We’ve been leery of U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio, because he seems like, oh, a competent version of Gov. Mark Sanford, but you can put the nail in the coffin of Fla. Gov. Charlie Crist, Rubio’s opponent in the Republican primary. Why might that be? Crist just allied himself with Florida State coach Bobby Bowden.

We should be backing Bowden, too. After all, he’s from Birmingham and played quarterback at Alabama before transferring to Samford. But, his days of being a good coach have passed him by. It was thought that happened to Penn State’s Joe Paterno, but the zombie they have coaching the Nittany Lions managed to turn it around. No such miracle looks like it’s in the works for Bowden. It’s been years since the team was relevant, and the state is effectively Florida’s these days. All roads, or at least I-75, lead to Gainsville.

Then there was the news conference recently in which it seemed Bowden was unaware of what happened during the game. In all seriousness, the exchange with the reports had all the markings of dementia, which is bad enough when you have to deal with it with a family member in private. When it’s a coach at a major school, it’s especially bad. Bear Bryant knew when to go before it got this bad. He had already delegated much of his duties to his assistants by the time the 1979 national championship rolled around. The ‘80-’82 seasons showed a precipitous decline, though, and Bryant stepped aside. Shortly after, he was dead. We have a feeling that’s what’s driving Bowden. He’s coaching to live, literally. It would be the same for Paterno, but he’s the living dead. The only way he’s going down is a well-placed spiral to the noggin.

Anyway, here lies the problem for Crist. How do you support a coach who is unpopular among his own fan base, and considered a joke by Florida and Miami partisans? In USA Today, Crist said Bowden should be able to return next year, adding, “I would certainly urge the school to do that. I don’t think I’ll have to urge them too hard, because the man is beloved. He really is.” Crist also said he’d be “heartbroken” if Bowden is forced to resign (or straight-up fired).

Crist has been pretty popular as a governor, and beat the hell out of his Democratic opponent in 2006. You would think he’d be smarter than casting his lot with Bowden, but he must not have been taking the pulse of Florida’s football public in the past few years.

OK, Wall Street Journal — don’t write about college football. Ever. Our regional/local papers across the football-mad areas of the South and the Midwest can do a good enough job writing stories that send a blinding flash of the obvious. Apparently, ooh, a vast majority of football coaches, especially college coaches, tend to be conservative.

Well, hell. You could knock us over with a Blake Mitchell.

Florida State head coach (and Birmingham native) Bobby Bowden said in the story, “I’d say that sounds likely — very likely. … In coaching, you’ve got to have more discipline and you’ve got to be more strict and just conservative, I think. It fits with the Republicans.”

Unfortunately, the piece also quotes noted fraud Lou Holtz, which is like talking to former U.S. Rep. Jim Traficant about ethics. Regardless, it seems that 74.3 percent of contributions to the presidential nominees last year from college and pro coaches (we have to assume they only looked at FBS coaches — the story doesn’t say either way) went to U.S. Sen. John McCain.

Tom Osborne, legendary Nebraska coach and former three-term member of the U.S. House, said, “There’s an awful lot of people who want to be in coaching for the number of jobs. It’s highly competitive. And many of them have had to spend a fair amount of time as graduate assistants, interns — as much as four, five, six, seven, eight years — making very, very little money to get into the profession. And they will work 70, 80, 90 hours a week during the season. I think that background — adherence to discipline, sometimes sacrifice, loyalty to core values—those things tend to have people move in that direction.”

For the next WSJ story, it’ll say that “offense wins games, but defense wins championships.”