Bowden, Stoops changed perception, then reality

MIAMI (AP) _ Though 23 years separated their tasks, Florida State's Bobby Bowden and Oklahoma's Bob Stoops took similar approaches to turning around programs. <br><br>Bowden and Stoops wanted _

Thursday, December 7th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

MIAMI (AP) _ Though 23 years separated their tasks, Florida State's Bobby Bowden and Oklahoma's Bob Stoops took similar approaches to turning around programs.

Bowden and Stoops wanted _ and needed _ to change the perception of their teams.

It worked almost instantly for both coaches.

In Bowden's fourth year at Florida State (1979), the Seminoles went unbeaten in the regular season and earned a berth in the Orange Bowl, where they played Oklahoma.

Stoops, in his second year at Oklahoma, has the top-ranked Sooners (12-0) playing against No. 3 Florida State (11-1) in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 3 in the Bowl Championship Series title game.

``I guess it's a surprise and a shock to most people that in two years we've come from virtually nowhere to be here,'' Stoops said Wednesday alongside Bowden at their first Orange Bowl news conference. ``We never set a timetable on where we would be on any given time. We just tried to improve week-to-week, month-to-month. And we've been able to do that at a rapid rate.''

Stoops and Bowden started with comparable plans for success. They wanted to change perception, then reality.

Bowden took over at Florida State in 1976, heading up a program that had a combined 4-29 record in the three years prior to his arrival. Bowden wasted little time turning around the Seminoles.

After losing to Miami 47-0 in his second game, Bowden put seven freshmen in the starting lineup to play at Oklahoma. It didn't pay off immediately; the Sooners won 24-9, but the move set the tone for Florida State's future.

``They didn't think we could win, so we had to turn that around,'' Bowden said. ``After we got whipped two or three times real good, we just said we'll just start a youth movement and get ready for later on.

``We put those freshmen in there because they didn't know we were supposed to lose yet. We gave them a heck of ballgame out there. Four years later, that group of freshmen put us down here.''

The Seminoles lost in their first Orange Bowl appearance, falling 24-7 to the Sooners in 1980. But by then, Bowden had convinced the Seminoles that they could win. And they have done it regularly since, advancing to 20 bowl games in the past 21 years.

Florida State is playing in its third consecutive national championship games and fourth in the last five years. The defending national champions have been ranked fourth or higher in the final Associated Press poll the last 13 years.

``First you've got to change the head,'' Bowden said. ``They've got to believe they can win.''

The Sooners certainly do now. It started when Stoops, the defensive coordinator at Florida from 1996-98, took over before last season. Stoops has led Oklahoma to consecutive bowl games for the first time since 1993-94.

``The perception of our program in town, in the administration, at the university and of (the players) ... it was not the most positive _ far from it,'' Stoops said. ``We had to change that along with developing some discipline and work habits to deserve changing that. We went about that right off the bat.''

Like Bowden at Florida State, Stoops installed a new offensive system upon his arrival.

Coupled with the same pressure defense he used at Florida, Stoops instituted a pass-happy offensive scheme similar to Hal Mumme's at Kentucky.

``In today's college football, you've got to be able to throw the ball to win _ as much or more than you have to be able to run,'' Stoops said.

That might have been a tough sell at Oklahoma, where the wishbone formation led the Sooners to three national titles in the 1970s and 1980s. But on the first play of the first scrimmage of Stoops' first season, Josh Heupel connected on an 80-yard passing play for a touchdown.

``The place went crazy,'' Stoops said. ``People will embrace anything as long as it works.''