I'm currently travelling for business, and had breakfast with a business colleague who mentioned that he played college ball at FSU. We started to compare years and teams etc and he was the back up kicker during the years prior to our national champships.
He said that Bowden respected TO a great deal (no surprise) and gave a couple examples. One being, the year after they beat us in the orange bowl, TO asked for some tips on how to get kicking teams moving faster, and how to improve speed (because at that time we cold recruit big, lineman but had issues getting skill players with speed), so Bowden sent a couple guys up to Lincoln for a week during the summer to share some tips and pointers.
Also, that when Bowden was recruiting that if a player was from FL and wanting to go away to school, or if they were full on a position and he had a good candidate he would always suggest to the recruit to look seriously at NE. That it was a good program, solid coaching - if they were a fit for FSU they'd be a fit likely in LIncoln as well. When asked why he did it, he claimed he liked Osborne, and also that it was always a benefit to get those strong players out of his conference. Last thing he wanted to do was help out Spurrier and others in his area, and he didn't want to gift a program like OK a gifted athlete.
Loved to hear that about my team and our reputation off the field.
