TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Bobby Bowden had been close so many times that it felt like maybe he wouldn't win a national title.
In 1987, Florida State went for a two-point conversion in the final minute but the pass was batted away and the Seminoles suffered a 26-25 loss to Miami, their only defeat of the season.
The 1991 team was 10-0 before falling at home to Miami. And the following year, Florida State again won every game but an October matchup at Miami.
But 1993 felt different. The team was ranked No. 1 in the preseason. There was a sense that this team would again be very good. But how good?
"We felt like the team had gotten to the point where we could compete with anybody in the country," said Mickey Andrews, Florida State's defensive coordinator from 1984-2009. "It was just a matter of being able to sustain it for an entire season.
"We were in the top 4. We experienced some championships in the ACC. We felt like we were close but we hadn't turned the corner and won one."
That 1993 season offered up dominating wins, as Florida State pieced together nine straight wins by 18 points or more. Then came the loss at Notre Dame on Nov. 13. A week later, Boston College upset the Fighting Irish. New life.
Florida State ripped North Carolina State and then handled Florida in the Swamp. After a hard-fought 18-16 win in the Orange Bowl, Bowden and the Seminoles had their first national title.
"We had a collective group that was willing to sacrifice for the benefit of the team," said quarterback Charlie Ward, who won the Heisman Trophy in 1993. "We had talent, we had great coaching."
Twenty years later, Florida State is honoring the 1993 national championship team before Saturday’s home game against Syracuse. FOX Sports Florida caught up with them to reflect on Florida State's first national title.
The 1993 season began with a kickoff classic against Kansas at the
Meadowlands. While fans were looking forward to seeing Florida State’s
Fast Break Offense, led by football-basketball star Charie Ward, what
the nation also saw was a suffocating defense.
Florida State won
42-0. What was memorable about the game was the Seminoles' goal-line
stand. Twelve times, Kansas snapped the ball inside FSU's 10-yard line.
And 12 times, after a number of penalties went against FSU, the
Seminoles came up with stop after stop.
Andrews: The amazing thing about that goal line stand is, when we finally stopped them on the inch-line, I think it was the 22nd play of that series. And it was so dadgum hot, it was like 120 degrees on the field. Our kids were just exhausted. But that's kind of the way we trained and we practiced in the offseason. We really talked about finishing plays, finishing games. Finishing was something we harped on all the time. We reinforced it in our practices. The determination was just unbelievable. I don't know that I've seen a defense to fight as hard as they did to keep them from scoring. For some reason, Kansas decided to go for it on fourth down, and we made the play and we stopped them.
Linebacker Derrick Brooks: That goal-line stand represented a lot for our football team. That was our mental attitude. We wanted to kill a mosquito with an axe. That's the analogy of not letting Kansas score. Clearly the game was a blowout, but we felt the message had to be sent. We were striving for attention defensively because our offense was the poster child. They were getting all the praise. Defensively we were a little jealous. We wanted to show that we were just as good if not better than our offense.
Defensive lineman Toddrick McIntosh: We tried to shut people out so we didn't have to run on Monday (laughing). Every point they scored over eight points was a gasser. If a team scored 13 points on us, that's five gassers. Basically we were playing so we didn't have to run on Monday.
Andrews: We had a rule that you didn't walk off the field. And it was amazing to see those guys struggling to get off the field. We had players on the sideline and coaches meet them and help get them off the field.
Florida State was in its second ACC season. The Seminoles received a
stiff challenge at Georgia Tech in 1992, but the team rallied from a
14-point deficit in the second half to win 29-24 and ended the '92
season unbeaten in the ACC.
After the Kansas win, the 1993 team
tore through Duke (45-7), No. 17 Clemson (57-0) and No. 13 North
Carolina (33-7) to finish 4-0 in September. Even Georgia Tech was no
match in Tallahassee, as Florida State put away the Yellow Jackets 51-0.
But
then came Miami. And after two years of missed kicks, Florida State
didn't want to leave the Oct. 9 game up to a kicker. Florida State won
28-10 as the defense held Miami to just 320 offensive yards.
Tailback Warrick Dunn: This is a pro game. This is where pros play. They would go to Miami and Florida State. I didn't really understand it coming from Louisiana. But when you have the opportunity to be on the field and you have the chance to see the speed and the physicality on both sides, it wasn't bragging rights, it was respect.
Wide receiver Kez McCorvey: It validated what we thought we were. We knew we were a good team. Once we won the game, it was like, 'Yeah, we are who we thought we were. We're good. We're the best team in the nation.' It validated that. And that we have a good thing going on.
Brooks: Miami, was it special? Heck, yeah. We had the makeup of a championship team. That's what the Miami game meant to us. At the same time we went from being a little bit confident to walking that borderline of cockiness.
After the win over Miami, Florida State handled Virginia (40-14), Wake Forest (54-0) and Maryland (49-20) to open 9-0. Next up was a Game of the Century as No. 1 Florida State traveled to No. 2 Notre Dame.
The game went down to the wire, with Florida State failing to score in the final minute and Notre Dame holding on for a 31-24 victory.
Andrews: When you really look at it and think about it, we didn't play our very best ballgame up there. They played an exceptional ballgame.
Dunn: It was one of those weird games. It was just a huge game. Being an Irish fan growing up, you have a chance to see the mystique and see the stadium. I just thought everybody on the football field was wearing navy blue jerseys. It was hard to even talk about that experience because of all the emotion and the history. Unfortunately we were on the losing end of that game, but I think we all cherished the moment.
Andrews: It was not a deal where we thought, 'Well, it's over.' They had some more games to play. And so did we.
There was plenty of football left. And the following week, Boston College stunned No. 1 Notre Dame 41-39 at South Bend, Ind.
The door was kicked open for Florida State. At that point, the team stayed about 40 minutes north of Tallahassee, in Thomasville, Ga., on the night before home games. Players and coaches would set up at a hotel and hold meetings, then bus back to Tallahassee. They then saw Notre Dame lose. And then went out and demolished North Carolina State 62-3 to seal up the ACC title.
Brooks: We all drove from Thomasville to run up to our dorms, the whole team actually saw the end of the game before we went down to the locker room to take on NC State. It was all that type of momentum. NC State, no matter who you put in front of us, they had no chance. They really didn't. You could have probably brought in an NFL team. They had no chance. You just saw all of our talents come to play.
Andrews: I don't think the guys ever lost confidence (after the Notre Dame loss). This was a group that was not only very talented but they were very together. They were a great team. They challenged each other.
There was only one regular-season hurdle left -- Florida at the Swamp, where the Gators had a 23-game winning streak. Florida State was back in the No. 1 spot. The Gators were No. 7.
Ward completed 38 of 53 passes for 446 yards and four touchdowns. Still, Florida State's lead was cut to 27-21 in the fourth quarter when Florida drove 94 yards and Jack Jackson wrapped up the drive with a 31-yard touchdown catch.
But on the next drive, Ward scrambled and found Dunn near the sideline. He caught the ball in stride and ran 79 yards to give Florida State a 33-21 win.
Dunn: Playing Florida on that field was one of the biggest games we had. We went into their house, we went up early. And they started to make some plays, and it was probably the loudest that I've ever heard a stadium. We were literally on the field, we were shaking and moving. That's how loud it was. And then I caught the pass and everybody in the stadium could hear me.
Brooks: I think you saw the depth of our team at Florida. You saw Warrick Dunn, being a freshman, making plays for us. You saw Tamarick Vanover, another young guy, making plays for us. A lot of young guys stepped up and made plays for us at critical times. It showed that resolve of what we developed that summer. Staying there training. Reaching down and grabbing hold of something that no other team had.
No. 1 Florida State would face No. 2 Nebraska in the Orange Bowl on
Jan. 1, 1994. The game was dominated by the defenses. Both teams managed
just a touchdown. Florida State needed four field goals from Scott
Bentley, including a 22-yard chip shot with 21 seconds to go after Ward
and the Seminoles pieced together a drive that took them down to the
Nebraska 5.
Nebraska quickly moved down the field. Huskers
quarterback Tommie Frazier completed a 29-yard pass to Trumane Bell as
time ticked off the clock. Florida State celebrated, thinking the game
was over. Bowden had received the celebratory dunk of Powerade. But
Nebraska had called for a timeout with one second left. But Byron
Bennett's 45-yard field-goal attempt went wide left, and Florida State
hung on 18-16.
Ward: You like to be able to score (more), however, but it wasn't the case. We were able to put together enough drives. We didn't turn the ball over. That was huge in being able to keep us in the game. Our defense played well all year, that's why we were very good. When we got an opportunity to put a drive together (at the end of the), all the time and work that we had put in paid off. We were confident that we were able to put a drive together. We were able to make that happen when we needed it most. The confidence that we had over the course of the year played a big part in that last drive.
Bentley: I always kicked really well in that Orange Bowl. That was obviously my first game there because we played Miami at home my freshman year. That night I was in the zone. I did miss my very first field goal, it was completely off the radar. It didn't even hit the net. It went way off to the left. After that I spent some time on the sideline just kicking into the net. After that I was dialed in. I was hitting the ball well. I was mad that we got down so close for the game-winning field goal because I wanted it to be a little bit further.
Andrews: Nebraska was one of the great teams of that era at that time. They were a team that was very good, very talented, very well coached. You look at them and you look at their history, you knew it was going to be a battle. You knew it was going to come down to the wire. And that's basically what happened. We thought the game was over and then all of a sudden there was some time left and we got the field goal.
As many times as we had a wide right or wide left or whatever, we had to have a little of that luck for us to win the football game. We always had a desperation field goal block where we would send all 11 people, and that's what we did on that play. I think we had someone get a hand on the ball, just barely brushed it. And they missed the field goal.
McCorvey: Nebraska was a great team, had a great defense. They had a great game plan for us as well. They played terrific that night but we played well enough to win the game. I think it was one of the best games of that era. And we had a chance to come out and win the national championship.
Brooks: We always felt at some point in the year we were going to have to win defensively. We were going to have to do something to carry our team. And that’s basically what the national championship game was. Us stepping up as a defense when our offense got grounded. In the past, no offense and I was on two of those teams, we were not able to overcome that if our offense struggled. Defensively we had playmakers and we were able to overcome it.
Coach Bowden, after the game, he finally felt like something was lifted off his shoulders. He seemed like there was a look of relief. That's the look I saw. To know that we were part of his first national championship and you were on that team, obviously means what it means today.
Andrews: What a football game, what a way to end it and what a great way for Florida State and coach Bowden to get the first national championship.
Contact Bob Ferrante at bobferrante17@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @bobferrante
