Bowden Family Feud Minor After FSU Upset

A year after shocking the ACC by failing to win the conference for the first time since they joined, the Seminoles had regained their traditional spot amongst the nation's top 10 teams.

Life seemed to be back to normal. Sure, Coach Bobby Bowden's squad looked a little shaky in a 38-31 win against Iowa State in its season opener. But convincing wins against Virginia, Maryland and Duke assuaged most concerns about the 'Noles.

But then a funny thing happened. Florida State got upended by a previously disappointing Louisville team in the rain Thursday night. The doubts flared up again.

"It's one you're supposed to win," Bowden said. "It's one where you were favored, and one that you've got to win because you've got other people down the road you know are going to be stronger. It's gut-wrenching."

Perhaps the 'Noles were looking ahead to this Thursday's showdown against Clemson, always a big game for Bowden because his son Tommy is the Tigers' coach.

"This is the hard part about being family," Bobby Bowden said. "I know Tommy needs to win the game. At the same time, I need to win the game. Tommy knows I need to win the game. He knows he needs to win the game. That's the sad thing about it. One of us ain't going to win it."

Tommy Bowden said the game's intrigue is centered around questions about the Seminoles' resilience rather than the clash of the Bowdens.

"If we were both ranked in the top 10 nationally, this game might have more of a father-son issue to it," he said. "But now the big interest nationally is how Florida State will respond after losing to an unranked team."

But the younger Bowden confessed that he had some extra motivation to beat his father: financial motivation.

"My father has always paid when we go on the family vacation," Tommy Bowden said. "If we win then I will pay this summer. That is groceries, not lodging."

Franks Enjoys Small Taste of Victory

Duke is 2-3 this season, but Blue Devil coach Carl Franks isn't complaining.

Those two wins are two more than the Blue Devils' total the previous two years combined.

"It's a world of difference," Franks said. "There's not any better feeling in the world than Saturday night and Sunday after a win. We all feel better about going out to practice."

Franks hopes Duke's relative success will do something his teams have failed to do for quite some time -- draw fans to Wallace Wade Stadium. He'll find out Saturday if Duke fans have noticed the team's improvement when the Blue Devils take on Virginia.

"It was important for us to win this week after having lost at Northwestern," Franks said. "Hopefully it will bring people out to see us play. I would expect they would expect a good football game. Hopefully it will be a good crowd."

The Sports Editor can be reached at sports@unc.edu.