Florida State legend Bobby Bowden becomes the winningest coach in Football Bowl Subdivision history in the wake of the sanctions against Penn State and late coach Joe Paterno.
Bowden’s 377 career wins rates him as the winningest coach following the Nittany Lions’ (and Coach Paterno’s) vacated wins between the years of 1998 to 2011. The 111 fewer victories leaves Paterno with 298 career victories. Bowden is not the winningest coach in Division I college football history -- that honor belongs to Grambling’s Eddie Robinson -- but the distinction remains all the same.
Additionally, another ACC coach and future Hall of Famer, Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer, is the winningest active coach in college football.
But make no mistake, there is no winner in the wake of the Penn State tragedy. This is undoubtedly not the way Bowden wanted to reached this milestone any more than it is how the Paterno family wanted to see it wiped away.
Bowden told the Associated Press that sanctions against Penn State "cannot replace those boys who were molested."
As for his own spot atop the coaching wins list, Bowden said he "didn't want it to happen like this. Wish I could have earned it, but that's the way it is. I don't want people thinking I am glad that happened so I can do this. All of the things that have happened aren't worth it -- not worth it at all."
This revisionist’s history of the NCAA record books offers no condolences for the victims of Jerry Sandusky's criminal history, nor the subsequently inexcusable cover-up by Penn State officials, but perhaps it symbolizes that this entire era will not be celebrated in any fashion years from now.
That sure is a lot of career wins for there to be no winners in this tragedy.
