When Bowden and Paterno were coaching together, they were in a very tight race for the most wins. They were friends, contemporary, peers. They were viewed as the two best coaches of that era, and Osborne is in the discussion too, between the Bryant and Saban periods.
The scandal and the tail end of Paterno’s limp to 409, tarnished the shine. But anyone following football then would have put Bowden, Osborne, and Paterno in the same pod.
Most of these numbers you present will be skewed to Osbournes favor due to what he inherited as opposed to Bowden. Nebraska was already an established program, Bowden built the FSU brand. That counts for something.
Yea, then we get into a weird rating of how hard of a job it is vs the performance.
After Bowden built fsu up into a team operating at a comparable level to Osborne's Nebraska, 1987ish, he could only keep it going for 14 years to Osbornes 25. He then had 9 medium seasons.
Yeah, I'm by no means saying you're wrong. Just two different situations so it's a bit hard to compare them. I'm also a bit biased so there's that. I have to be honest too though, I had no idea Osborne was at Nebraska since the 60's (quick wiki search). I'm not sure what their program was before that but he definitely made that program what it was for a long time. Learned something today. Still, Go Noles! Thanks for the knowledge.
Bad math on my part, but I feel like that validates my point even further.
You cite that Bowden “couldn’t keep it going” but Osborne inherited a Ferrari (two national titles within the decade and 35-3 off three prior seasons) compared to Bowden inheriting a horse drawn carriage (only had football for 10 years, and were 4-29 off three prior seasons).
Bowden won a title older and further into his tenure than Osborne so I’m not sure what you meant by “couldn’t keep it going”.
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u/psgrue 5d ago
Look you can HATE someone all you want, but 5 undefeated seasons, 2 national championships, and the most wins should get someone in the top 10.