Sons as Coordinators

[waltwal]

i have been following the story of the discontent with Bobby Bowden at FSU. it is becoming apparent that a sizeable group of supporters want bowden to retire and some would probably go so far as to fire him. a great deal of the discontent is centered on his son as the offensive coordinator. i am not sure if the discontent on either is justified but what i do know is that any Head Coach who hires his son as a coordinator is making a very foolish decision.

i am not saying that to have your son on your staff is foolish but to put that person in coordinator jobs is just a bad idea. a few years ago Lou Holtz had the same problem at South Carolina and he had to demote his son from OC. Skip Holtz since has proved at East Carolina that he is a pretty decent coach. i really was turned off when i read that Holtz had demoted his son. i think that when you promote your son into a high profile job you simply have to ask yourself that if things go bad are you willing to fire him. its a very tough decision.

i think that Bowden is going to be faced with that decision at the end of this season. the FSU administrators will not fire Bowden but i believe they will insist that he demote his son thus presenting him with that very difficult decision. Bowden may just decide to retire rather than make the decision and FSU will get what they want. i know irs a decision i would never want to make.

if the son of a Head Coach is qualified the connections of the father will get him a job at another school and i think that is the better course of action. i will stay tuned to see this outcome.

[Toddzilla]

I hear it's working wonders at UVA...

...BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[JeeberD]

Mike Price has both of his sons on his staff at UTEP. The speculation is that once CMP retires/moves on one of them will be promoted to head coach. Up until this season it seemed to be working pretty well...

[Ksyrup]

Paterno has the same deal. In fact, if Bowden didn't have Paterno to pattern himself after (fighting him for #1 overall in wins, dealing with discontent about a son on staff, and having bad years followed by a great comeback season), I think he might retire.

The discontent with Jeff Bowden is not new. We've been pissed about him since Rix's 2nd year. Bowden's been defending him for 5 years or so. Honestly, if Rix hadn't been such a fuck up, the screaming for his head would be that much louder now. But after 4 years of Rix, we gave him the benefit of the doubt - Rix was a coach killer, and no one could have made a consistent QB out of him. But there's no denying that the rest of the offense has sucked as well. Lorenzo Booker would be a perennial Heisman candidate at another school. At FSU, he's maybe got 2,000 rushing yards for his career. Leon Washington the same thing. Now he's a starting RB in the NFL in his rookie year.

I suspect Bowden will have to let his son go after this season, and let Darrell Dickey the QB coach go as well. They have to make changes. If he doesn't, we know that Bowden has ultimate control over the athletic department.

[Raiders Army]

Rob and Rex Ryan seem to be doing pretty well...although that has little to do with the OP.

[lordscarlet]

Paterno has the same deal. In fact, if Bowden didn't have Paterno to pattern himself after (fighting him for #1 overall in wins, dealing with discontent about a son on staff, and having bad years followed by a great comeback season), I think he might retire.

Wouldn't his son be old enough to retire himself? :)

[Noop]

I have changed my opinion of Jeff Bowden. He is in a no-win situation at FSU. His father meddles in the gameplan and play calling and so do the other asst. coaches. I have heard from someone very close to the team and they have said many times that if they allow Jeff to call the game people will be surprised by how good we look.

Now I watch the Maryland game and I noticed how smoothed we looked... The Virgina game in the first half we looked okay but I did notice that BB was on the headsets alot. During the second half he was off them and the offense went back to being smooth. I wouldn't be surprised to see Jeff succeed at some other school.

[waltwal]

i want to make it clear that there is a difference between being a staff member as opposed to being a coordinator. there are quite a number of sons on staffs but not too many as coordinators. if there were 10 sons in div1-a working as coordinators and 9 of them seem to be doing well i would still stand by my original post that it is a bad idea because if it doesn't go well it is just too tough of a decision to have to make.

[JeeberD]

Just to be clear, Eric Price is UTEP's OC and Aaron Price is the QB and kickers coach...