Bobby Bowden: Give Paterno His Wins Back
Sen. George Mitchell’s report, which could include some relief for Penn State from the NCAA sanctions, is due out in the coming days. For now, though, the second winning coach in college football history — or winningest, if you put any weight into NCAA statistics — Bobby Bowden came out in favor of giving back Joe Paterno his 111 victories back in the official record, even though it would mean he would no longer hold the NCAA’s title as the “official” winningest coach. Bowden, who is doing media spots to promote his new book, spoke out on the David Glenn Show yesterday about the situation:
Bowden on vacated wins: if I had my choice, I like for them to give me my 12 games back and give Paterno his 100 games. — David Glenn Show (@DavidGlennShow) September 3, 2014
Bowden himself had 12 victories vacated at Florida State due to an academic fraud scandal. His official victory count stands at 377 (389 actually), while Paterno is down to 298 (409 actually, of course). To the benefit of reality, Bowden has never really embraced being the official “winningest” coach. “There’s no way I can celebrate that,” Bowden said to the Birmingham News in 2012. “There’s no way we can rejoice in that here because of what happened with the circumstances. Under the circumstances, we can’t even cheer.”
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