FanHouse JeffBowden

Last Year: 6-7, unranked

Fans Are: Into basketball.

Expectations: Win nine games and beat USC.

Questions:

1. How in the world did UCLA beat USC again?

In one word: DEFENSE. The Bruins brought in a new defensive coordinator for 2006--DeWayne Walker--and had two weeks to scheme for what had become a rather predictable Trojan offensive system. On the other side of the ball, the Bruins' most productive play was backup quarterback Pat Cowan scrambling for his life.

The Bruins, however, will have to travel to the Coliseum this year, where they lost 66-19 two years ago.

2. Is there a quarterback controversey in the works?

Last year, Brigham Young transfer Ben Olson started the season for the Bruins, giving the Sons of Westwood high expectations on his reputation as "Southpaw Jesus"... Olson got injured midway through the season and was replaced by Pat Cowan.

Cowan then did the unthinkable and led UCLA to a win over cross-town rival USC, who had been poised to play for the BCS Title against Ohio State. Cowan then topped himself in unthinkability when he made Jeff Bowden look like an offensive genius during the Bruins beat-down from Florida State in the Emerald Nuts Bowl.

Head coach Karl Dorrell had consistently said that if Olson were healthy he'd play...so those who are hoping for more Cowan heroics in 2007 may have to cool their heels.

3. Who are those new guys on the sidelines?

UCLA had a major blood-letting on its offensive coaching staff this off-season. Dorrell told Offensive coordinator Jim Svoboda in January, "you're fired!" Offensive line coach Jim Svoboda then left for the NFL and wide receivers coach D.J. McCarthy then left for greener pastures at Louisiana State.

Nebraska's Jay Norvell takes over for Svoboda in 2007 and Bob Connelly takes over the offensive line--each the fourth to hold the position in Dorrell's five-year tenure in Westwood.

After years of pressure from FSU faithful, Jeff Bowden finally announced that he was resigning as offensive coordinator of the Seminoles on Tuesday. The resignation is effective at the end of the season (the official end of the season).

It took nearly 6 years of an underachieving offense for this to happen, but not a moment too soon. It is painfully obvious week-after-week that our offense is not prepared going into every game. 90% of the time our running game is nonexistent, even though we have 2 running backs that were ranked #1 in the nation coming out of high school. Just think about how pathetic that is.

Baby Bowden leaving Tallahassee is just the first step to a return to glory. There are more changes that must be made. Next up: QB coach Daryl Dickey. With him teaching our signal-callers, the position will never improve to be at the level it should. Charlie Ward and Chris Weinke would not have ever made even all-conference learning the position from this clown. Like I've said before, FSU QBs have only gotten worse the longer they are tutored under him.

I could go on about the things that need to be done in this program, but we'll take things one step at a time. This is truly a great day for Florida State fans, players, and their families. There will be much rejoicing tonight throughout Seminole Nation. However, there is one member that might not do too much celebrating. After the announcement, Bobby Bowden had this to say, "I am disappointed in Jeff's decision. This is a big loss to me personally. His decision is an emotional one for me." Sorry Bobby, but at least one Bowden was willing to do what it took to get this program headed back in the right direction.

When Xavier Lee committed to FSU, most Seminole fans believed he would be the One to lead the Noles back to greatness. 3 years later, Lee has yet to start a game in garnet and gold. Fellow QB recruit from the 2004 class Drew Weatherford beat out Lee before last season and has been the starter ever since. Weatherford did a great job last season, considering the situation he was in. The worst offensive line play ever witnessed, combined with the worst play caller in all of football made his record setting freshman season all the more respectable.

This season, Weatherford has struggled to lead the team to the end zone. The lack of a running game and very poor WR play, as well as the always bad play calling is mostly to blame. Pass protection seems to be slightly better than last season, yet is still not very good. Unfortunately for Drew, he plays the position that always gets the blame when an offense is not living up to its potential.

Many Seminole fans are demanding for Bobby to put Lee into the games. The coaches have said they wanted to get him into each of the last 2 games, but were not able to due to how the games were going. The coaches have said this week that they would like to get Lee into the Rice game this weekend as well, but do not have a plan. Somehow, that does not surprise me one bit.

At halftime, Florida State super fan Chris Robinson put it best: "Tony Carter 9, Jeff Bowden 0." He of course was referring to the fact that our cornerback had more points on special teams than our offense had through the first two quarters against Clemson Saturday night.

The offense, under Jeff Bowden's direction, laid yet another goose egg in the first half. That won't be the last time it happens if we can't figure out how to gain more than 89 yards in a half. We did have more success running the ball which was nice to see, but the passing game struggled. People, do not blame Drew Weatherford for this. Watching the game from the stands, it is easy to see that rarely does he have an open receiver before the pocket collapses on him. The receivers have also made a pretty consistent habit of dropping passes, running routes at half speed, and running poor patterns. This is probably an appropriate place to note that the WRs are coached by the one, the only, Jeffrey Bowden. Also of note is that these problems have plagued our receivers for the entire decade of Baby Bowden tutelage.

One of my favorite games to play with friends while I watch our offense is one many a fan has participated in at one point or another. I am of course talking about the always fun "Predict The Play." I've noticed that quite a few people must be practicing throughout the week because we're accumulating extraordinarily high scores on game day. I, for instance, graded out at about 90% this game. I am pretty sure that if 83,000 people in the stands know what play is coming, the defense does too.

I know this sounds like a broken record, as it is talked about after every single game, but gaining only 200 yards at home against a mediocre defense that was missing 4 starters is not something that can go without being discussed. It makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about the wasted talent we have. There is absolutely no excuse for something so pathetic. Many, many teams around the nation do much more with much less.

If Bobby doesn't make the necessary move in the very near future, it won't be long before we'll being doing even less with less. To make myself clear, we can't expect to have multiple 5 star rated QBs, RBs, and WRs on our roster in the coming years if this keeps up.