Thursday, September 7 Apple didn't fall far from Bowden family tree By Bob Harig Special to ESPN.com

CLEMSON, S.C. -- The picture in our minds is so vivid, it is hard to envision Bobby Bowden as anything other than the folksy Southern gentleman, a man who enjoys a pulpit as much as a pass pattern, one of the most successful coaches in college football history.

	Bobby Bowden likes the BCS. Of course, FSU has played in both BCS championship games.

Of course, there was another time, when Bowden was far removed from the seven-figure salary of today and the procession of talent that parades through Tallahassee and his Florida State football team.

Some 250 victories ago, Bobby Bowden was like so many coaches today, fighting for that next victory while looking over his shoulder, wondering when the lynch mob might appear.

The year was 1974, and Bowden was in the midst of a losing season at West Virginia, one of just two he would endure in 34 years as a head coach. And as he drove to church after a game, Bowden saw something that stunned him: he was hung in effigy.

With him was his son, Tommy, a walk-on receiver at West Virginia. Tommy cut the dummy down.

"They hung my father in effigy," Tommy said. "And I still went into this business. Doesn't make sense, does it?"

It doesn't to Bobby, who is as rare as they come. He won the 300th game of his career on Saturday night, a 17-14 victory at Clemson's Death Valley, becoming just the fifth major-college coach to reach that milestone. And he did so at the expense of his son in a historic father-son matchup.

The elder Bowden didn't particularly want any of his sons to go into coaching. As much as he loved football, he knew the pitfalls: time spent recruiting, the pressure to win, insecurity. Bowden has never been fired from a job, but he's seen so many colleagues come and go.

And then last year, he saw the soap opera at Auburn, where son Terry learned he would not be retained after the season. With a 1-4 record, he resigned. Only five years earlier, Terry took over from Pat Dye and won his first 20 games. Now he was being run out?

Bobby Bowden knows it is sometimes not a fair business. With that knowledge, it is quite a compliment that his sons would want to follow him.

"I wrote a sixth-grade paper -- I still have it somewhere -- an autobiography," Tommy Bowden said. "I wrote I was going to be a college head football coach. Those were the exact words. I never deviated from that."

Tommy's chance did not come right away. He toiled as an assistant for many years, including a stint under Terry at Auburn, where Tommy had been the offensive coordinator for Pat Dye. When Dye was fired, Auburn passed over Tommy for his younger brother. That stung, so much that Tommy decided to quit. Bobby talked him out of it, said his day would come. And it did.

His opportunity finally came at Tulane, and last year, he posted a perfect season -- something his father has never been able to accomplish.

When the opportunity came to run a storied program in the ACC, Tommy jumped.

It was a far different career path than the one taken by Bobby -- he came to Florida State in 1976 when the Seminoles' program was on the brink of extinction. But Bobby still sees much of himself in Tommy.

"He was a scaredy-cat, just like me," Bobby said. "Going into a cold swimming pool, Terry would just run and jump in, never even look to see if they had water in it. Jeff and Steve, very much the same. But Tommy's like I'd be. I'd tiptoe over and stick my toe in, pull it out real quick, then go down to the ankle and pull it out, then get the whole foot and pull it out. Fifteen minutes later, I'm in."

Tommy didn't appear too scared on Saturday night, calling for a fake punt that led to a touchdown, using a trick play to set up field position late in a tight game.

Ann and Bobby Bowden have been married for 50 years. They had six children. One of the girls, Robyn, married Jack Hines, who is the defensive backfield coach at Clemson (he also played for Bobby Bowden at West Virginia). The other daughter, Ginger, married former FSU center John Madden.

Three of the four boys followed their dad into coaching: Terry, who is now an ABC college football commentator after leaving Auburn last season; Jeff, who is Florida State's receivers coach; and Tommy. (Steve, a former dean and professor at Flagler College, is part owner of an Internet-related company, the only non-football coach.)

"I've called him for advice on discipline problems," Tommy said. "They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Well, it'd be crazy for me not to use some of those valuable resources. He won't sugarcoat it with me. It's blood. Another coach picks up the phone for advice, he gets the unleaded version. I get the leaded."

Tommy also knows what his father has achieved.

"He did not go to a Michigan or an Alabama or an Ohio State," Tommy said. "He didn't have a Bud Wilkinson or a Bear Bryant or a Woody Hayes make a call for him to help him get a job ... I think that makes his accomplishments great to some extent."

Tommy learned a lot from his dad, and says so. He proved it on Saturday night, although there is still some knowledge to be gained. After all, Tommy learned only enough to lose by three.

Peter the Great
Peter Warrick might be a superstar who someday soon will be lavished with NFL riches. But as much as Florida State fans want to believe otherwise, he is also human.

That was clearly evident Saturday night at Death Valley, where in the rush to get Warrick back on the field, the Seminoles may have been asking for too much.

All eyes were on Warrick, the erstwhile Heisman Trophy candidate who only Friday learned that he would be allowed to play after a much-ballyhooed legal skirmish that kept him out of two games.

And he was simply not the same player who three weeks ago was the clear-cut favorite to win college football's most prestigious award.

"I believe the distractions we had last week must have carried over because Pete didn't catch the ball good," said FSU coach Bobby Bowden, who during the week leading up to the game against his son, Clemson coach Tommy Bowden, fought for Warrick's reinstatement. "Pete had a couple of times where he could have won the darn the game. And I haven't seen what he did tonight since he was a freshman."

Nearly half the passes thrown by quarterback Chris Weinke went Warrick's way. Warrick had 24 balls thrown in his direction, four of which he dropped. He still caught 11 for 121 yards, with a long of 19. The 11 receptions are a career high and a team high this season.

Afterward, Warrick refused to talk with reporters.

Perhaps he had had enough. He heard the boos every time he touched the ball. And there were several clever attempts at abuse, such as the fan dressed in prison garb wearing a No. 9, or the occasional chants of "Jailbird, Jailbird."

Then there was the guy holding up an oversized cardboard credit card, made to look just like a Dillard's charge card. It had Peter Warrick's name on it. The fan stood on the side of a road leading to the stadium, where the Florida State team bus could get a good view.

Such will be life for Warrick, the subject of much debate around the country.

Warrick pleaded guilty on Friday to misdemeanor petty theft in connection with a department store incident in which he and former teammate Laveranues Coles allegedly paid $21.40 for more than $400 worth of clothes. Warrick will serve no jail time, which cleared the way for him to be on the field on Saturday night.

Get set for more BCS
Monday is a big day for computer lovers. That's when the first Bowl Championship Series standings will be released for this season, and the addition of several computers polls to the formula should make things interesting.

Virginia Tech has taken some knocks for a suspect schedule, but the Hokies are tops in several computers. They are rated No. 1 by five of the eight computers services being used to help determine which teams play in the national championship game.

Virginia Tech is No. 1 in the following computer polls: Jeff Sagarin, Dunkel Index, Massey Ratings, David Rothman and Matthews Ratings.

And the Hokies are rated No. 1 in a couple of other areas. They led the nation heading into the weekend in scoring offense (43.3) and defense (8.0) and total defense (192.3 yards). The Hokies would be the ninth team to lead the nation in both scoring categories. Florida State was the last, when the Seminoles won the national title in 1993.

Don't count out Dayne
Wisconsin's Ron Dayne needs 483 yards in the last three games to break the record of 6,279 for a career set by Ricky Williams of Texas last season. That is 161 yards per game, an attainable goal for such a powerful back, especially after Saturday's 214-yard performance against Michigan State. The Spartans had the No. 1 rushing defense in the country before Saturday.

"We're a team that is tailback-oriented, and he's going to get plenty of carries, plenty of touches," Alvarez said. "We don't go into a game thinking we have to get Ron a record. This record should be earned within the context of the game."

Bob Harig, who covers college football for the St. Petersburg Times, writes a weekly college football column for ESPN.com.