Florida State at Miami: Just like Old Times

Wide Right I, Wide Right II, Wide Right III, Wide Left and Wide Right IV are well known endings to this rivalry. Going for the Win was another, and none of those worked out in favor of the Florida State Seminoles and Bobby Bowden. It seemed like that crazy thing called luck was against Bowden’s teams against their rival, the Miami Hurricanes. Leading your team to the point where all is needed is a Field Goal or an extra point whether it be a kick, or going for two. Getting your team to that point should always result in a win, or at least a tie, right?

Sure, but it didn’t exactly turn out that way for Bobby Bowden and his Seminole teams.

But, those days are over. The old Orange Bowl is long gone since replaced by Joe Robbie Stadium

and the new state of the art Hard Rock Stadium.

Bobby Bowden is gone, replaced by Jimbo Fisher who brought the Noles a national championship in 2013. Miami’s long run of success is also gone, but the hiring of Mark Richt as head coach could be a long term solution to that situation.

Lots of recent changes in this rivalry.

 

 

But, not everything has changed. Miami and Florida State captains were in each others’ faces at the coin toss and it never slacked off during the game. Intensity and hatred remains from one of the nation’s best rivalry games.

Miami came in undefeated at 4-0, but against mostly questionable competition. Florida State came in with a disappointing 2 losses, and one of the losses was a rather nasty beatdown administered by the Louisville Cardinals.

But, none of that matters when the ball is kicked off. These teams come to play.

There were lots of cheap shots and late hits and piling on a downed guy. Just like old times and these teams have never liked each other.

But, when you take the unnecessary roughness and extra curricular activities out of the equation, it was still old fashioned hard nosed football. This was a tough game and a fun one to watch. Good defense displayed and some great hits. The best defensive player for the Seminoles, Derwin James, was injured and unable to play, but he was stirring up the team and playing a leadership role for his

teammates.

Early on things looked somewhat bleak for the Noles with Miami jumping out to a 13-0 lead and Quarterback Deondre Francois was slightly injured.

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In the 3rd quarter, Florida State’s Quarterback Deondre Francois completed a pass to a wide open speedster Dalvin Cook who ran it in from 59 yards to make it 10-13.

Francois then hit a 20 yard pass to Kermit Whitfield to take the lead at 17-13. In the 4th quarter, Ricky Aguayo hit a 32 yard Field Goal to give the Seminoles a 20-13 lead.

But, this new Miami team is better than last year’s version. They fought back and Cane Quarterback Brad Kaaya hit burner Stacy Coley for an 11 yard Touchdown to bring the Hurricanes to within one point.

They needed to kick the extra point to take the game into a tie and a possible Overtime.

Miami coach Mark Richt has been on both sides of this rivalry. He grew up in South Florida and he played Quarterback at Miami, backing up Pro Football Hall of Fame member Jim Kelly. Richt also received some playing time at Miami because of injuries to Kelly.

Richt got into coaching as a Graduate Assistant at Florida State and he was there for 3 years. East Carolina hired him as their Offensive Coordinator trying to grab some of that Seminole success on

offense in 1989. But, he was only there one season before Bobby Bowden lured Richt back to Tallahassee as his Quarterback coach before the 1990 season. He was the Quarterback coach for a while before being promoted to Offensive Coordinator in 1994 replacing Brad Scott.

He held that job through the 2000 season before being hired as the Georgia Bulldogs head coach. Regardless of what Bulldog fans say, Richt was the second best coach in my lifetime behind only the legend Vince Dooley. In spite of that, they fired Richt and replaced him with Alabama Defensive Coordinator Kirby Smart.

Miami was only too glad to take him for his second stint at Coral Gables and this time he was the boss.

Richt has experienced wins and losses from both sides of the field and that was the farthest thing from his mind when he sent in his guys to kick the extra point for a tie.

 

But, in typical Florida State vs Miami fashion, the extra point was blocked and the Noles hang on to win.

They are already calling this game the Block at the Rock,

But, this time the special team miscue worked against Miami.

Either way, it’s great to have this game back where it’s really meaningful like the old days.

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