There’s little doubt that the Florida State Seminoles and the Miami Hurricanes have never liked each other, but the rivalry picked up steam in the 1980s. The strong dislike may have been magnified even more intensely in the 1990s and most of their games became instant classics on ESPN.
In the final AP Poll of the 1990 season, Miami finished ranked 3rd and Florida State was ranked 4th behind Colorado and Georgia Tech who split the national title between the AP and the Coaches Poll.
Coming into the 1991 game between Miami and Florida State, the Seminoles were ranked number 1 and the Hurricanes were ranked 2nd.
It was the classic match up between number 1 and number 2, and Tallahassee, Florida was buzzing. This game was creating interest nationwide and everybody was talking about it.
Head coach Bobby Bowden’s Florida State came into the game 10-0, with wins over 3 ranked teams and their closest game was an 11 point win over LSU, followed by a 13 point win over Virginia Tech. Every other game resulted in Florida State blow out victories.
This was in the middle of the Florida State Dynasty period with the Seminoles finishing in the top 5 for 14 straight seasons and they were loaded.
The offense was directed by Casey Weldon, and if that wasn’t good enough, he was backed up by Brad Johnson and Charlie Ward. Johnson went on to a long NFL career and Ward would be the Seminoles first Heisman Trophy winner while leading the team to the national championship in 1993. Ward opted for the NBA instead of the NFL and played for the New York Knicks. Charlie Ward
Amp Lee was the star tailback for the Seminoles and fullbacks Edgar Bennett and a young William Floyd were right in front of him.
Shannon Baker, Kez McCorvey, Eric Turral, Kevin Knox and Matt Frier playing at wide receiver
were a handful for any secondary. Up front, the Noles didn’t have their all time best offensive line, but this one wasn’t bad with Kevin Mancini at tackle and Robbie Baker at center.
The defense was scary good and led by Marvin Jones and Terrell Buckley. Jones was the 4th player taken overall in the 1993 NFL draft and Buckley was the 5th player taken in the 1992 draft. Buckley
An equally talented Miami came up from Coral Gables with an 8-0 record and were coached by Dennis Erickson. They were always confident and they had beaten Florida State the previous season down in the old Orange Bowl stadium 31-22. But, their last trip to Tallahassee, in 1989, had resulted in a loss for the Hurricanes.
The Canes opened their season by thumping the Arkansas Razorbacks in their last season before joining the SEC, in Little Rock, Arkansas, 31-3. Then, they destroyed 10th ranked Houston at home, 40-10. But, Houston turned out to be on their way down, that season and the only really competitive game for the Hurricanes at that point had been 9th ranked Penn State, who they beat 26-20 at home.
At quarterback, Miami fielded future Heisman Trophy winner Gino Torretta. His favorite targets at wide receiver included Horace Copeland, Lamar Thomas, Darryl Spencer and Kevin Williams. Miami always had good tight ends and this year’s version was Coleman Bell.
The offensive line was good with Rudy Barber, current Oregon coach Mario Cristobal and big Leon Searcy.
Like Florida State, the Miami defense was really good and talented led by the Bermuda Triangle at linebacker. Michael Barrow, Darrin Smith and Jessie Armstead were the Cane linebackers nicknamed the Bermuda Triangle and they were all talented and fast. Bermuda Triangle
Up front, the Hurricanes the defensive line was composed of Mark Caesar, Anthony Hamlet, Rusty Medearis and Kevin Patrick and they were good.
Ryan McNeal was one of the top cornerbacks in the country. This defense was good, really good.
This looked to be a battle for the ages. Nobody was calling it the Game of the Century as far as I recall, but I could have forgotten.
Notre Dame and Purdue had been ranked 1 and 2 in 1968 and that was the first ever battle between the top two teams located in the same state and this was the second. The excitement was mounting.
In spite of having a really good defense, Florida State was known for their offense in 1991. They did score 51 points on 4th ranked Michigan up in the Big House and quarterback Casey Weldon had
never lost a game as a starter. In fact, they were number 3 in the nation in scoring offense.
The Seminoles were on a 16 game winning streak.
The Hurricanes clearly had a good offense, but they were one of the top defenses in the country. In 8 games, only 3 teams had managed to score in double figures with Houston and Tulsa scoring 10 each and Penn State scoring 20. It was a classic match of great offense versus great defense. Florida State was one of the top scoring offenses in the nation and Miami was the top ranked scoring defense.
The Hurricanes were on a 14 game winning streak.
Florida State kicked off to Miami and the Hurricanes promptly drove down the field like they owned the place and scored a touchdown on a 2 yard run by Miami running back Stephen McGuire. It took Miami less than 2 minutes on the game clock to score and it was looking scary for the Seminoles.
Penalties and mistakes plagued the Seminoles on their early drives until quarterback Casey Weldon hit running back Amp Lee on a beautiful 51 yard pass down to about the Miami 2 yard line. But, the Noles couldn’t punch it in and settled for a field goal to make the game 7-3 in favor of the Canes.
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It would be a huge understatement to write that these two schools did not like each other and the personal fouls were amazing. There were several in the first quarter alone, which possibly cost a few drives.
Miami running back Stephen McGuire was stripped of the ball by Florida State defensive lineman Joe Ostaszewski and the fumble was recovered by the other Ostaszewski, Henry, on the Miami 23 yard line. A few plays later, Florida State took it’s first lead of the game when fullback Paul Moore
took it across the goal line on 4th down. 10-7, Florida State.
It was 10-7 still at halftime, after two Miami drives inside the Florida State 30 yard line were stopped by Seminoles picking off passes. The two main stars for the Seminole defense stepped up with Terrell Buckley grabbing one and Marvin Jones the other.
Florida State was not immune to the turnover bug and Casey Weldon threw a pick to the Hurricane’s Charles Pharms.
Florida State owned the 3rd quarter all season long, so far, would they dominate the Canes and pull away?
Casey Weldon was hit hard on a sack and had to come out of the game and Brad Johnson took his place for a few plays that were very successful. Weldon came back in and was sacked immediately. Even so, he bounced right back up and led the Seminoles down to the Hurricanes’ 8 yard line before mistakes got them again including another holding penalty.
No problem, kicker Gerry Thomas put it right through the goal posts for a 13-7 Florida State lead.
Like all season, Florida State controlled the 3rd quarter and racked up yards, but it didn’t result in more than 3 points. Florida State drove the ball down again and ran the clock down and Thomas kicked another field goal to extend the lead to 16-7.
But, as always in this series, the Canes came storming back. Miami kicker Carlos Huerta connected on a 45 yard field goal to close the gap to 16-10, Seminoles still leading.
The Noles had outscored their opponents 188-45 in the second half so far, and they felt they owned the game. But, they hadn’t played anyone like the Canes, or even close.
In the 4th quarter with Florida State leading 16-10, Miami started driving the ball and on a crucial 4th and 6 from the Florida State 13 yard line, coach Erickson elected to go for it. With about 4 minutes left in the game, he may have been thinking he wouldn’t get the ball back.
Torretta hit star receiver Horace Copeland at the Miami 3 yard line for a first and goal. Larry Jones ran it in from there and Huerta’s extra point made it 17-16 with Miami taking the lead.
There was 3:01 left on the clock.
No problem, the Seminoles had a quality offense with all of the right players to drive it down the field and their field goal kicker was perfect on the day, so far.
Florida State did not use their time outs wisely and were out of them by 4th and 1 from the Miami 46 and about 1:20 left on the clock. Lucky for the Noles, Edgar Bennett got the first down and a little more.
An interference call against Miami’s Ryan McNeal in the end zone gained the Noles 15 yards. With
the all now at the Miami 18 yard line, the Seminoles ran Amp Lee for some reason and he picked up a single yard. The clock was ticking and quarterback Casey Weldon lost his shoe. Florida State got lined up and Weldon spiked the ball.
It was only 3rd down, but Weldon would have to put his shoe on and the clock was not stopping without a single time out left. Bobby Bowden elected to go ahead and kick the ball and it was not a long field goal. There were actually 29 seconds left, but they did not have the luxury of fooling around.
Gerry Thomas had been 3 out of 3 on the day and confidence was high. Thomas lined up quickly for a 34 yard attempt.
At first glance, the kick looked good. Bobby Bowden thought it was good. The Florida State bench probably thought it was good, too, but the ball sailed wide right but just about a foot. It was shocking.
The replay showed it clearly missed to the right, but oh so close.
Miami won 17-16 and the legend of Wide Right began. This was Wide Right 1 if that should tell you anything.
The winner of this game was almost a sure fire national championship winner in theory, but Florida State still had 5th ranked Florida on their schedule the following week. The Gators beat the then 3rd ranked Seminoles 14-9. Florida State went on to the Cotton Bowl where they beat Texas A%M, 10-2.
The Hurricanes beat Boston College next, then San Diego State, before finishing with a 22-0 win over 11th ranked Nebraska in the Orange Bowl.
The Canes claimed a share of the national title with the Washington Huskies.