news-record.com

RALEIGH -- The old man walked into the stadium at about 7:30 Thursday night and looked out across an arena far from filled. Kickoff was 10 minutes away, and he was already being interviewed.

His lieutenants, veterans Mickey Andrews and Chuck Amato, were making final pre-game arrangements while the old man fidgeted with his headphone. Eventually, he took it off and handed it to a kid dressed in garnet and gold.

He was irritated. Bobby Bowden was ready at last.

The old man was on the sideline for his 502nd game as a head coach with the State Fair across the street and several thousand N.C. State fans standing behind him armed with projectile placards. He felt right at home.

In his 43rd season, Bowden coached and cajoled his way to another win. Florida State defeated N.C. State 26-17 on a crisp October night that felt like college football itself.

FSU was on the road for a third straight week, and the 78-year-old coach had been convinced his team had grown up somewhere along the way. Wins over Colorado and Miami had pushed the Seminoles to 4-1 on the season and gave the false impression that the Noles were back.

They weren't.

A slew of freshmen and sophomores had been pressed into service along the way, in part because a lot of FSU's best players were playing in high school last year and in part because some of those who were at FSU last year have been removed. Bowden's youngsters were so sloppy early on, they fell behind 10-0 and managed to do something wrong on almost every play. Four times they were called for holding, and they probably could've been called for it 14 times.

Bowden needed a break, and he knew where to get it. At halftime, his team trailing 10-6, he took off after referee Tom Zimorski with ESPN cameras tailing him. Incensed about the holding calls against his young linemen and shook free from sideline reporter Erin Andrews long enough to yell at Zimorski.

"Do they ever do it, or just us?" he asked.

He said some other things, too, before he turned and agreed to be interviewed again. He talked about prayer and holding.

Bowden has been asking for divine intervention for some time now. The best college football program of our time has been dragged down by its own excess, academic cheating and time itself. After 14 straight seasons of top-five rankings, after two national titles and 29 bowl games and 12 ACC titles, FSU started showing signs of age.

Bowden, who once said he'd retire someday -- "if I live that long" -- was suddenly being asked about it in every interview. Boosters called for his resignation. Pundits around the nation no longer found charm in the race between Bowden and Penn State's aging Joe Paterno, the sport's two all-time winningest coaches.

The count, as of Thursday night, was Paterno 379, Bowden 378. Both have run into the realities of the modern game, fans and observers questioning the effectiveness, and even the sanity, of both. Penn State went through a rash of arrests in recent years, and Florida State is currently under a self-imposed probation after an academic cheating scandal rocked the program at the end of the 2007 season.

Bowden, who'd seen his share of incidents through the years, expressed outrage and frustration when the story broke last year, then coached and cajoled his program into a 26th straight bowl game. Time changes everything, and eventually it will run down the old man of college football.

They used to chant his name and pray he would live forever in Tallahassee. They enshrined him a living legend. They came from miles around to hear him speak. He even did interviews on the field while games were still going on, taking care to talk to newspaper beat writers with his back turned toward them so he wouldn't insult the opponent.

He stood on the sideline for the 502nd time Thursday, and willed another one, unleashing his team's impressive speed once the flags stopped flying and blew past N.C. State. He stood there in the shadow of the State Fair, the fireworks long ended, and heard the haunting FSU tomahawk chant while cardboard airplanes flew out of the stands behind him.

Bowden watched the clock run out on another chapter in his career then ran across the field to shake the hand of State coach Tom O'Brien. Then he found his lieutenants and walked away, pausing only to do another television interview.

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com