Bobby Bowden’s name still hangs over Florida State football, and it’s hard to think of a better backdrop for the Seminoles’ trip to Tuscaloosa.
The connection runs straight through one of the biggest what-ifs in college football. In 1987, Bowden was the dream candidate for Alabama’s head coaching job.
He was a Birmingham native, had already spent a decade building Florida State into a winner, and carried an 86-40-2 record into the search. Ray Perkins had gone back to the NFL, and Bowden believed the interview was basically a formality.
It wasn’t.
Instead of a smooth landing, Bowden walked into a formal search process and got hit with a line of prepared questions. He wasn’t ready for them, and the committee wasn’t impressed with his answers. Bill Curry, who came in with a 31-43-4 record at Georgia Tech, handled the interview and got the job.
That decision altered the path of both programs. Had Bowden taken the Alabama job, the source of this story says he likely would have stayed in Tuscaloosa for 20-plus years and built the Crimson Tide into a dynasty before Nick Saban ever arrived. Instead, Alabama spent the next two decades cycling through five coaches - Curry, Gene Stallings, Mike Dubose, Dennis Franchione and Mike Shula - before Saban took over in 2007.
Once Saban arrived, Alabama exploded into a different level of dominance. Over 17 seasons in Tuscaloosa, he went 206-29 and won six national championships. Before that run, Gene Stallings had delivered the program’s only title between Bear Bryant’s final championship in 1979 and Saban’s first in 2009.
For Bowden, getting passed over didn’t crush Florida State. It sharpened it.
The disappointment fueled him, and the Seminoles turned that edge into a run that made them one of the sport’s heavyweights. Bowden built around elite recruiting, especially from Florida, a defense defined by physicality, and offensive playmakers who could tilt games.
During the 1990s, Florida State won 109 games - the most in college football - and finished ranked No. 4 or better in every final AP Top 25 poll of the decade. The Seminoles also won national titles in 1993 and 1999, and Charlie Ward brought home the Heisman Trophy in 1993.
Now that history sits in the background as Florida State heads to Alabama as the No. 10 Crimson Tide’s opponent. The Seminoles are being asked to pull off an upset that, according to the source story, nobody around college football really expects them to win.
That’s where Bowden’s story comes back into focus for Mike Norvell. The lesson is plain: disappointment can harden into fuel, and Bowden turned his into a program that became a national power. Florida State will need that same spirit on Saturday in Tuscaloosa.
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Mike Norvells tenure at Florida State has reached a stage where every result feels heavier, and the financial reality around his job only makes it more complicated. He is in his seventh season in Tallahassee with a 39-35 record, and after signing an eight-year extension in 2024 that runs through 2031 and pays roughly $10 million to $11 million annually, the Seminoles are now dealing with the fallout of a much different kind of pressure than the one that came with that deal.
Florida State also recently fired athletic director Michael Alford, the administrator who signed Norvells extension, which has only added to the uncertainty around the programs direction. Add in the buzz generated by a viral photo of a moving truck at Norvells home, and the speculation has only grown louder, especially with the upcoming game against Alabama looming and a potential buyout of about $48 million hanging over any sudden change. [Read more 🡒]
Alabama's Mike Norvell Near-Miss Looks Even Bigger Now
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Since then, though, Florida States on-field slide has made that near-miss feel a lot larger in hindsight. The firing of the athletic director has only added another layer of uncertainty around the program, and it has inevitably renewed questions about Norvells long-term future in Tallahassee. What once looked like a big escape from a possible change now feels more like the start of a stretch Florida State still has not fully figured out. [Read more 🡒]
FSUs Comeback Just Took A Brutal Turn In The Backfield
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The immediate concern now is his knee and what it could mean for Florida State moving forward, since the team has not yet offered an official update. If Singleton is forced to miss time, the Seminoles will have to turn to other running backs to absorb the workload and keep the ground game moving. [Read more 🡒]