Bobby Bowden: Give Paterno His Wins Back

Sen. George Mitchell’s report, which could include some relief for Penn State from the NCAA sanctions, is due out in the coming days.

For now, though, the second winningest coach in college football history — or winningest, if you put any weight into NCAA statistics — Bobby Bowden came out in favor of giving Joe Paterno his 111 victories back, even though it would mean Bowden would no longer hold the NCAA’s title as the “official” winningest coach.

Bowden, who is doing media spots to promote his new book, spoke out on the David Glenn Show yesterday about the situation:

Bowden on vacated wins: if I had my choice, I like for them to give me my 12 games back and give Paterno his 100 games.

— David Glenn Show (@DavidGlennShow) September 3, 2014

Bowden himself had 12 victories vacated at Florida State due to an academic fraud scandal. His official victory count stands at 377 (389 actually), while Paterno is down to 298 (409 actually). The NCAA took those 111 wins away from Paterno in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

Bowden has never really embraced the official title of “winningest” coach. “There’s no way I can celebrate that,” Bowden said to the Birmingham News in 2012. “There’s no way we can rejoice in that here because of what happened with the circumstances. Under the circumstances, we can’t even cheer.”