Bowden continues ... but successor named

Jimbo Fisher will succeed Bobby Bowden as Florida State's next football coach -- someday.

President T.K. Wetherell designated offensive coordinator Fisher as "head-coach-in-waiting" but skipped out of a somewhat unusual news conference Monday without answering questions about the contracts that are not yet finalized. Bowden, major college football's winningest coach, agreed to return for a 33rd season with options to stay longer.

"Every year I'll just re-sign it and tell 'em if I want to coach another year," Bowden said. "I couldn't ask for anything better than that." Bowden, Fisher and interim athletic director Bill Proctor all skirted questions about what Proctor described as "agreement(s) in principle" that give "stability to our program."

Bowden, 78, said he supported the plan brought to him last week by the president and Proctor, who have both known the coach since the early 1960s. Fisher, 42, spent much of his time praising Bowden and avoiding details on what exactly he agreed to.

"This gives me some peace," said Fisher, who has not been a head coach before. "I'm content to wait for it."

Fisher was paid roughly $420,000 as offensive coordinator this year. Bowden made just over $2 million in 2006.