Bobby Bowden. Second-winningest coach in major scholarly tackle football. Two national championships at Florida State, which he coached for 34 years.
Bobby Bowden's highest-high as coach occurred not at Florida State, not in those two national championship games, but at West Virginia which he coached from 1970 through 1975. Bowden's highest-high came in that last season at West Virginia. Against Pitt. In the year before Pitt won its only national championship of the modern era Bobby Bowden's "Mountaineers" beat Johnny Majors' "Panthers" 17-14 on a last minute field goal.
Last-minute field goals: Bowden had some bummers in last minute field goals. Wide Right I in 1991. "The game was...the first of a peculiar string of five over the next 12 years in which Florida State lost to Miami due to a late missed field goal that would have won or tied the game, often with national championship implications at stake." Wide Right II in 1992; Wide Left, 2002.
Yet with those excruciating heartaches the lowest-low of Bobby Bowden's coaching life occurred twenty years earlier, also at West Virginia. Also against Pitt.
1970 was Bowden's first year at West Virginia. The "Mountaineers" were good in 1970, they finished with an 8-3 record. It was the second of those three losses, on October 17, at Pitt Stadium, that caused Bobby Bowden the greatest pain of his professional life. "That loss to Pitt my first season, I don't know if I ever got over that."
I was there. With my parents and younger brother. Seated in the end zone where we always sat.
The 1970 Pitt "Panthers" were not good, they were mediocre, they finished with a record the definition of mediocre, 5-5.
My father loved those autumn Saturdays at Pitt Stadium. Nothing could put him in a bad mood. Not even Pitt "trailing" West Virginia 35-8 at the half! There were some rowdy West Virginia fans, (there are none other. West Virginia fans are what we now call "Trumpists.") seated a couple of rows down from us. I remember one girl, probably a WVU co-ed, in particular. And man, they were having a ball in that first half; you would have thought Donald Trump himself was firing the mascot's long rifle down on the field. Standing up screaming and hollering, drunk of course (there are none other), at every West Virginia touchdown, and there were five of those in the first half.
My brother and I were not in such fine spirits. Discouraged. Aggravated. "WHY do we come down here?" Not dad. Dad stood up at halftime and said to us with a big smile, "We're going to witness the greatest comeback in Pitt history!" Which just pissed me off more, I can't speak for my brother, but it just pissed me off more.
Damn if we didn't witness the greatest comeback in Pitt history. Time and again the Pitt radio announcer yelled into his microphone, "Here come the Panthers!" And on they came. Up the field, down the field, they came on. Bobby Bowden:
"[Pitt] had no intention of coming back in the second half. Pitt went with three tight ends in the second half to slow the game down thinking we would score 60. Well we were small and Pitt went for it on every fourth down and started to get momentum."
There was a noticeable transformation in the obnoxious (none other) West Virginia girl down below us. She lost that lovin' feelin' she had in the first half and as "Here come the Panthers!" continued she now stood up in anger and faced (I can see that face now) us and yelled sweet nothings at us that if I ever heard over the roar of the Pitt crowd, I've now forgotten, content-wise.
[Bowden] let out a long breath, pausing for a moment before the memories rushed back. It has been 44 seasons.
"I went out and sat on the ball. They beat us 36-35. I was so embarrassed. I told myself that I would never do that again. Not if I scored 100 points. People accused me of running up scores at Florida State. They should have been with us that day. I coached my team from then on. And I never sat on the football a single game the rest of my career."
"That was the only time I've ever cried after a game."
Twenty-seven 'eers later Pitt made another WVU coach cry and inflicted a greater trauma on Mountaineer Nation than it had ever suffered previously.
A defensive end on the 1970 team was now coach at Pitt. Bobby Bowden was long gone to Florida State. The "Mountaineers" were coached by a gifted offensive innovator, Rich Rodriguez, and West Virginia was superb in 2007, 10-1 entering the Pitt game, the 100th in the series, breathtakingly talented and blessed with blinding speed. They were second-ranked in the nation and needed only to beat their arch-rivals, over whom they were 28 1/2 point favorites, to secure a place in the national championship game, which would have been their first. Pitt was awful, 3-7 entering that final game.
Pitt won 13-9. It was inexplicable. It was the strangest athletic contest some had ever experienced.
The game turned on missed field goals, Bobby Bowden's tormentor against Miami. There were two West Virginia misses in this game. However both misses came in the first quarter with the game scoreless, not at the end of the game. West Virginia still scored first, a touchdown after both missed field goals. But, for some reason, West Virginia didn't look right after those two misses. They looked tentative, they looked slow, as if in a nightmare and they couldn't run faster. The crowd of inebriated Deliverance extras and future Trump voters were strangely "lifeless," ESPN's word.
I am aware of only two other sporting contests that compare to West Virginia's strangeness in 2007. One,
Devon Loch, 1956.
The other,
Germany 7 Brazil 1, 2014
It was as if the entire Mountaineer Nation had gotten a glimpse of the goat-foot god in those missed field goals and could barely move. It was like the Cathedral of Learning had been shoved up West Virginia's ASS!
"It was just a nightmare," Rich Rodriguez said afterward. "The whole thing was a nightmare."
No schadenfreude here (maybe for the girl-Trumpist in 1970), never was any schadenfreude here, not for Bowden, not for Rodriguez, not for West Virginia. I am sorry Bobby Bowden suffered so that day, he is a great man and was a great coach. I am sorry for Rich Rodriguez' nightmare, he would never coach another game at WVU, and I am sorry for all inbred, "Mountaineer" arsonist, Trumpist, mental defectives. Truly sorry.
Moments of Pitt. Those were the worst of times and the best of times for West Virginia. God bless them and Hail to Pitt.
Bobby Bowden's highest-high as coach occurred not at Florida State, not in those two national championship games, but at West Virginia which he coached from 1970 through 1975. Bowden's highest-high came in that last season at West Virginia. Against Pitt. In the year before Pitt won its only national championship of the modern era Bobby Bowden's "Mountaineers" beat Johnny Majors' "Panthers" 17-14 on a last minute field goal.
Last-minute field goals: Bowden had some bummers in last minute field goals. Wide Right I in 1991. "The game was...the first of a peculiar string of five over the next 12 years in which Florida State lost to Miami due to a late missed field goal that would have won or tied the game, often with national championship implications at stake." Wide Right II in 1992; Wide Left, 2002.
Yet with those excruciating heartaches the lowest-low of Bobby Bowden's coaching life occurred twenty years earlier, also at West Virginia. Also against Pitt.
1970 was Bowden's first year at West Virginia. The "Mountaineers" were good in 1970, they finished with an 8-3 record. It was the second of those three losses, on October 17, at Pitt Stadium, that caused Bobby Bowden the greatest pain of his professional life. "That loss to Pitt my first season, I don't know if I ever got over that."
I was there. With my parents and younger brother. Seated in the end zone where we always sat.
The 1970 Pitt "Panthers" were not good, they were mediocre, they finished with a record the definition of mediocre, 5-5.
My father loved those autumn Saturdays at Pitt Stadium. Nothing could put him in a bad mood. Not even Pitt "trailing" West Virginia 35-8 at the half! There were some rowdy West Virginia fans, (there are none other. West Virginia fans are what we now call "Trumpists.") seated a couple of rows down from us. I remember one girl, probably a WVU co-ed, in particular. And man, they were having a ball in that first half; you would have thought Donald Trump himself was firing the mascot's long rifle down on the field. Standing up screaming and hollering, drunk of course (there are none other), at every West Virginia touchdown, and there were five of those in the first half.
My brother and I were not in such fine spirits. Discouraged. Aggravated. "WHY do we come down here?" Not dad. Dad stood up at halftime and said to us with a big smile, "We're going to witness the greatest comeback in Pitt history!" Which just pissed me off more, I can't speak for my brother, but it just pissed me off more.
Damn if we didn't witness the greatest comeback in Pitt history. Time and again the Pitt radio announcer yelled into his microphone, "Here come the Panthers!" And on they came. Up the field, down the field, they came on. Bobby Bowden:
"[Pitt] had no intention of coming back in the second half. Pitt went with three tight ends in the second half to slow the game down thinking we would score 60. Well we were small and Pitt went for it on every fourth down and started to get momentum."
There was a noticeable transformation in the obnoxious (none other) West Virginia girl down below us. She lost that lovin' feelin' she had in the first half and as "Here come the Panthers!" continued she now stood up in anger and faced (I can see that face now) us and yelled sweet nothings at us that if I ever heard over the roar of the Pitt crowd, I've now forgotten, content-wise.
[Bowden] let out a long breath, pausing for a moment before the memories rushed back. It has been 44 seasons.
"I went out and sat on the ball. They beat us 36-35. I was so embarrassed. I told myself that I would never do that again. Not if I scored 100 points. People accused me of running up scores at Florida State. They should have been with us that day. I coached my team from then on. And I never sat on the football a single game the rest of my career."
"That was the only time I've ever cried after a game."
Twenty-seven 'eers later Pitt made another WVU coach cry and inflicted a greater trauma on Mountaineer Nation than it had ever suffered previously.
A defensive end on the 1970 team was now coach at Pitt. Bobby Bowden was long gone to Florida State. The "Mountaineers" were coached by a gifted offensive innovator, Rich Rodriguez, and West Virginia was superb in 2007, 10-1 entering the Pitt game, the 100th in the series, breathtakingly talented and blessed with blinding speed. They were second-ranked in the nation and needed only to beat their arch-rivals, over whom they were 28 1/2 point favorites, to secure a place in the national championship game, which would have been their first. Pitt was awful, 3-7 entering that final game.
Pitt won 13-9. It was inexplicable. It was the strangest athletic contest some had ever experienced.
The game turned on missed field goals, Bobby Bowden's tormentor against Miami. There were two West Virginia misses in this game. However both misses came in the first quarter with the game scoreless, not at the end of the game. West Virginia still scored first, a touchdown after both missed field goals. But, for some reason, West Virginia didn't look right after those two misses. They looked tentative, they looked slow, as if in a nightmare and they couldn't run faster. The crowd of inebriated Deliverance extras and future Trump voters were strangely "lifeless," ESPN's word.
I am aware of only two other sporting contests that compare to West Virginia's strangeness in 2007. One,
Devon Loch, 1956.
The other,
It was as if the entire Mountaineer Nation had gotten a glimpse of the goat-foot god in those missed field goals and could barely move. It was like the Cathedral of Learning had been shoved up West Virginia's ASS!
"It was just a nightmare," Rich Rodriguez said afterward. "The whole thing was a nightmare."
No schadenfreude here (maybe for the girl-Trumpist in 1970), never was any schadenfreude here, not for Bowden, not for Rodriguez, not for West Virginia. I am sorry Bobby Bowden suffered so that day, he is a great man and was a great coach. I am sorry for Rich Rodriguez' nightmare, he would never coach another game at WVU, and I am sorry for all inbred, "Mountaineer" arsonist, Trumpist, mental defectives. Truly sorry.
Moments of Pitt. Those were the worst of times and the best of times for West Virginia. God bless them and Hail to Pitt.
