Press Conference Mess

I had every intention of live-blogging during the Florida State - Wake Forest game on Thursday night, but was just too damn tired.

The season finale of the "Chevy Florida Fishing Report" ran live from 7pm until 8:30pm, compelling me to ask our studio crew to set up a TV monitor off-camera with the Seminole game feed, just so I could keep one eye on the game. Once we finished the fishing show -- and sampled some of the indescribably good cooking of Jay Herrington from Fish on Fire in Orlando -- I trudged back up to my office to catch the end of FSU-Wake.

Meh.

Rather than attempt to explain what's wrong with the Seminoles, let me stick to things I know: the special insanity of live television.

For the first time in the five seasons of live postgame shows on Sun Sports, head coach Bobby Bowden did not appear for his press conference on the Geico Seminole Postgame. After several e-mail chains and investigation, here's what I came up with:

Wake Forest's home stadium, BB&T Field, has one and only one interview room big enough to hold a press conference. About fifteen minutes after the game ended -- right about the time I expected to see Coach Bowden, as he is legendary for his quick arrivals at the microphone -- I glanced over at our live feed from Winston-Salem to see Wake Forest head coach Jim Grobe sit down at the interview table.

Uh-oh.

Our crew in Winston-Salem had been instructed by all knowledgeable parties to set up their cameras and lights for the Bowden press conference in that very same room. However, Florida State's sports information department had told Coach Bowden to address the media in a hallway outside the Seminoles' locker room, owing to the fact that the stadium did not offer a press conference area separate from Grobe's. Somewhere along the line, that fairly important piece of information never got to anyone at Sun Sports. Upon emerging from the FSU locker room, Bowden was cornered in a hallway by the dozens of print media reporters who were working feverishly toward their deadlines -- the game ran long -- and he gave them the comments they needed for their stories. End of story, as far as the reporters and Coach Bowden were concerned.

He never entered the press conference room. Thus, he never appeared in front of our cameras. Even if we had known that Bowden would be addressing the media in a hallway -- which we didn't -- the space there was far too small and cramped to set up the lights and camera for the live Sun Sports postgame (and knowing THAT, we would have made arrangements to get him somewhere else). There are too many chefs in this kitchen to list, and I have no intention of throwing anyone under the bus, but: Bowden is supposed to appear for his press conference on Sun Sports after every game, home or away. Any confusion about this issue has been addressed as of Friday, as Sun Sports management was in touch with Florida State's sports information department first thing in the morning. We've been assured that this won't happen again.

However, coming as it did one week after we had to wrap a Seminole postgame show into a Gator pregame show, there was at least one inevitable e-mail to Sun Sports on Friday morning chiding us for "Gator bias." This particular issue wears me out, so much so that I cannot dignify it with a response, other than to say that if anyone seriously believes that a Fox regional sports network favors one "home team" over another, said person has absolutely no clue how the television business operates.

Do I sound cranky? It's the halfway point of the college football season. A few four-hour football games and 1am bedtimes will do that to a guy.

Let me instead end happy and say "thanks" to Tom Block, our FSU reporter, who is the hardest-working man in show business. Even though Bowden was a no-show on the postgame, Tommy corralled Jimbo Fisher, Xavier Lee, Antone Smith, and just about every other important figure in this game for one-on-one interviews. Tom earns every penny every week.

Now, if he could just teach the Seminoles how to run the ball.