TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Bobby Bowden didn't take much time to savor his record-setting 339th win.

One day after passing Joe Paterno for the most wins ever in major college football, the Florida State coach was looking forward to a visit to another of the game's shrines -- Notre Dame.

Bowden remembers well a trip to South Bend, Ind., a decade ago, when the Seminoles lost their only game of the 1993 season.

"We made their history book," Bowden joked Sunday. "To them, boy, don't forget the great win in '93 over Florida State to go with their great tie (0-0 in 1946) with Army to go undefeated."

Bowden doesn't have to feel too bad about that loss. The Seminoles still ended up winning the national title, the first of two championships for the 74-year-old coach.

Bowden also said few of his players are aware Notre Dame's fabled past.

"If there's anything they've got to know, I might teach it to them," he said.

"I mean, Knute Rockne, good gracious man, was the first name I learned," Bowden said about the legendary Irish coach. "When I was raised, that was it. Modern day kids don't know all of that."

The fifth-ranked Seminoles (7-1, 6-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) have already nabbed no worse than a share of another league championship and are in contention in the BCS rankings for a possible national title appearance if they can win out and either Oklahoma or Miami lose.

"We've got to do our part, we have to play the best we can play," Bowden said Sunday. "I can't control all the other stuff. I'm sure not going to worry about it."

The Seminoles' 48-24 victory Saturday over Wake Forest gives Bowden a 339-97-4 career record, including a 266-65-4 mark at Florida State.

The Irish (2-5) put a big dent in Florida State's season a year ago with a 34-24 victory in Tallahassee -- a game that prompted Seminoles coaches to bench quarterback Chris Rix for the next four games.

"He didn't go hide in a corner somewhere," said Bowden, who is 3-2 against Notre Dame. "It was a learning experience that was good for him."

Rix, however, has rebounded with a strong junior season, completing 59.2 percent of his passes for 2,051 yards and 13 touchdowns with six interceptions and is steadily moving up in the school's and ACC record books.

Now Rix gets a chance to redeem his performance from a year ago when he was intercepted twice and lost a fumble -- this time in the shadow of "Touchdown Jesus" on All Saints Day.

"I don't think he's a worrier and he's got complete confidence in himself," Bowden said. "He reminds me of a pitcher, if he's got that fastball working, y'all got problems."

Bowden again defended the performance of his youngest son, Jeff Bowden, as the Florida State offensive coordinator.

"When you're a head football coach like I am, you want people that you can depend on," Bowden said. "And you can you depend on more than your own family?"

Originally published Monday, October 27, 2003