July 14, 2009

David Fox
Rivals.com College Football Staff Writer

FLORENCE, Ala. ? Florida State coach Bobby Bowden said Tuesday he remains hopeful the NCAA will grant the school's appeal and allow him to keep 14 wins lost as punishment for an academic scandal.

The return of 14 "vacated" wins would keep Bowden in the hunt for the major-college wins record, where he is one victory behind Penn State coach Joe Paterno.

Bobby Bowden hopes the NCAA reinstates the 14 victories it stripped.

(AP Photo / John Raoux)

"I'm hoping we win that appeal. I've been coaching for 55 years and have never been involved in cheating," Bobby Bowden said. "Here I have done nothing and I'm going to lose 14 ballgames.

"It could happen [vacating 14 wins], but I'm not going to cut my wrists if that does happen. I do hope they rethink that and do what they've done in the past, like they did with Oklahoma and Georgia Tech, I believe, where they took away wins and [then] changed their minds."

Florida State is appealing the NCAA's decision to vacate wins as punishment for an academic cheating scandal. The athletic department will lose 19 scholarships and will be on four years of NCAA probation after 61 athletes in 10 sports cheated on an online exam in music history.

In addition to scholarship losses and probation, the NCAA decided the football program must vacate all the wins from the 2006 and '07 seasons. Without those wins being vacated, Bowden has 382 career victories, one behind Paterno.

The NCAA previously forced Georgia Tech and Oklahoma to vacate wins because of rules violations during the 1998 and 2005 seasons, respectively, but the NCAA reversed its decisions later. The Yellow Jackets committed academic infractions, while Oklahoma drew sanctions after players were paid for little or no work at a Norman, Okla., car dealership.

Paterno, for one, hopes Bowden can keep his 14 wins. He said recently that he hoped the NCAA reversed its decision. "That doesn't surprise me Joe Paterno would say that," Bowden said. "I'd say the same thing about him."

Regardless of the NCAA's decision, Paterno and Bowden will be linked by their race for the record ? a race that could end in the coming years. Bowden said he knows when he is likely to retire, but he also said he isn't likely to announce it publicly.

"I hope I don't have to say [when I will retire] because people will start counting the days," Bowden said. "I know about when it's going to be, but I'll never say."

One possible day could be Jan. 9, 2011, when offensive coordinator/coach-in-waiting Jimbo Fisher is scheduled to get $2.5 million if he is not the head man on that date. Bowden said Tuesday that Fisher knows when he will step down.

Bowden appeared with three of his sons on the North Alabama campus for an all-day event to raise money for Terry's new program. Terry has returned to coaching for the first time being fired at Auburn during the 1998 season.

Terry hired his younger brother, Jeff, the former offensive coordinator at Florida State, to be his wide receivers coach, making Tommy Bowden ? fired at Clemson six games into last season ? the only unemployed coach among the four Bowdens at the event.

The last time all four Bowdens were in coaching at the same time was 1998, when Bobby was in his 23rd season at Florida State; Jeff was FSU's wide receivers coach, Terry was the coach at Auburn and Tommy was the coach at Tulane.

Tommy's unemployment might not last long. He never had a losing record in nine full seasons at Clemson, but he also never won an ACC title and had only two seasons in which the Tigers were ranked in the final polls.

Tommy said he fielded calls about coaching in 2009 and even met with Mississippi State officials about the school's coaching vacancy before the Bulldogs hired Florida offensive coordinator Dan Mullen.

This season, Tommy said he expects to do speaking engagements until the coaching carousel begins in November. He showed interest in getting into broadcasting, but ESPN decided to instead hire former Detroit Lions general manager Matt Millen as an analyst.

Tommy said he does not regret his time at Clemson, nor does he regret staying with the Tigers after serious talks with Arkansas officials about the Razorbacks' coaching job in 2007. He said he was on the verge of taking that job before accepting a four-year contract extension from Clemson. The Razorbacks hired Bobby Petrino instead.

"I'm not embarrassed about what happened," Tommy said. "I'm disappointed I didn't win enough to stay."

He stayed in Clemson through the wedding of his daughter three weeks ago, a wedding that was held at a Clemson alumni facility he helped to fund. He since has moved to the Florida Panhandle and is open to a return to coaching.

"There are already hot seats," he said. "I was probably on that more than [former Tennessee coach Phil] Fulmer. We were the hot-seat specialists. There will be job opportunities in October. We'll see if that's where God wants me."

Bobby said he wasn't surprised Tommy was fired at Clemson.

"It was that way every year for him," Bobby said. "For some reason, they never hit it off. It was like, 'If you don't win a championship, we're going to get rid of you.' That's the way it looked to me, and Tommy was probably fed up with it. It never seemed like they accepted Tommy."

David Fox is a national writer for Rivals.com. He can be reached at dfox@rivals.com.