Florida State must make do with less in bowl game

NASHVILLE -- In the cradle of country music, where songs lamenting loss and hardship spill out the door of every honky tonk along Broadway, no one is singing a more mournful tune these days than the Florida State Seminoles.

The Seminoles -- or what’s left of them from an ongoing investigation into an academic scandal -- are scrambling to fill holes just about everywhere as they prepare to face Kentucky on Monday in the Music City Bowl.

They left behind 36 players, including more than 20 who are on scholarships and 19 who probably would have played against the Wildcats. Some didn’t make the trip because they were injured, others because they violated unspecified school rules. Privacy laws prohibit university officials from disclosing why a player was omitted from the roster.

In the meantime, guards have been transformed into tackles, a redshirt freshman will make his debut as a starter, and the defense has been almost completely reconstructed in the absence of three tackles, a standout cornerback and a top-notch linebacker.

Even the players couldn’t initially tell the players without a scorecard.

“On the defensive bus all year, all the seats are packed. You can’t even find a seat,” said wide receiver Rod Owens, whose roommate, six-interception, six-pass-breakup cornerback Patrick Robinson, is among the notable absentees. “This time, you can spread your legs out and have nobody on the bus.

“So that was a little difficult. And different.”

After an internal investigation, school officials reported to the NCAA in September that a “learning specialist” and what school President T.K. Wetherell labeled a “rogue tutor” had helped more than 20 athletes in various sports cheat.

For some, that meant having their papers typed and quiz answers filled in. For others, the tutor supplied answers to an online music appreciation course test.

Soon, they’ll all have to face the music.

Coach Bobby Bowden, who has maintained that coaches were unaware of the misconduct, was in full good ol’ boy mode Friday as he discussed his team’s predicament.

“I can’t believe -- a music course. It’s not physiology. It’s a music course, open book, online . . . and anybody can pass an open-book test,” he said.

Anybody, apparently, but a few dozen FSU athletes.

The Seminoles’ defense appears to have taken a harder hit than the offense. It will have to make do without defensive tackles Letroy Guion, Budd Thacker and Paul Griffin, linebacker Marcus Ball and defensive ends Neefy Moffett and Justin Mincey, which should have Kentucky quarterback Andre Woodson salivating.

Woodson, a senior, led the Southeastern Conference with 3,351 passing yards and 36 touchdowns this season and averaged 279.2 passing yards a game, just over 17 more than Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow of Florida.

“I think it would have been better for us if we didn’t play a team that throws,” Bowden said, almost wistfully.

The Seminoles’ starting lineup, he said, isn’t going to be bad. “Our biggest problem is depth, as you can imagine.”

Actually, their biggest problems may lie ahead if the NCAA imposes sanctions against players next season and leaves the Seminoles short again.

And if they’re forced to forfeit any of the games they won this season, Bowden would be bumped off the top of the coaches’ victory list -- he leads Penn State’s Joe Paterno, 373-371 -- and his place in history might bear further examination.

The Seminoles (7-5) have been out of the Associated Press top 10 since 2000, a far cry from the run of 14 consecutive 10-win seasons they had from 1987 to 2000 and national titles in 1993 and 1999. This month, Bowden received a contract extension that carries through next season, but Jimbo Fisher, FSU’s offensive coordinator, was anointed his eventual successor.

Bowden, 78, disputed the suggestion that the academic shenanigans will taint him or his record.

“I don’t think you can ruin my legacy,” he said. “I’ve seen it: ‘He’s going to ruin his legacy.’ How can you ruin a legacy? I don’t even know what my legacy is.

“What I’ve done, I’ve done. You can’t take that away, can you? So I really don’t even worry about that. As long as I’m honest and do the best I can do, I can’t worry about that.”

He has more pressing concerns, such as putting together a competitive team that won’t be embarrassed. He’s hoping some youngsters will rise to the occasion, and some are getting into the spirit.

Backup quarterback Christian Ponder said the team is preparing as if “it’s a normal day.”

Only if the abnormal is normal.

“People are going to step up and it’s going to be fun,” Ponder said.

Defensive end Everette Brown was more feisty.

“Florida State is Florida State. We didn’t come down here to take no moral victory,” he said. “We’re going to compete and go out and win a ballgame.”

What, though, does being Florida State mean after this?

“On the field we haven’t been the Florida State of old, that I grew up watching,” Owens said, “but that doesn’t stop us from working hard.

“Off the field there’s some great people that do great things in our community. We have two Rhodes scholars. But we have players cheating and ineligible for football games and that gets national news.

“It’s tough. We’re just trying to do the best we could.”

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Helene Elliott can be reached at helene.elliott@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Elliott, go to latimes.com/elliott.