TALLAHASSEE -- Fifty years ago on a high school football field in Ozark, Ala., Bobby Bowden first saw the passion that burns inside Mickey Andrews.

At the time, Andrews was a do-everything star who would go on to be recruited by Paul ``Bear'' Bryant and play on two of Alabama's national championship teams. Bowden was coach of tiny Howard College (now Samford University) in Birmingham, Ala.

Bowden knew he had no chance of landing Andrews. ``Mickey was Division I-A material, and I was at a small-college division.''

But he couldn't take his eyes off of the hard-charging dynamo.

``He played more intensely than he coaches,'' Bowden recalled this week. ``He coaches as intense as anybody I've seen, and he played at that same wild, reckless level.''

Florida State fans, who have watched and cheered as Andrews assembled some of college football's hardest-hitting defenses, will get their final opportunity to see him walk the Doak Campbell Stadium sideline Saturday against Maryland.

Andrews is retiring after 26 seasons with the Seminoles and more than 40 years of college coaching. He will be honored during a pregame ceremony, and then for the next three hours, he will try not to reflect on the past. That includes the national titles his defenses helped produce, the All-Americans he developed and the NFL talent he cultivated.

The way Andrews sees it, if he spends one moment thinking about his legacy and all that Florida State accomplished during the past quarter-century, then that's a moment's worth of coaching he would be depriving the current team.

``I won't think about it until it is over,'' he said, while also acknowledging that he wouldn't have agreed to the pregame dedication if he hadn't been pressed by the school administration.

It's a typical approach for a coach who was relentless in pushing himself and his players to the limit.

``The only way I could play was to be hard-nosed and to be physical,'' Andrews said, noting that his 40-yard dash time would be snickered at by today's standards. ``It is what you get out of your body, not what your body's got.''

Andrews' demanding nature was unquestionably effective. The Seminoles led the nation in pass defense in 1998, and they were No. 1 against the run in 1996 and 1997.

During FSU's first national title run in 1993, Andrews' unit posted four shutouts and held four other opponents to 10 points or less.

But many formers players insist those on-the-field achievements tell only a portion of the story.

``The camera rarely gets to see the loving, compassionate side of Mickey Andrews,'' said former All-American and NFL defensive tackle Corey Simon. ``Those are things that I'll look back on. [He was] the father to many of us who came through this program. He's helped mold me and shape me as a man.''

FSU defensive tackles coach Odell Haggins, who played and worked for Andrews, echoed those sentiments.

He said Andrews helped him through some of the toughest times of his life, including the deaths of his mother and father.

``I know he coached numerous All-Americans, but man, that's nothing compared to what he's done for my life and so many others,'' Haggins said. ``A lot of people use that term `father figure' lightly, but he has been a father figure to me.''