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Seeing the light With all the hoopla nearly done, coaches are ready to go
Posted: Sunday January 03, 1999 06:26 PM
By John Donovan, CNN/SI TEMPE, Ariz. (CNN/SI) -- Bobby Bowden was typically personable and funny, Phillip Fulmer was ... well, typically, he wasn't. But, finally, at least the two coaches who take their teams into Monday night's Fiesta Bowl aiming for the undisputed national championship are about done. With kickoff now about 24 hours away, the coaches have schmoozed and posed and shook hands, standing in front of the national championship trophy, for the last time. They are all evented-out. The final practices are finished, the gameplans have long since been in place ... If there was one unsaid message Sunday as the two coaches met the massive mass media for the last time, it was this: All right, already. Let's get on with this thing. "We've done about everything we can do to get ready for this football game," said Bowden, the head coach for the favored, but No. 2-ranked, Florida State Seminoles. "At this point, you wonder 'Are they listening? Are they paying attention? Are they focused?' Well, they seem to be." Bowden is going for national championship No. 2 (his initial one came at FSU in 1993), while Fulmer -- at 48, he's 21 years younger than Bowden and has been a head coach for 26 fewer seasons -- is after his first. The two coaches have been endlessly compared this week, and endlessly contrasted. Bowden, of course, is the media favorite. Still, about the worst thing anybody is saying about Fulmer, who has a higher winning percentage than any college coach (he wins nearly 86 percent of his games), is that's he not all that interesting. In Knoxville, of course, no one cares what the rest of the nation thinks of Fulmer. Tennessee is unbeaten this season at 12-0, ranked No. 1 in the nation and is, the Orange faithful believe, a team of destiny. All Fulmer has to do is cap the perfect season with a win over Florida State on Monday night. "Our expectations have grown at Tennessee to the point where we do expect to win a national championship," Fulmer, in a brown suit and orange tie, told a packed press conference Sunday morning. "Hopefully, this year." Everyone around the game expects it to be heavy on defense. The Seminoles have the top-ranked defense in the nation, and Tennessee's is not that far behind. Plus, Florida State is playing with a third-string quarterback making only his third start, which can make a defense look even better. Still, there are offensive big shots on both teams who can open the game up. For Florida State, they are wide receiver Peter Warrick (14 touchdowns, including one running and one passing) and running back Travis Minor (4.5 yards per carry and eight TDs). For Tennessee, they're wideout Peerless Price (10 TDs), quarterback Tee Martin (19 TD passes) and running back Travis Henry (5.5 yards per carry with seven touchdowns). Whoever wins Monday, both teams, and their conferences will be much better off. The payout for this game is $11.5 million per team, and the benefit the two teams will get in recruiting will pay off for years to come. First, though, they have to play the darn thing. Finally. "I'd rather play earlier [than Jan. 4]," Bowden said Sunday. "We were ready to play yesterday."
Around the Fiesta Bowl
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