What makes the Michigan game in 1991 the best Florida State footballgame ever?
What makes this game better than any that preceded, or any since?Why is this game better than the 1993 national championshipgame ... where Scott Bentley kicked the go ahead field goal, and theSeminoles held on for dear life while the referees gave the Cornhuskerschance after chance? Or, the 1999 nationalchampionship game ... where spectacular plays by Peter Warrick andHokie quarterback, Michael Vick, wowed a national audience like never before?Or, the infamous Choke at Doak ... where theNoles set a record by scoring 28 points in the 4th quarter to tie the Gators?Or, the 1988 Fiesta Bowl ... where Danny McManus led the Noles on a 97yard, game-winning drive culminating with a pass on 4th and 15 to RonaldLewis to defeat the Nebraska Cornhuskers and start the dynasty? ForChrist sakes, I drove across I-10 2,000 miles each way in an Isuzu two-seatpickup truck to watch that classic! What about the 1996 game againstthe Gators ... where Warrick Dunn powered the Noles to a huge upset overthe top-ranked team, causing 80,000 Nole fans to storm the field and carrythe goal posts (and many handfuls of sod) away? Or, the Florida gamea few years earlier ... where a younger number28 caught a swing pass from that year's Heisman trophy winner, CharlieWard, and scampered down the sideline to seal the game in front of a raucousSwamp, which included (in the very last row of the upper level, end zoneseats) my friend, Dan, and myself? What about games predating thestreak? The 1964 game against the Gators ... our first win againstour arch-rivals? Bill Peterson, Steve Tensi, Fred Biletnikoff andthe 7 Magnificents might argue for that milestone! Or, the win againstNebraska in Lincoln (like they would play us anywhere else but in Lincoln,Miami or Tempe!) in 1980? Or, 1981's Octoberfest? Or, any ofthe 14 consecutive bowl games from 1982 to 1995 that Bobby Bowden coachedthe Noles to victory (we tied Georgia in the 1984 Citrus bowl, which bythe way, was another great game)?
How is it possible to rank these great games in Florida State history... much less move one to the top? There would be much debate, anddeservedly so, but in my opinion, the 1991 game against Michigan standsout as the best ever for several reasons.
The Hype
For one, the game itself was touted as one of the best ... even beforeDan Mowry ever placed the pigskin on the tee. Because the game wasearly in the season and further, because the Noles had a bye the week prior,this game benefited from much hoopla. It was unanimous among Nolefans that we had the best team at the conclusion of the 1988 and 1989 seasons,but because of early losses in those years, the final rankings disagreed.After another great year in 1990, spoiled only by narrow losses to Auburnand Miami, we projected our 1991 team to once again have the greatest collectionof talent anywhere, and we were poised to claim our first national title.Afterall, we had not one, but two Heisman contenders (Casey Weldon andAmp Lee) returning to an incredibly stacked team! The spring andsummer were nearly unbearable to suffer through, and we found ourselvesbegging for the fall to arrive, looking longingly to our biggest challenge... the game in Ann Arbor ... which, to our delight, was scheduled onlya month into the season. To whet our appetite, we played in the firstcollege game of the season, the Kickoff Classic, where we won handily overBrigham Young and the defending Heisman Trophy winner, Ty Detmer. We followedthat by cruising past expected easy foes Tulane and Western Michigan.During the bye week that ensued, Nole fans (and the rest of the nation)watched the Michigan Wolverines, and their heralded wide receiver, DesmondHoward, upset highly ranked Notre Dame. With our game in Ann Arborlooming, we could feel our confidence tinge slightly as Michigan rose upthe polls to number 3. The week leading up to the game was like nonesince the 1988 opener against Miami (which for obvious reasons, I won'tmention other than to say that that particular game did not live up tothe hype). Every day of the week, the paper was chock full of articlesfrom writers already stationed in Ann Arbor. It was for good reasonthat the local sportscasters were given extra minutes to preview the game,and you could hear the excitement growing their voices as the week wentalong. ESPN, CNN, USA Today and other national news outlets primedthe entire football world for the contest. The campuses inTallahassee and Ann Arbor were buzzing with anticipation.
The History
There is not much history involving the two teams on the playing field.In fact, the only other time that teams faced one another was in 1986 ...an 18-16 win by the Wolverines. However, the history and reputationof Michigan football is among the nation's elite. Their famed maizeand blue and their winged helmet represented 113 storied years of collegiatefootball. The incomparable Michigan Stadium was the largest in capacityat the time of the game, and remains a national icon. Florida State,on the other hand, was the new kid on the block. Though we had puttogether 4 consecutive seasons of 10 wins or more, and had finished rankedin the top 4 in each of those seasons, we were still looked down upon bythe Michigans and Notre Dames of the college football world. We hadonly fielded 44 football teams in our brief history, and we played in astadium better known as the Erector Set. But, we knew that the programwas evolving into something much better ... we just wanted to prove itto the outside world. This game presented the platform.
It was a battle between the larger than life, unchangeable, tradition-richmaster and the up-and-coming, yet wet behind the ears, bold and chancyapprentice. It was North versus South. It was the past meetsthe future. It was bulk versus speed. It was three yards anda cloud of dust versus puntrooskis, fake field goals, and an aerial assault.It was the battle of Bull Run, as Bobby Bowden analogized before the game... to which he added that the South had won that battle.
The White House on Bellevue& Hayden
Florida State at Michigan in 1991 was a theater-style-living-room, full-keg-on-tap,Deckerhoff-and-Prinzi-on-the-stereo, butterflies-in-the-stomach, moss-on-the-headgame if there ever was one. And, there were plenty. The battlein Ann Arbor was a noon affair, and after a relatively sleepless night(you know you're a true Nole if you can't sleep the night before a biggame), we were all a little groggy. But, the keg was bought and tappedby eleven, and the couches were full well before kickoff. The firstdogpile happened only minutes after.
The Game
The tone was set early in the game by Seminole great, Terrell Buckley.In front of 106,145 fans -- the 4th largest in Michigan history -- the1991 Jim Thorpe Award winner stepped in front of an Elvis Grbac pass andtrotted 40 yards for the Seminoles' first touchdown. This, on thegame's second play from scrimmage! The Wolverines, however, counteredwith a 13 yard touchdown strike from Grbac to a diving Desmond Howard toeven the game. Undaunted, Bobby Bowden coolly reached into his bagof tricks for the Seminoles next score; the fake field goal ... aflip from holder Brad Johnson to fullback William Floyd ... worked to perfectionand the Noles were back on top. After a Michigan field goal, AmpLee weaved back and forth across the field for a 44 yard touchdown, leavingWolverine defenders littered across their home turf, and extending theNole lead to 19-10. A 20 yard pass from Casey Weldon to Warren Hart,and the Garnet & Gold led 25-10 (two PATs & a two-point conversionfailed). Michigan stormed back with consecutive touchdowns to makeit 25-23. But, the Noles scored again before halftime (Amp Lee'ssecond TD, PAT failed), and we held Michigan out of the end zone in theclosing seconds to hold the intermission score at 31-23. Bobby musthave given another of his patented halftime speeches in the hallowed visitor'slocker room of Michigan Stadium as the Noles' defense, behind the schemesof their coordinator Mickey Andrews, completely shut down Desmond Howardand the Wolverines in the second half ... save a fourth quarter touchdownand two point conversion. In fact, Michigan did not score on itsfirst six possessions of the second half. The Noles' offensedidn't skip a beat, scoring three touchdowns after the break: a 20yard pass from Weldon to Eric Turral (run failed), a 10 yard pass fromWeldon to Lonnie Johnson (on 4th and 7), and a 49 yard interception returnby Toddrick McIntosh to close the scoring.
The final score ... 51-31. Fifty-one is the most number of pointsallowed by a Michigan team in Ann Arbor in its 113-year football history!It was the 3rd-most points ever scored on the Wolverines, and the mostsince 1958. The Seminoles held high the sod souvenir from MichiganField as the Maize and Blue faithful glumly filed through the exits, stillnot quite sure what had happened. The Noles out-sped, out-hit, out-finessed,out-tricked and out-played Michigan, who would not lose again for the restof the regular season. The only area where Michigan outplayed theNoles was in the placekicking department. We made only 3 of 6 PATs,and failed on 2 two-point conversions. However, if you look closely,you might say that our kicking woes were a blessing on this day.Because of our poor kicking, Coach Bowden forewent two field goal attempts... the first was the fake for a touchdown, and the second resulted ina touchdown pass to Lonnie Johnson on 4th and 7.
The trick plays (both on the same drive) included the fake field goal,and a 29-yard gain on a lateral from Casey Weldon to Charlie Ward, thena pass back to Weldon. The play was named "Crocodile," as it waspatterned after a play run by our rivals from Gainesville (named carefullyas to not give their head ball coach too much credit). The defenseand special teams scored three times: the fake field goal, the interceptionand return by Buckley, and the McIntosh interception off of a deflectedpass and return to paydirt. The defense was exceptional in the secondhalf, completely shutting down and frustrating Elvis Grbac and the eventual1991 Heisman Trophy winner, Desmond Howard.
Overall, it was a dominating performance by the top-ranked Seminolesin a hostile environment on national television. It was evident thatthe Garnet and Gold were the best team on the field that day, and thatwe were deserving of the number one ranking and the accompanying accolades.More importantly, it proved to the country that the Florida State Seminoleswere here to stay.
The Immediate Aftermath
The white house on Bellevue & Hayden stood well before Florida StateUniversity played their 1st game of football in 1947, and easily survivedthe party to celebrate the university's 4th game of their 44th season ...no thanks to those who partook in the festivities. For every touchdownthere was a dogpile on the front couch. For every missed extra pointthere were stomps of dissatisfaction on the hardwood floor. And,for every commercial break in between there was a mad rush for the bathroomand/or the keg. Upon the game's ecstatic conclusion, there was onlyone thing for us to do ... pile into a pickup truck and head to TennesseeStreet.
Thanks to the majority's good judgment, we resisted the urge to loadthe keg into the bed of the truck. Instead, we each filled up thelargest cup we could find (which in most cases was already in our hands),and searched for the most sober driver to chauffeur us through the masseson the famous strip. It was a wild scene when we arrived only a fewminutes after the final gun sounded in Ann Arbor. The streets werelined with revelers, and the cars -- mostly convertibles and pickups overflowingwith delighted fans -- cruised up and down like a parade. The policedepartment made their presence known and several cruisers were alreadyhaving their buzzes dampened as we arrived. It took at least untilthe fourth or fifth pass by Bullwinkle's before our truck was summonsedto the side of the road by Tallahassee's finest party patrol. Thequick ones in the bed of the truck quickly disposed of their drinks, whilethose of us who considered that to be a worse crime than what we were alreadycommitting, waited for our fate ... hoping that the police were as thrilledwith the Seminole victory as the rest of us, and that they were merelywarning passengers not to get carried away. Our wishes were onlypartially granted at best. We were handed a ticket for violatingthe open container ordinance, and our mugs were confiscated. Thelatter was of more punishment to me as the stein I held was given to meas a reward for serving in a dear friend's wedding party. But, theprotests offered were upon deaf ears, and my favorite keg mug was takenas "evidence."
The setback didn't ruin our mood. We parked the truck and joinedthe crowd near Bullwinkles, responding to the honking cars by waving andscreaming and singing the fight song and doing the warchant and generallyraising hell until our voices were well past hoarse. After a longwhile, the crowd began to thin, and we headed back to the house on Bellevueand Hayden, where the dwindling keg greeted us on the front steps.The party continued into the night.
The next morning I bought a copy of the Tallahassee Democrat to confirmthat the glorious day wasn't merely an anxiety-driven dream, and that Iwasn't waking to the Saturday of our much-anticipated matchup with Michigan."WOW! 51-31! Seminoles Rock Ann Arbor" thankfully read the headlinethrough the paper rack. "Seminoles Rock Ann Arbor" became my favoriteheadline of all time, and it gives me goose bumps to this day.
The After Aftermath
The Seminoles would go on to win their next six games against Syracuse,Virginia Tech, Middle Tenn State, Louisiana State, Louisville, and SouthCarolina to run our record to 10-0 going into games against Miami and Florida.There was little doubt who deserved the number one ranking as the Miamigame approached. But our kicking woes, which were easily overcomein the Michigan game, proved costly in the Miami game, and we lost by apoint as the game winning field goal missed the right upright by inches.It was the only game in Doak Campbell Stadium that we would lose in theentire decade of the 90's, but it cost us a chance at our first nationalchampionship. The Miami game hurt our team's morale to such a great extent,that we fell the following week to a Florida team, who was certainly nobetter than a Michigan or a Syracuse, both of whom we beat handily.Despite the two late season losses, we received and accepted a Cotton Bowlbid, and managed to regroup before the New Year's Day game, and thoughour play was lackluster, we defeated the Texas A&M Aggies and keptthe young streaks alive.
The Florida State Seminoles would have to wait until 1993 to win thenational championship for the first time ... and until 1999 before ourfirst perfect season. But, in Ann Arbor Michigan, on September 28,1991, we announced to the college football world that our program was indeedhere to stay, and it was about that time that we began to hear the term"traditional powerhouse" to describe our program. Before an ABC nationaltelevision audience, broadcast by the legendary Keith Jackson, the Nolesdisplayed a rare combination of speed and power that was relatively unheardof in such a commanding fashion. Some of the greatest Seminoles including:Marvin Jones, Terrell Buckley, William Floyd, Casey Weldon, Amp Lee, EdgarBennett, Kirk Carruthers and an up-and-coming quarterback named CharlieWard laced it up that day and announced to the more than 106,000 fans inthe bowl and to the millions watching across the country that the Noleswere a program to be reckoned with for many years to come.
