my assumption. Take Adrian Beltre. I live here in Dallas and go to about 5-6 Rangers games per year. My brother and I were chatting and he asked me if Beltre is a Hall of Famer (this is two years ago). I said, "No." Then I actually LOOKED at his stats and the guy is something like the 8th best third baseman to ever play major league baseball. He's no dazzle, he's not spectacular, he's just solid. Not as good as Chipper or Schmidt, but VERY good.
My point is this - greatness is determined by CONTEXT. So if my goal were to calmly persuade someone that Bowden IS indeed an all-time great, I'd consider it like this: Babe Ruth is PROBABLY the greatest baseball player of all time. I realize Barry Bonds would get a lot of votes (justifiably) but Ruth was on his way to a HOF career as a PITCHER and then switched. Mickey Mantle was an all-time great, but he's NOT Babe Ruth. Lou Gehrig was an all-time great but he's NOT Babe Ruth. Some of the greatest names out there - GREAT players.....not Babe Ruth but in the SAME TIER as Babe Ruth.
So here's what I'd say if writing a persuasive article for Bowden.......look at him in the context of his time. When he was great, which technically was 1987-2003, let's evaluate......or better yet
What coaches were better than Bowden from 1966-1986? Lots, right?
Now.......give me the list of coaches BETTER than Bobby Bowden from 1987-2003.....who are the peer group?
1) Steve Spurrier - Bowden was 8-5-1 against him
2) Lou Holtz - does anyone here REALLY think Lou Holtz is in the group? Holtz quit Notre Dame and then went and built a pretty decent South Carolina team; Bowden was 2-1 against Holtz at Notre Dame
3) Joe Paterno - they were 1-1 against each other; I'll deal more with Paterno vs Bowden in a moment (football only)
4) Tom Osborne - yes, Tom won 3-2 on national titles, but Bowden was 6-2 against him and Osborne never beat him outside the safe confines of Lincoln
Ok....WHO ELSE qualifies for the discussion from that period of time?
Jimmy Johnson? Didn't coach long enough
Gene Stallings? His on field record from 1990-96 was 70-16-1. During the same time frame, Bowden was 75-10-1. Florida played a tougher schedule than Alabama every single year. Both won a national title. But what puts Bowden over is that he kept right on winning and playing for titles and even winning one.
Am I forgetting any big names here? The two best football coaches in the 17-season span of 1987-2003 were Bowden and Paterno....the only question is who's number one?
And at this point we can say that Bowden WAS, in fact, no worse than the second greatest coach of his era. 17 years is a LONG time to be at or near the top of your sport. Even Coach Bryant had a mid-career dip at Alabama. 17 seasons would be 1961-1977 or 1963-1979 if one prefers. Bryant clearly beats Bowden on the national title score (as always). But Bowden never had this. Alabama had consecutive five-loss seasons in 1970 and 1971 when they played 23 games; Bowden had ONE five-loss season and a four-loss season in 02 and 03.......when his team played 26 games.
We are left with Bowden vs Paterno.
Paterno coached just short of 46 years, Bowden 44.
Paterno had 5 losing seasons, Bowden 4.
Each won two national titles.
Paterno had 5 unbeaten seasons, Bowden 1.
Paterno was 24-12-1 in bowl games, Bowden was 21-10-1.
They were 1-1 in bowl games against each other.
Paterno won 409 games, Bowden won 377.
Paterno averaged 8.8 wins per season, Bowden 8.5
For the time frame in question, it's Bowden. Nobody is better. From 1987-2002, not even Paterno is better. He had three losing seasons in that time frame.
Is Paterno an all-time great (again, limit it to football)? Yes, he is.
If Bowden is right there with Paterno and Paterno is an all-time great then......
