FEDEX ORANGE BOWL: OKLAHOMA v FLORIDA STATE

January 2, 2001

Bobby Bowden

COACH BOWDEN: We've had very good practices. The weather has been good, except cold as heck, but we didn't have to miss any because of rain or sleet or hail. But the practices have been good. We'll have our last practice today when our boys will go to the stadium this afternoon about 4:00 and just warm up just a little bit, try to break a sweat because we feel like it's too long to layoff between Thursday morning practice -- the two days before the game practice and the game. So they will go out there and warm up a little bit. Practices have been good. If we lose, we will have no excuses. I can't say, "Well, we didn't get to practice" or I can't say, "Well, everybody got hurt." We've been very fortunate to have not had any injuries out there that have been significant.

COACH BOWDEN: I'm not a playoff man. I'll go along with the BCS. I would have gone for it if we had not gotten in it. I do believe it. I believe that it is the best we've got. I'm hoping after this year they will find a little something they can add or take away that will make it a little bit better. But there is nothing, there is no plan that we can put in that's going to satisfy everybody. None. If you take the Top 4 teams, No. 5 is going to be mad. If you take the Top 8, No. 9 is going to be mad. So it's good enough to suit me. Maybe just keep working on it a little bit and get it better even.

COACH BOWDEN: When you come down here and come as early as we must come for Bowls, coaches would prefer -- coaches would prefer to come in two days before the game, go say hello to a couple people, play the game and go home. But we come a week early, eight days early. God, I wish it was time to play. So the night before the ballgame, I'm usually in pretty good shape. I don't worry -- it's too late to worry, you know, at that time. The hay in the barn is the way I look at it. The hay is in the barn. Now let's go out and play the ballgame and see who the best football team is. I don't think I'm nervous. I always use a women's restroom when I go to the restroom. I'm not nervous. (Laughter). But I really don't think I'm nervous. I have no problem sleeping the night before a game.

COACH BOWDEN: I don't pull for either one of them because I have to play them. I don't want to infuriate -- oh, pull for them and they didn't pull for us. To be honest with you, I don't pull for either one of them. All I hope is that we win. You know, that's all I hope is that we win the doggone ballgame. I don't care what happens after that. I know this: We'll win the BCS if we beat Oklahoma. What happens on the other poll, fine. But I hate to talk about that because I don't know if I can beat Oklahoma.

COACH BOWDEN: That tells you something. To me, it tells you that the BCS must be correct. You mean, they took us, the No. 3 team, and put us over the No. 2 team and we're favored by 12? Maybe the BCS is correct. I don't know, you know. But that's the thing about it, there's so much made over the fact that Miami beat us. Miami beat us. That proved one thing: The day you played Miami, they were better. I'll admit that. They were better the day we played them. It doesn't prove anything past that. You know, I beat them 3 years ago. That doesn't mean we're better today. So we're 12-1; they are 11-1. If we were a baseball team, would they take head-to-head competition and say, "You don't get to go to the playoffs because this other team beat you twice, your record was 15-3 and theirs was 14-14, but you can't play." How come head-to-head has gotten to big in football all of the sudden? Is it true to basketball when they pick the teams going to the playoffs in that? I don't think it is. Anyway, that's my story and I ain't going to change it, okay. (Laughs).

COACH BOWDEN: Can I compare these two quarterbacks -- you talk about two good quarterbacks. They are great quarterbacks and they are opposites. One is a lefty, the other one is a right-hander. One of them is a grand daddy; the other is a grandson. (Laughter). But I would -- I said this and I'll say it again: If either quarterback was out, that team would lose. That's the way I feel about it. Heupel can take the ball, and you'd better keep -- some quarterbacks, you don't have to contain, but you'd better keep your contain on him because he'll roll outside and buy time. He has great anticipation. I've seen him hang that ball up so many times where the receiver is not open, but he's heading in this reception and he lays the ball out there where the guy can go get it. He's uncanny in that way. Chris has a little of that, too, because Chris will scramble in the pocket. Heupel will scramble out of the pocket. You don't ever see Chris trying it out yonder. He's always up inside the pocket. They are just tremendous quarterbacks.

COACH BOWDEN: Does any of it become routine? You know, I guess if we'd have won about four in a row, it would be routine. But when you have not won but one, there's no routine to it. So you would like to get in this thing and win it again. So, no, there's no routine. Our goal is to play for the National Championship. It's our goal, you know, and we know we can't do it every year, but it's still our goal, and it's exciting to me. It's exciting to me.

COACH BOWDEN: I remember one of them right off the bat, and I have not thought about it, but I remember a linebacker they had in 1980 -- what was his name, went with the Green Bay Packers -- Cumbee, 4-4, 40 and remember us running our old pattern, the reverse. Oklahoma I remember looking up there and when we hand off that reverse I'm saying, "Oh, boy, we got them, they are all heading that direction." And I'll never forget Cumbee, starting that direction, seeing the ball and coming back. We might have made about three yards out of a play; I thought was fixing to make 35, 40 yards. So speed, that's the trademark of Barry Switzer's team was speed, and it was about 1985 where we began to cut into the speed category.

COACH BOWDEN: Is it 11 now? They are beginning to count coaching? Is that what you're trying to do? (Laughter). It used to be 12. Is it down to 11? I'm scared to look. (Laughs). I'm afraid the coaching edge goes to them. But I don't understand that. I mean, we were National Champions last year. This year, Oklahoma is the No. 1 football team in the nation. It's us trying to beat them, you know. So 12 points doesn't mean anything. I'm sure they will look at it the same way I do. It's 0-0 when we walk out there. We've got 60 minutes to win this ballgame, and that's the way they will approach it and that's the way we will approach it.

COACH BOWDEN: Well, I know this: If we lose that game, I'm going to blame it on the head coach at Georgia. No, I hate to lose him. He's been here off and on for 15 years. One year he left and went to East Carolina was the defensive coordinator. Stayed one year and called me and wanted to come back, and stayed with us probably another 10 or 12 years. He's become real stable. He's gotten better and better about calling plays. He's gotten better and better, better and better where I'm involved less and less with it, and I've been out of it for a while, too. He's been doing it all. So anyway, you've got a real stable individual that has excellent character, very dependable. I think Georgia will make -- he'll make a nice image for the University of George. We'll go out and sign another good one. We'll go bring another good one in.

COACH BOWDEN: You ask a good question. We're losing a lot of outstanding seniors. We are losing a group of seniors that have given us the best five years in our history, I believe. Now, do I worry about it? No. We've been through it before. I remember one year I think we lost 14 starters. And now will be able to care on? Well, I don't know. I just don't know, but I know this: Our skill level will be about the same. We'll have a good quarterback. We'll have good runners. We'll have a good this, we'll have a good that. Now, we will not have experience, and that might cost us a few. You can't coach experience. We'll miss these seniors that we've got. Whether we fold up the tent; we'll try not to. Will you continue to be successful, I don't know. But anyway, this has been -- how would I rank this group of seniors? If they win that ballgame, I might even bill them No. 1. But they have got to win the game. I ain't voting them No. 1 if they don't win. (Laughter).

COACH BOWDEN: That is true. Yes, I have another empty frame in my office for the first Florida State that ever wins a back-to-back National Championship. I can pick up other frames, too. But anyway, you're always looking for something to motivate boys with. Last year, it was any team -- the first team that could ever go undefeated. So last year's team was the first one I've ever had that won all their ballgames. We've had undefeated seasons, but we could not win the Bowl game. Now, then, yes, we mentioned to our players right off the bat: "Men, you could be the first team to win a back-to-back National Championship and throw you in a category that not many schools have accomplished." Yes, naturally you use that for motivation.

COACH BOWDEN: I would hope that my boys -- I would bet you all of my kids will watch that game. I haven't told them to, but I bet you all will watch them. No. 1, we've played both of them. You notice nobody else has the nerve enough to do that? We're the only one that played both of them. That's why we got beat so doggone much is playing those two teams. If we didn't play those two teams, we would have some pretty good records at Florida State. I imagine all of my boys will watch it, but I didn't tell them to. It's up to them. Now, I wouldn't want them to get all absorbed in it like they are going to be wringing their hands out if the right team don't win. I don't think we'll be into it that much. I hope we're not, because if we don't beat Oklahoma, to heck with that game. I don't care what happens. If we don't beat Oklahoma -- so we've got to take care of our business and just go from there. I don't care what happens after that.

COACH BOWDEN: I hope not. Is that true?

COACH BOWDEN: No. 1, I hate that. I had not even heard of a hint of that. That's how much football has changed the last ten years. We fire them from Bowls now. It's hard to get to a Bowl. Now lose a Bowl and lose your job. I hate to see that, darn it. Of course, John, he's getting up close to my age, not quite. He's another one of my guys gone. Out of all of the coaches, when I go to the National Coaches Convention, I go to Nike events and I go to the Hula Bowl, and John is one of the guys I'll hang around with because I'm only ten years older than him. (Laughter). Me and Joe and John, you know. But I really hate to hear that. Did you ask me a question to go with it?

COACH BOWDEN: Well, they have just got to go out and get the right guy for the job, and no matter who they hire, it's a chance. But I'm really saddened by that.

COACH BOWDEN: Well, the NCAA came out with something maybe five, six, seven years ago that started naming dynasties that had been in American college football, and I think they listed about eight teams, and they listed Florida State as one of them. So something we've always told our players, "Men, you're the only team living in a dynasty. We're in a dynasty. Notre Dame was in a dynasty. Miami was in a dynasty so and so is in a dynasty, but you are living in a dynasty. Don't let it end." So that is something we are aware of, and we know it could end just like that. But again, we hope we can keep it alive.

COACH BOWDEN: No. 1, I hate to lose old Snoop because he has been the go-to guy all year. I think he has been Chris's favorite receiver and he has been the most productive after he caught the ball. He has been the most productive of getting open. And he and Chris had a great timing together. Chris could really -- if you've seen Chris, if you watch this closely, where Minnis will be running this direction and Chris will throw the ball over here; and then he'll plant and come back and just be hanging back there waiting for him. He had a great sense of timing with him. So that's gone. Now, what will that mean? It means we're going to put another guy over there. And will the guy play as good? I don't know. He might. He might. But we've been through this before last year without Peter Warrick. We went through it with Lavernious Coles. And all it does is Weinke spreads it around a little bit better. He'll spread it around a little bit better, what I expect will happen to the position, I don't know, but I expect somebody will get the job done.

COACH BOWDEN: Well, it is amazing that Bear Bryant was my No. 1 idol. I can remember when I first met him in 1958 -- no, I met him before that. I met him around 1957 at a coaching clinic. First time I had seen Bear Bryant at a coaching clinic -- would he have been at Texas A&M? I think it was at Texas A&M at that time. I didn't meet him, but I saw him. Then when I head coach at South Georgia College in Douglas, Georgia -- he went to Alabama in 1958; that's my hometown. My hometown is Birmingham, but Tuscaloosa is not bad. So I had written him and said, "Can I come over to Alabama during spring training and watch you all practice." So he wrote me back: "Yes, would be glad for you to come back." That's back when we used to write. Remember those days? I would e-mail him today. Excuse me, Bear. But anyway, I was going over to watch him practice. I remember that, and he called me on the phone. I got to talk to Bear Bryant saying, "We are not going to practice today so don't come today." So I talked to Bear Bryant. The next year, I moved to Samford University head coach, only 50 miles away, and I am up there where I can really watch. He went down to Alabama the year before; so I saw the way he handled it. I spent a lot of time with Gene Stallings. Gene Stallings was a graduate assistant at Alabama in 1958, and so I got to spend a lot of -- he was a young guy that would talk a lot, young guys like me, we talk a lot. But anyway, Gene, I learned a lot of football from Gene Stallings -- and, of course, got to meet Coach Bryant more intimately and came up and spoke at our banquet up in Birmingham that year; I'll never forget that. What I would do -- Bear back in those days you could sign a lot of players more than you can now. That's when he would get his and yours. He would get the guys that he wanted and he would see you want that guy and "I'm going to get him where you can't have him either." So he kind of ran the table back in those days. What would happen when I was at Samford University which at those days was Howard College, he would let me come down to spring training and he would close it. They would be practicing football, and he would let me go down there and he gave me a list of about 16 or 17 kids that he would not mind seeing leave. (Laughter). He knew if they left, he was to get another one. If you lose one, get one, right? So he gave me a list of 16, 17 kids. I would go down there in spring training, again it would be a closed practice and one of these his coaches would take me around from drill to drill and I would look at those guys. It was like buying meat. It was like buying cattle: "I'll take one of those, give me two of these, I think I'll take him." So anyway, I got a lot of players -- I got a lot of transfers. My team was made of up Alabama and Auburn transfers. So anyway he was pretty good to me. I helped him get rid of some of his kids that he didn't want to play. That's the way that went. I never knew him real close like I wish I could, but I did follow him and that's the way it all started. He was always good to me.

COACH BOWDEN: We have a formula that we go by. We have a formula we fill out. To plan a Bowl we must practice this many days -- you have final exams; can't practice during that time. Two days before, two days after and practice here practice there. So we've got a routine that we follow every year and we have to kind of pace it based on how many days. Sometimes you have 30 days before a Bowl, sometimes you have 44 days, so we have to learn to pace those days. So we think we've learned how to pace it where we can go out and play the best that we can play.

COACH BOWDEN: Is there anything that we took from him? Well, respect, no doubt about that. Because when he came to Florida, was it '96 when he first came to Florida or '97? In '96, I believe, wasn't it? No, '97. Okay. When he first came to Florida, first thing he did was used a defensive scheme that we had not seen before; that is, he would take his corners, walk them right up on your receivers nose and play football there. Now, I've seen pros do that. Seen Deion do that. But I ain't seen no college players do that. And he did. And it gave us fits. So we started immediately trying to learn how to play against this thing, and we can do pretty good now against it. But that's the biggest thing I remember about Bob. And a lot of schools began to pick it up and we do a lot of it ourselves now. But that's the big thing I remember about Bob. He has a very good defensive scheme. Well coached, knock your pants off, and then his personality is ideal.

COACH BOWDEN: I don't think we are intimidating people. I can't even picture us intimidating Oklahoma. I don't even sense it. I don't think -- no. The only people you intimidate are people you are very superior to. If you you're playing somebody and you are superior to them and know it, there can be intimidation there. To me, here is one of the big things: You have Texas, California, Florida, that's the three that most of them are coming from. You've got California with how many 1A schools, 25? How many does Texas got? 15? Well, we've had 3. So we're divided our 15 million people by 3. California is dividing their 25 million by 25 or whatever. So there are more -- we have more kids available to us here. You can't get them all. There's going to be 150 kids in this state signing major scholarships. If I sign 20 and Florida signs 20 and Miami signs 20, that's only 60. So where those other 90 going to go? They are going to go with the schools -- but it's who gets the best of the 150. Who gets the best; and so all we want is our share. We can't get them all. We just like to have our share. That's what happens: Florida gets their share, Miami, we get ours, and we can compete with anybody in the country because of it.

COACH BOWDEN: Yes, they did.

COACH BOWDEN: How important is it to me to avoid --

COACH BOWDEN: I don't really care who is there. If my mother was coaching, I think I would want to whip her. I think that was documented against Terry Tommy, wasn't it? No matter who the coach is, my goal is to -- our goal is to try to win that game. Now, with Bob there, I think that does make it difficult, because I think he has an understanding of what we're about, and I have an understanding, also, of what he's about. So the job he's done, there is no fluke from what I've seen; it's so fluke.

COACH BOWDEN: Well, they have really reached an extreme that I wish it had never reached. It is too easy to fire a coach now. It is too easy to fire a coach. I know it has to be a two-way street. Well, coaches you all leave anyway; you get a job, sign a five-year contract. Three years later you take off and get a better one somewhere else. But I hate it just because it is too easy to fire a coach now. And look at me now. I'm 71. I don't know how much longer I can coach. I want to coach as long as I can because I love it, but it would be easy for me to get out now. I've seen my son, Tommy, come up and other people's sons coming up, and they have got to go through this darned thing and coaches are getting fired. I mean, like I say, you used to go to a Bowl, what a great honor it was to go to a Bowl. Now you get fired for going to a Bowl. So it was really reached an extreme. We are like society. We are out of whack right now.

COACH BOWDEN: I'm surprised that Oregon State and Washington have not been more vocal; that they should be the National Championships. I'm surprised they have not been more vocal. After all they beat Miami, and, after all, Miami beat us. But I don't worry about it because we got the bid. We are playing in the BCS and if we win that darned game, we're going to get a piece of glass. Whatever happens to those other people, fine. I'll see Coach Erickson (ph) and Coach Butch, I'll see all of them at different get-togethers, and I'll congratulate them for getting us come to this thing. We might not win it, but I really don't worry about that part of it.

COACH BOWDEN: Not if they want to win. (Laughter). That was for Steve. That was for Steve. (Laughter). No, I imagine they have had good talks with Steve. I talk to my son. You see how much I helped him yesterday. But I would imagine hey would -- Steve is going to let them know everything he knows about us, and if they don't ask him, they are nuts, because that's what I would do.

COACH BOWDEN: No, I don't, because we've already won a couple of National Championships. My desire is probably as good. My desire to win one is probably as good. But back in those days, I was desperate for one, because everybody was saying I can't win one. We've been so close for about six years, come in second, third, fourth, couldn't win one, I was so desperate.

COACH BOWDEN: How much did it have for letting him go? Probably a lot. Who was it that got fired the other day -- well the coach at Georgia didn't beat Tennessee and Florida and Georgia Tech enough lately. So I think it falls into that category. But it seems like -- Miami just beat us to death all the time for about six years there. We couldn't -- we simply could not beat them, and then we finally -- we turn around and beat them five in a row. So to me, everything goes in cycles. Michigan might beat them eight years in a row and then they might beat Michigan eight years in a row. I always felt like the key to being a successful coach, I tell my sons: "Survive the bad years. Survive the bad years. You're going to have some bad years. Now, try to survive them. If you can survive them, you'll be hired because everything works in a cycle. You'll come back and start winning again if you just survive the bad years."

COACH BOWDEN: I don't think so in either one of those cases. I think those are cases -- in other words, I want all of my coaches to want a head job. Then I don't have to look over them. If I've got coaches that don't want a head job, man, I've got to say: "Son, be in the office at 8:00 and don't you dare leave till in 4:00, and be sure to do this, do that." So now you loss Chuck A'Mato and he goes back to his alma mater as a head football coach; that's a promotion. You look Mark Richt; he goes to University of Georgia, one of the best jobs in the country, in my opinion, and that's a promotion. So I could lose one all the time. I've just been lucky I haven't lost any more than I have. What's shaky is if you lose a coach laterally. If I had a coordinator at Florida State leave me and go become a coordinator at another university, I would say, oh, he's mad about something. He had that same position here; or have an assistant coach leave me or for another assistant coach. Well, I must be doing something wrong. But, for me to think that I can hold these coaches together forever -- I wish I could. We'd keep on being good, but we're beginning to loss -- I've lost Chuck last year. I lost Mark this year. I'm sure I could -- could have lost a couple more if they had with have wanted to leave, but they like it in Tallahassee. And so we'll replace them with good people that will probably be a lot younger, probably. And so the inexperience thing will jump up here, but we just simply have to go through it. Nothing lasts forever.

COACH BOWDEN: If they are loose, it does, yeah. If we are a loose football team, it probably does. I do not -- I get on them at the right time. I get on them pretty good when it comes to the right time. That band starts playing out there, man, we get on them. But what that band ain't playing, we have a little fun.

COACH BOWDEN: Could I explain the evolution of our kicking game? Hmmm, the evolution of our kicking game. Well, we signed a kicker. We knew we were going to lose Janikowski. We did not have anybody in school that we felt like was going to be consistent. We knew we had a prospect in Munyon. We knew we had a prospect in Gwaltney, but he felt we'd better go out and sign one to take Janikowski's place. So we signed Cimorelli. He comes in there, and first thing you do is get rid of the tee. Can't use the tee. So he's out there kicking in practice, and as soon as I see him kicking, I said, "uh-oh", because he's kicking the ball that high off the ground (indicating three feet.) We're talking line drive. All you've got to be is be a middle linebacker, throw your hands up and you block every kick. I said, "This kid has got to learn to kick." We talk to him: "Son, you've got to get the ball up." We put him over the goal post trying to get some height. So we work with him. He worked so hard, he pulls a groin; now he can't even kick. So he goes about three weeks, he can't hardly kick; we have to let him out. We go into the first game with Gwaltney and Munyon. We use Munyon all the way. Munyon is really a good prospect. He kicks the ball as good as any I think we have had other an Janikowski, but he don't kick it straight enough. (Laughter). You do have to kick it straight. I have reminded him of that over and over. I get tickled that everybody says wide right. It can't be but wide right or left, can it? What's the big deal about wide right, man? Same thing if it's wide left; you miss. So anyway, we kick, and then he's not consistent. So we use Gwaltney in the first game. He's goes to kick a field goal, three extra points; miss one, oh boy. Misses a couple extra points. So anyway, we're down now where we feel like Cimorelli will handle the extra points and field goals under 30 yards, where the ball is a 30-yard field goal. Now I probably would not be afraid of him up until maybe a 40-yard field goal, but when you start getting it out further than that, Munyon does have the leg where these other guys will strain and mess up their short game. So don't even fool with the long one. So we let Munyon kick anything over 40. That's where we are right now. It's not as stable as I would like. Better than it was though. Better than it was.

COACH BOWDEN: The only thing I would say that would give Florida a chance is if they are hot, he usually wins. When they get hot, they are hot. That guy can score points. They have got good personnel. Now, to me, Miami is the most solid football team. They are the most solid. If everything goes as planned, I think Miami will probably win the game. But if that quarterback gets hot with those receivers they have got, that's what can beat you. You look at the games they played, the people they beat and the people they didn't beat, that was usually the case. So I think it is going to be a heck of a ballgame. Two very talented football teams, great speed, but I think if anybody who counts Florida out is making a mistake.

COACH BOWDEN: When I was younger, I tried to coach everything. I think that's the way a younger coach is, tries to get involved in everything. I used to do more of that. Once I went to -- in fact, when I started coaching, I had to coach everything. I came up one of those three-man coaching staffs. I coaches defensive backs and offensive backs, somebody coached offensive line and defensive line and someone else coached offensive backs and defensive backs or whatever they played. So I came up coaching everything. And when I went to Florida State as an assistant, all of the sudden it was compartmentized. Now all of the sudden I coached the receivers, and that's all I coached was the receivers. So when I became the head coach, I was always closer to the offense was. So go hire the best defense man you've got and leave him alone. Let him coach and you go over and help the offense. So I used to call plays and everything. But as you get older, and football has changed so much, you don't have time. I don't have time to study film like I used to. I've got to go meet you guys. I've got to go meet so-and-so and I've got to go to this place and that place. So to do the job that a head coach has to do, I think that you have to delegate responsibility. So I have and the older I get, the more I delegate.

COACH BOWDEN: What makes Oklahoma so good? I think it starts with Bob Stoops. Bob Stoops is a very -- I could spot it as soon as I met him. As soon as I had my first meeting with him, that guy is an optimist. He is a positive thinker. You never hear him say anything negative. We're 12-point favorites? So what? Nothing but positive stuff. I think that's great. So his kids accepted it. His kids believed it, and that's what's made them good. He's changed their minds where they think they are good, and he thinks they are good, and they have that the utmost confidence going for them. And then, the greatest -- the best thing I've heard about them that I've learned here, they didn't get nobody hurt all year. I heard the same starting lineup they got now that they had in the first game. That ain't bad. You talk about having luck to win ballgames -- I wish I could keep all my kids healthy all the time. = So he's really been very fortunate right there you know.

COACH BOWDEN: No doubt about it, if he would have played in our -- if he would have played in our football team up until maybe '93 -- from about '93, '92, really we changed our scheme at Florida State more shotgun, more four wide-outs, three wide-outs and stuff like that, which still allows a runner to get a lot of yards, but he's kind of an afterthought rather than trying to feature him. Now, let me say this about Travis. Had Travis not been injured nearly every year, Travis probably would have been a thousand-yard rusher every year we had. First year he gets what, 700-something yards? And I don't think he started until about the sixth game or something like that. But the first start he ever made, he ran 78 yards for a touchdown the first time he touched the ball. Scored about three times that night; got 140-something yards rushing. Now, he got hurt and he missed -- just like what I was talking about, they didn't have anybody miss all year with injury. Poor old Travis every year sprained his ankle and missed two games, three games. If he had not done that, he only missed 1,000 by 50 yards or something like that? But he is really -- I've told him before the season started, most unselfish player I ever had. Anybody that's as good as he was in high school, Offensive Player of the Year in the nation, anybody that good came to Florida State, he should have fussed more about not playing more. He should have fussed more about not getting the ball more. But we try to teach him not to fuss; so, he did. He was just very unselfish and he's that way today. Most unselfish kid I've ever of had, to be that good.

COACH BOWDEN: Well, we haven't lately. Next year we are really going to get tested on it because we're going to lose so many veterans. But like I say, and I say every year, our skill level will be about the same, but they are going to be freshman, sophomores most of them instead of juniors. But just like I tell my alumni, I would rather have inexperienced skill than experienced no skill; in other words, guy that is can't play.

COACH BOWDEN: Well, our attitude going into this one will be just like last year. Every year you have a Cinderella team. It was Tennessee one year. It was Virginia tech last year. Oklahoma last year. Is this going to be another Tennessee/Florida State game or is this going to be another Virginia Tech Florida State game? It will be one of those. (Laughter). And next year somebody else will be there.

COACH BOWDEN: Well, we started off the year, we felt like going into this year we probably had as many good offensive linemen as we've ever had at Florida State. We actually had four offensive tackles, and every one of them are pro prospects, and we were going to play two -- we were going to play three of them and try and red shirt the other guy. Start off trying to red shirt Cha-Ron Dorsey -- so that left Tarlos Thomas, and Brett Williams and started there before; so you've still got the two starters plus Dorsey who will red shirt. After we played the first ballgame and tried to play our second team tackles and he said we are not ready yet (inaudible) -- and we start playing him and sure enough old Tarlos got hurt; so we've still got two outstanding tackles, Cha-Ron and Brett Williams. Now Tarlos Thomas is back; so we'll have three former starting tackles playing those positions. So anyway, we've been very fortunate there. Guards, we've been fortunate, Amman who started last year at one guard, we started Duhart who is a junior, and well, Montrae Holland has beat him out and is starting there and we're in good shape there. Then, of course, your center, you've got Jarad Moon, who played back-up for the last few years and actually started a couple games here for us. So we knew we had a good set of offensive linemen coming back. Again, the tackle thing was the one that got kind of spooky.

COACH BOWDEN: As quick as they get rid of the ball? There's no doubt about it, if a team wants to get rid of the ball, if they want their quarterback to three-step drop you can't get him. You just simply can't get him. If you want him to five-step drop, you're not going to get him unless he tries to pump it. Now if you're going to drop seven, we can probably get to you by that time, but Oklahoma will throw everything probably in three or five, which we do, too, we try to throw everything in three or five. So unless somebody just messes up, we probably won't be able to get too him, you know. Thank you for putting up with me, folks.

End of FastScripts….