Looking back, did the Bulls fire Bowden?

This time, it is Willie Taggart who has to pull the upset for USF. /ANDREW J. KRAMER

Wednesday, 6 a.m.

Looking back, was it South Florida who slayed the legend?

Now that Bobby Bowden is a statue, was it the Bulls who ultimately cast him in bronze?

It was Sept. 26, almost six years ago, the last time the Bulls dreamed big enough to go to Tallahassee and take on Bobby Bowden, one of the top college football coaches of all time, a coach who had chewed up so many small college programs over the years. You might as well put ex-coaches under the Sod Cemetery at Doak-Campbell.

There were further odds  stacked against the Bulls. Their quarterback was hurt. They were playing the No. 18-ranked team in the country. They were on the road.

And they won. By 10 points.

Of all the disappointed losses in the final few seasons of Bowden, this may have been the most embarrassing. FSU was Goliath, and USF was David. Do you think Goliath got another season? What South Florida did was raise the noise to the level of intolerable. What South Florida did was provide the final argument.

Oh, even before the game, you could have suggested that these were two programs headed in different directions. At FSU, the Seminoles were in a slide, and alumni were starting to murmur

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