The Florida State Seminoles were the class of college football throughout the 1990’s. They owned the ACC on Saturdays and worshipped head coach Bobby Bowden on Sundays.
Life in Tallahassee was as good as it got between the months of September and January, and the road to the national title seemingly would come through the capital city every season.
The Seminoles record from 1990-2000 was an astronomical 108-15-1. They took home nine consecutive ACC titles and a pair of national championships. Like their in-state rivals from Miami, they were a breeding ground for potential NFL stardom.
Guys like Deion Sanders, Peter Warrick, Derrick Brooks, Peter Boulware, Laverneus Coles, Leroy Butler, Sam Cowart, Terrell Buckley and Warrick Dunn all donned the maroon and gold en route to establishing FSU as one of the proudest programs in the nation.
The past two seasons, though, have been an aberration for the Seminoles, boasting a combined 17-9 record while falling out of the top-5 rankings for the first time in over 11 years. Not bad for most college-football programs, but brutal for a team practically molded into a New Year’s Day Bowl game.
Last year’s 7-1 mark in the mediocre ACC was negated by a 1-4 non-conference mark, and the Florida State program had clearly dropped a notch from their previous pedestal atop the college-football world. Rivals Florida and Miami owned the state the past two seasons and the ‘Noles were left with nothing but shame and frustration.
Their stranglehold on the ACC began to loosen with the ascension of conference foes Maryland, North Carolina State and Virginia.
Returning only four starters on offense and a young defense that ranked eighth in the ACC a year ago, it was all but a consensus among the Kirk Herbstreits of the college-football world that Florida State’s collective place in the nation’s elite was relinquished.
A few off-field incidents here, a couple of missed field goals there, two years out of the Top 10 and, just like that, a program is doomed?
Not so fast. Bowden wouldn’t let anything like that happen. Not after everything he’s done for the program.
Well, two games into the young season and the consensus is beginning to tilt. Florida State’s looked pretty good so far. Two weeks removed from remarking how it’s someone else’s turn in the ACC driver’s seat and already experts are beginning to recant their statements.
After thoroughly dominating North Carolina in the season opener a few weeks ago, the Seminoles absolutely destroyed Maryland (35-10) in a game that sent one simple message to the rest of the conference — and nation for that matter — “we’re back.”
Few teams have looked better than the ‘Noles (granted it’s only been two games), who have outscored their opponents 72-10. Their young offense surrounded by question marks heading into the season is beginning to take the shape of the dominant offensive cannons reminiscent of Bowden’s teams throughout the 1990s.
Junior Chris Rix, in the wake of an unbelievable freshman campaign followed by the stereotypical ‘sophomore slump,’ appears to have regained his form from two years ago and has shown the tools that could make him one of the more productive quarterbacks in the nation. His ability to tuck the ball and run when the pocket collapses will keep defenses on their heels, and FSU coaches have applauded the maturity of his decision-making.
Juniors Craphonso Thorpe and P.K. Sam, along with freshman Chris Davis, give Rix enough speedy targets downfield to spread opposing defenses, and senior tailback Greg Jones is off to his best season as a Seminole.
An experienced, yet unproven, defense has certainly done its part in the first two tests of the year — allowing only 10 meaningless points in the Maryland game — and will have a few more weeks to gel together before Florida State gets to the meat of their schedule and the top-25 teams.
Barring an upset, the Seminoles will be 5-0 when Miami arrives in Tallahassee and the outcome of that game should decide the fate of their season, as well as provide the most accurate barometer as to how well Florida State has rebounded from the last two years.
The Florida State of the 1990s certainly wouldn’t lose a home contest to Miami if BCS implications were on the line.
Seven of Florida State’s 12 games this season are against ranked teams, including trips to both Notre Dame and Florida. The Florida-Florida State game (the nation’s biggest rivalry south of Michigan-Ohio State and Oklahoma-Nebraska) is the Seminoles last game of the season and could be played for a lot more than pride this year if Florida State plays like they have the first two weeks.
College football is the cruelest sport in that one loss can spell a season, and as a result, there are simply no guarantees.
Here’s one, though: the Seminoles are back in the hunt for another national title.
