Why wait? Do it now. Spare yourself, your winning percentage and the Mormon Nation a repeat of Saturday's 29-3 loss to No. 2 Florida State.

It's an old man's game now. Seventy-year-old Florida State coach Bobby Bowden opened 69-year-old BYU coach's farewell tour by showing him the door. Multiple formations. Multiple plays. Multiple points. Multiple headaches for the guy across the field.

Chris Weinke unloads for one of his two touchdown passes for Florida State.(AP)

"The only time my retirement comes up is when we are asked about it," Edwards said, practically grumbling. "I don't have any second thoughts or qualms about my decision."

Just checking, big guy. Your team tied for its worst loss (26 points) since 1993. Your quarterbacks are greener than the Wasatch Mountains in the spring. Your defense came within 71 seconds of pitching a second-half shutout but didn't have a clue early when it counted.

While the Cougars never gave up, the Seminoles were never in doubt of winning the game. Florida State wasn't satisfied, of course. The Seminoles scored the first 22 points and then didn't score again for almost three quarters. But the Pigskin Classic was not about victories, at least on one sideline. It was about quality of victory for the defending national champions.

"We'll be fine," Florida State quarterback Chris Weinke said after having to throw 50 passes because of a poor rushing game. "Tonight was just one of those nights."

Ho-hum. A night where nostalgia ruled for at least a little while. The Pigskin Classic featured the most combined victories (555) ever assembled in a Division I-A game. One coach, Bowden, is headed for the twilight of his career. The other was sent to the twilight zone.

When, for example, was the last time BYU had neither a quarterback nor a prayer? The Cougars' star of the game was kicker Owen Pochman, whose field goal kept alive BYU's ongoing NCAA record of 313 games without being shut out.

Yipee.

Farewell tour? This was fairly embarrassing for a while. Bowden was emptying the bench in the first quarter when 59 Seminoles helped Florida State to a 15-0 lead. BYU sophomore quarterback Bret Engemann played like he was Larry King instead of just the brother-in-law of the talkmeister.

Squint a little and the game could have passed as a fifth quarter to the Sugar Bowl. Some video guy merely snipped out the last eight months and added new Seminoles.

Last year's Seminoles outscored Virginia Tech 18-0 in the fourth quarter in New Orleans to sew up the title. This year's model scored the first 22 points of the game. That made it 40 consecutive points since Florida State trailed the Hokies 29-28 in January.

Just like New Orleans, the 2000 debut came before anything but a neutral crowd. It was a challenge finding any BYU fans in the Alltel Stadium crowd of more than 54,000.

"Brigham Young had every disadvantage there was," Bowden said. "The humidity was in our favor, the heat. Everything was in our favor and they battled us even, in my opinion."

After the first 17½ minutes, that is. In that opening span, Weinke threw two touchdown passes, Atrews Bell ran for another and defensive end Jamal Reynolds sacked Engemann to force a safety.

Florida State pretty much let up after that because it could. There were bigger issues Saturday than putting away a depleted BYU. Bowden had to find out about a defense which had been the offense's punching bag during August drills. The Seminole D contributed five sacks and three interceptions.

He had to break in a mostly new set of receivers. The star of the group was Marvin "Snoop" Minnis who caught nine passes for 137 yards. Junior college transfer Javon Walker debuted with eight catches for 70 yards and a touchdown. Bell caught a touchdown pass and ran for another.

"The game surprised me," Bowden said. "We've been struggling all year defensively. I thought tonight we'd probably have a high scoring game. If we lost, it would be because they outscored us. I thought out offense was capable of really getting points on the board. It was just the opposite."

One of the biggest surprises was the offensive line, supposedly one of the best in school history, giving up four sacks. Weinke was forced to throw 50 times (completing 32 for 318 yards) because the line couldn't carve out a decent running game. The Seminoles got only 57 yards on 36 carries.

But the special teams were no surprise. Walk-on freshman kicker Matt Munyon will remind no one of Sebastian Janikowski. So far, he has stayed out of jail. But on the field, he missed two field goals and an extra point on Saturday.

"We'll see a lot of things in the film that we'll have to correct," Bowden said, "or we won't win another game."

Feel free to stifle a laugh for poor, ol' Papa Seminole. These are merely the sort of things that lead coaches straight into depression, not retirement.