Florida State trustee wants Bobby Bowden to retire

The chairman of the Florida State University trustees wants football Coach Bobby Bowden to retire at the end of this season.

Jim Smith said Monday the arrangement with Bowden as head coach and his designated successor, Jimbo Fisher, as offensive coordinator isn’t working.

“We’ve got too many bosses out there,” Smith said. “Jimbo is in a very, very tough situation where people assume he has a whole lot more authority than he really has. He’s getting blamed for a lot of things that’s just not his fault.”

The Seminoles (2-3, 0-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) are off to their worst start since Bowden’s first season in 1976.

Bowden said Sunday that he has no plans to quit any time soon. His 384 wins are three fewer than Penn State Coach Joe Paterno, the career leader in victories among major college coaches. Bowden turns 80 in just over a month, and has a contract that gives him the option to return in 2010.

And while the school’s trustees don’t have immediate authority over coaches, they have significant influence because they are in effect the boss of university President T.K. Wetherell, who makes such hiring and firing decisions.

Florida Coach Urban Meyer said quarterback Tim Tebow has not been cleared to practice or play against Louisiana State on Saturday night. But Meyer added that Tebow is no longer dealing with post-concussion symptoms.

GOLF

Kuchar wins on sixth playoff hole

Matt Kuchar won the Turning Stone Resort Championship in Verona, N.Y., besting Vaughn Taylor on the sixth hole of a sudden-death playoff.

Tied for the lead after 72 holes, neither player managed to win after two holes of a sudden-death playoff Sunday. Play was suspended because of darkness.

TENNIS

Safina on verge of losing ranking

Dinara Safina lost to wild card Zhang Shuai, 7-5, 7-6 (5), in the second round of the China Open in Beijing, a result that could lead to Serena Williams’ taking the No. 1 ranking.

Venus Williams fell to teenager Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, the second time in a week the Russian has beaten her.

Safina will lose her top ranking if she finishes behind No. 2 Serena Williams in the tournament. Williams will play a second-round match today against Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova.

ETC.

New accusations in Andrews case

An Illinois insurance executive accused of secretly making nude videos of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews apparently uploaded videos of other unsuspecting nude women to the Internet, a federal prosecutor said.

Michael D. Barrett, 47, of Westmont, Ill., was released on $4,500 bond but was ordered to wear an ankle monitoring bracelet, to adhere to a strict curfew and not to use the Internet. He is due in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Oct. 23 to face federal charges of interstate stalking.

A hearing to determine whether former Lakewood High running back Jerry Stone should be tried as a juvenile or as an adult on two counts of attempted murder will be held Oct. 15 in Compton Juvenile Court.

In addition to the attempted murder charges, Stone, 17, faces two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of permitting another to shoot from a vehicle, one count of permitting a loaded firearm in a vehicle, one count of residential first-degree burglary and one count of hit-and-run.

-- Ben Bolch

The chief executive of Golden Boy Promotions said he has “finalized” a deal to match Pomona’s Shane Mosley (46-5, 39 knockouts) versus Andre Berto (26-0, 19 KOs) in a world welterweight title unification bout on Jan. 30 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

Richard Schaefer said he expects contracts to be signed this week.

Schaefer also said that Bernard Hopkins will fight Enrique Ornelas on Dec. 2 in Philadelphia. If he wins, as expected, Hopkins would fight Roy Jones Jr. sometime in 2010.

-- Lance Pugmire

A judge in Iowa City ruled that Mark D. Becker, 24, accused of gunning down a longtime Iowa high school football coach, is mentally competent to stand trial.

Becker had been scheduled to stand trial last month in the June shooting death of Ed Thomas, who coached Aplington-Parkersburg High in northeast Iowa for 34 seasons and was named high school coach of the year by the NFL in 2005.