It's time

Josh Lindenstein

Ten, 9, 8, 7 ...

Time for the Denver Broncos to yell "toro?"

Not exactly.

It's Bobby Bowden's win column the last four years.

With his Florida State Seminoles coming to town this weekend, it's the perfect time to offer the legend a nudge toward hanging up his whistle. And that goes for a couple of his contemporaries: Penn State's Joe Paterno and Colorado State's Sonny Lubick.

Okay, so folks in these parts don't really mind seeing CSU guided back toward mid-major bore-mat status.

But for Bowden, 77, and Paterno, 80, the time is now. While the getting will likely never be as good as it would have been a few years ago, it could certainly still get worse.

There used to be a time that the name Bobby Bowden could carry a program. Recruits and parents were in awe. Opposing coaches tightened up on game day. Opposing teams psyched themselves out when faced with the aura. And 10 wins could be counted on as sure as the Tomahawk Chop droning on in the late stages of a rout.

But not even legends are immune to the increasing parity in the game. Suddenly, competing for Big Ten and ACC titles no longer seems like a birthright for Seminoles and Nittany Lions.

Bowden and Paterno have mentioned the fate of Bear Bryant, who died shortly after stepping aside at Alabama. But for anyone to suggest there's nothing left for the two after football is painting them into an absurdly small corner.

Both, after all, no doubt have the clout to do anything they want after coaching, and plenty of those options include staying close to the program sans the rigors of college coaching in this new era. No one's suggesting they disappear, just gracefully turn over the reins while the next coach still has some of that aura left to build from.

Otherwise, Erstwhile 'Noles might be longing for the days of chomping on Emerald Nuts at Monster Park come one of these bowl seasons.

Not time

Ryan Thorburn

There shouldn't be any term limits for college football coaches.

Yes, the sport is big business these days. And there are a lot of politics involved, especially with the flawed BCS system.

But the personalities on the sideline make college football more fun to cover and follow than the NFL. Most of today's head coaches on the professional level don't have personalities and can't answer even the most basic questions without using clichès.

Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno have earned the right to coach as long as they want to, as long as their teams remain competitive in their conferences and aren't losing to the Appalachian States of the world at home.

These men are Florida State and Penn State football, respectively.

Same story for Sonny Lubick at Colorado State. You don't try to push a guy out of the program when the home field is named after him.

Bowden's Seminoles will make a rare road trip west of the Mississippi River this weekend for Saturday's game against Colorado at Folsom Field. In 43 years of coaching, he has racked up more wins (367) than anyone in I-A/FBS history and his winning percentage — despite some "down" seasons recently — stands at 76.1 percent.

By comparison, Paterno — who was feeling some heat a couple seasons ago before getting Penn State back in Big Ten contention — has only won 365 games. Lubick has only taken CSU to nine bowl games in the last 14 years after the program made two bowl appearances in the previous 100 years.

These coaching legends help make college football great because they are the ones directly responsible for the tradition in Tallahassee, College Station and even Fort Collins.

Four more years? I say yes, if they want to coach that long.