Game-Ending Brawl Spoils Bowden’s 200th

What happened after the game seemed to bother the coaches more than what transpired during No. 12 Florida State’s 42-3 thumping of Louisiana State on Saturday.

Florida State’s Bobby Bowden had the joy of his 200th coaching victory tempered by a game-ending brawl.

“It’s a shame what happened at the end,” Bowden said. “It shouldn’t have happened.”

Bowden and LSU Coach Mike Archer were unsure what happened after Florida State linebacker Kirk Carruthers was whistled for a late hit on the game’s final play.

“I just ran out there to try and break it up,” Archer said. “It was a good hard football game until that point.”

The brawl required coaches and stadium authorities to separate the players and Archer declined the roughness penalty to avoid another confrontation.

Florida State linebacker Marvin Jones required stitches near his right eye from an injury suffered in the melee.

“They finally got an opportunity to take something out and they went for it,” said Carruthers, who, despite drawing the penalty, blamed the fight on LSU players.

LSU (4-3) had five turnovers, three leading to Florida State touchdowns in the first half as the Seminoles rolled up a 28-3 cushion.

“Everything that could have gone wrong, did,” Archer said. “You saw all that today.”

Bowden said, “The defense played doggone well. They set up our offense time and again.”

Carl Simpson recovered two fumbles by LSU quarterback Chad Loup that set up a pair of touchdowns and Terrell Buckley’s recovery of a fumble on the game’s first play jump-started the runaway for Florida State (5-2).

“I felt like we had to get ahead and then we fumble the kickoff,” Archer said.

Bowden, 61 next month, is the 11th major-college coach to win 200 games. Penn State’s Joe Paterno, with 224, is the only active Division I coach with more victories.