For Bowden, modesty is best policy.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

JACKSONVILLE _ As he routinely does, Bobby Bowden played his personal contribution to milestone coaching win No. 323 Tuesday for yuks.

If you bought into the folksy grandfather's self-deprecation through this history-making phase of his career, you might think Bowden never plotted a winning strategy ... or called a game-winning "puntrooskie" ... or motivated 18- and 19-year-olds to want to knock down walls for him.

But Bowden shelves the jokes when talk turns to fabled Alabama coach Bear Bryant, whose career victories total Bowden equalled with Florida State's 30-17 Gator Bowl victory over Virginia Tech.

"I was raised off him," he said reverently of his Birmingham, Ala., upbringing and proximity to Bama and the Bear in his formative coaching years at Howard College.

"I admired and respected him. And tying him sure doesn't mean Bobby Bowden is in the same class as Bear Bryant."

History will decide. But Bowden, at 72, continues to make his. He will enter his 27th season at FSU next fall just four losses behind new Division 1-A record-holder Joe Paterno at Penn State. But he won't be taking aim at his 75-year-old colleague. He'll be trying to map a path to the 2003 Fiesta Bowl and a third FSU national championship in a decade.

So high has Bowden raised expectations that the 8-4 season just concluded looked like failure to some. Remember, no band of Seminoles since 1986 had lost as many as three times in a season.