Many younger college football fans probably think that Bobby Bowden was always at Florida State and that their Seminoles were always good. While in reality, Florida State hired Bowden away from West Virginia and he took over a terrible team and went 5-6 during his first season in Tallahassee in 1976.
While it seemingly happened overnight, it did take Bowden a few years to build a consistently great team like we all saw during the Dynasty Period. However, in 1977, Bobby Bowden and his fantastic coaching staff went out and signed a super group of recruits led by soon to be dominating All American nose tackle, Ron Simmons. Simmons and Company
Bowden’s second season was a surprise to many when he used a two quarterback system to lead the team to an impressive 10-2 record, including a win in the Tangerine Bowl. Nobody really considered the Seminoles anything more than a cinderella team at that time.
But, they followed up with an 8-3 record. In spite of the better than average record, they were not
even invited to a bowl. Part of the reason for no bowl was back in those years there were far fewer bowls than we have now.
Suddenly, in 1979, the Seminoles exploded onto the national scene with a fantastic 11-1 season, but their only loss came in the Orange Bowl.
1980 was much the same with a 10-2 record and another loss in the Orange Bowl.
Bobby Bowden and the Noles weren’t quite there yet with a 6-5 record and no bowl game the following season of 1981.
But, along came 1982 and an amazing streak of bowl success that may never be matched.
Florida State posted an 8-3 record in the 1982 regular season and got a bid to the Gator Bowl. Bowden’s Seminoles beat his old West Virginia team, 31-12, and the streak began.
Again, Florida State wasn’t quite there yet as a true championship type program because 1983 saw them slip to 6-5 on the regular season. But, they still earned a Peach Bowl bid where they commenced to stomping the North Carolina Tar Heels, 28-3 to finish up the season 7-5.
The 1984 season was the only none win in the 14 year streak when the Seminoles tied Georgia in the Citrus Bowl to finish 7-3-2 on the season. A tie might seem like a loss, but that was way before college football installed the overtime period.
By 1985, the Seminoles were becoming more known on the national level. It was early in this season when they pulled off a giant win by traveling to Nebraska and beat the mighty Cornhuskers, 17-13. In those years, nobody really came in to Lincoln, Nebraska and pulled off the win. The Oklahoma Sooners were able to win at Nebraska, but few others. That was maybe a signature win for Bobby Bowden and his Seminoles.
However, they lost big to Auburn with Bo Jackson and to rival Florida. They also lost a tough one to arch rival Miami, 27-35.
In spite of the 3 losses, Florida State earned another bowl berth and faced Oklahoma State out of the Big 8 Conference. Oklahoma State had future Pro Football Hall of Fame member Thurman Thomas, but the Seminoles pulled out a 34-23 victory to finish their season with a 9-3 record.
The early part of the 1986 season was not so kind to the Seminoles. After beating Toledo, 24-0, the Noles lost badly to 8th ranked Nebraska, they tied North Carolina and then lost a close one to 5th ranked Michigan. They started with a 1-2-1 record, but won 3 in a row to improve to 4-2-1. However, then they faced top ranked Miami and lost, 23-41. This was no ordinary Hurricane team, as they were loaded across the roster. But, Penn State later upset them to win the national title.
Florida State was invited to the All American Bowl in Birmingham, Alabama. The Seminoles beat
the Hoosiers of Indiana, 27-13, to finish their season with a 7-4-1 record. Change was in the air and it was time to say goodbye to the 3 and 4 loss seasons. The Florida State Dynasty period was coming.
Bobby Bowden and his Florida State Seminoles started off the 1987 season ranked 8th in the county and they started much like Iron Mike Tyson did when he was a young fighter. The Seminoles came out blasting.
They crushed Texas Tech, East Carolina, Memphis and Michigan State to head into the Miami showdown with a 4-0 record and a 6th ranking in the polls. Miami was ranked 3rd and this turned out to be one of many classics between Florida State and Miami with the Hurricanes winning by one point when the Seminoles scored late and went for 2 and failed.
The Seminoles went on another roll and just obliterated everyone else on their schedule except for the Florida Gators. They only beat the Gators by 14 points.
3rd ranked Florida State earned a spot in the Fiesta Bowl against 5th ranked Nebraska with the Seminoles holding true to form and a tough 31-28 victory.
From 1987 through the 2000 season, Florida State was a true dynasty which you can read more about here: Dynasty
But, by 1988, they got a little cocky and came out with this crazy rap song. FSU rap
Florida State started the 1988 season ranked #1 and promptly went down to Miami and got stomped, 0-31. That immediately put a stop to any Seminole rap songs.
That kind of behavior ends generic cialis 5mg up bringing down all the “positive” people and creates tension that should not be in position to carry the infant for 9 months. SSL Protection Purchases online require the user to do away with some of their personal india generic tadalafil information. In this age and http://www.devensec.com/ISRS2016/Devens_EIP.pdf cheap order viagra day, it is not a problem these days. Use Kamagra with caution in the elderly; they may be more http://www.devensec.com/sustain/Welcome_to_Devens.pdf order cheap viagra sensitive to its effects. Other than a 3 point win over 3rd ranked Clemson in game three, the Seminoles just got riled up and destroyed everybody on their schedule. They beat 15th ranked South Carolina, 59-0.
This team was good and at 10-1, they earned a Sugar Bowl berth against 7th ranked Auburn. By beating Auburn, 13-7, the Seminoles improved their bowl streak to 7 games without a loss.
The Seminoles were upset in their opening game by Brett Favre and Southern Miss and then they lost to 10th ranked Clemson. But, the 0-2 Noles didn’t lay down and quit. Instead, they got it together and beat everyone else on their schedule including 21st ranked LSU, 17th ranked Syracuse, 11th ranked Auburn and best of all, 2nd ranked Miami.
They recovered from 0-2 and found themselves 9-2 and in the Fiesta Bowl ranked 5th and taking on the 6th ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers. Naturally, the Noles won and they won big, 41-17.
There may be some debate over who was the most dominating team of the 1990’s. Nebraska won 3 national championships, and their 1994 and 1995 teams were maybe the best of all time. But, Florida State won 2 championships and were more consistent.
FSU was rolling along at 4-0 and ranked 2nd before they lost to old nemesis, 9th ranked Miami, and then to 5th ranked Auburn. At 4-2, the Seminoles got it rolling again even scoring 70 points in one game, and then they beat 6th ranked Florida.
6th ranked Florida State beat 7th ranked Penn State in the Blockbuster Bowl to extend their streak to 9 games without a loss in bowl games.
The Seminoles came really close in 1991 to that dream season. They were ranked #1 all season long and were 10-0 when Wide Right 1 happpened. It was the first of several games that Bowden and the Noles would lose to Miami because of a bad kick at the end.
With 29 seconds remaining in the game and Miami leading 16-17, Seminole kicker Gerry Thomas missed what would have been the game winning field goal wide to the right. You have to know that Gerry Thomas thinks about that bad kick every day of his life. What a terrible cross to bear, while Miami finished 12-0 and national champions.
Now ranked 3rd, the Seminoles lost to 5th ranked Florida by 5 points.
Florida State was picked to play in the Cotton Bowl against Texas A%M and beat them, 10-2.
Wide Right 2 pretty much summed up the 1992 season for Florida State. The 3rd ranked Noles were down by 3 points against the 2nd ranked Canes and kicker Dan Mowrey missed a chance to tie the game on the very last play.
Florida State beat 5 other ranked teams to finish with an impressive 10-1 record. 11th ranked Nebraska was their victim again in the Orange Bowl to extend their streak to 11 straight bowl games without a loss.
But, wait, it would get better.
The 1993 season was the one that Bobby Bowden had been working
towards and in spite of a loss at South Bend, Indiana against the 2nd ranked Fighting Irish, this was their year.
The Notre Dame game has been the classic #1 versus #2 and even though the Irish won, Notre Dame would lose later springing Florida State back to the top.
1993 was Bobby Bowden’s first national championship and his quarterback Charlie Ward won the
Heisman Trophy. Top ranked Florida State beat 2nd ranked Nebraska in the Orange Bowl in a tough ball game to extend their streak to 12 games.
1994 was an exciting, yet somewhat disappointing season for the Seminoles. They started the season ranked 4th, but then lost to the Canes again. They ended their season with one of the more famous games against the Florida Gators which ended in a 31-31 tie. This game will forever be known as the Choke at Doak, because the Gators let the Seminoles come back and tie. Choke
Even though the game frustratingly ended in a tie, the bright side was that the two teams would meet up again in the Sugar Bowl and this time the Seminoles would win out right.
Florida State was a machine in 1995 scoring over 70 points in 3 different games. However, at 7-0, the Seminoles were stunned by 24th ranked Virginia on the road. After beating a couple of conference foes, Florida State lost to 3rd ranked Florida.
Even though the Seminoles lost, they still earned an Orange Bowl berth against recent rival, Notre Dame. Florida State won in a great game, 31-26.
14 straight bowl games without a loss. The following season, 1996, the Seminoles went undefeated during the regular season, but were beaten badly in yet another rematch with the Florida Gators.
With recent struggles on the football field, every Seminole fan should try and remember that their football team was once the most powerful dynasty in the entire nation. Not just any program can go through 14 bowl games without a loss.