You often hear of a game being referred to as ‘life-changing’, yet it is not very often that you hear of that referring to the fans. Nor do you often hear of it being used literally.

But for me, there is one game where that statement truly applies. That game is the 2003 Florida State / Notre Dame game in South Bend. You see that game was played while I was in the process of moving from Washington D.C. to Denver. And when I say ‘in the process’, I don’t mean I was busy packing up my apartment that day. I mean I was on the road, driving to Denver on I-80 in a Mitsubishi Montero loaded to the ceiling with a wife, clothes, various knick-knacks, liquor and one bitter cat.

Being the slightly maniacal Seminole fans that we are, the Mrs. and I plotted our drive to arrive in South Bend the day before the game so that we could stay and attend. What was one extra day on the road when we had the opportunity to see the Noles play in the shadow of Touchdown Jesus? Sure, our cat wasn’t thrilled about spending the day locked in a hotel room in Elkhart, Indiana but she was out-voted 2-1.

As luck would have it, on the eve of a season in which I have absolutely no idea what to expect from the Noles, Fox College Sports decided to re-show the game. Obviously, they wanted me to sit at home and enjoy the game on TV, since I have never actually seen it. It seemed only fair to include my thoughts and comments here for you.

Because I know you wouldn’t be able to sleep without knowing what I think about a 6 year old football game.

-  Our show starts in California with Keith Jones (former FSU linebacker and our host) visiting with ‘one of the all-time Seminole greats, Chris Rix’. I have to admit, that single statement impacts how serious I can take Jones from now on.

-  Just for the record, after researching it with a carefully crafted focus group (the Mrs.), it has been determined that this game represents the second greatest highlight of the Chris Rix era in Tallahassee. It came in just behind the remarkable 2003 win at Gainesville in which he connected on what was essentially a hail mary to PK Sam with a few minutes remaining to win 38-34. Of course that was against Ron Zook so maybe it should be given an asterisk.

-  The Noles enter this game with only one loss (rain-soaked game against Miami in Tallahassee) ranked #5. That’s right #5 in the country…with Chris Rix at quarterback. What world is this?

-  I guess it is only fair, given how the Noles have played since his graduation and after all of the ridiculing I have given Chris over the years I point out in his junior and senior years he led the Noles to 10-3 and 9-3 records.

-  I can’t wait to be the first one to pull out a “man, if only Chris Rix was still playing QB” sometime this season just for the look on other people’s faces.

-  Our announcers are the Sunshine Sports local crew. Guess we don’t get the NBC announcers from this game. That is too bad, but if you are going to have blatantly biased announcers, might as well as be biased toward the Noles. 

-  And we have kick-off on a cool overcast, gray Midwestern day! Some freshman named Antonio Cromartie with the kick-off return. Wonder whether anything ever became of him?

-  First play, Rix throws deep and gains forty yards on a pass to Craphanso Thorpe, whose greatest legacy at FSU is allowing my friends and I to use ‘Thorpe’ as short hand for going #2 in the bathroom.

-  Should be mentioned that the Noles are all in the all-whites. I never liked this look, kind of soft looking. Give me the traditional gold pants any day.

-  Already heard the names Alex Barron and Greg Jones for the Noles. It is easy to forget even in the lean years the Noles were producing lots of future pros.

-  I can’t mention the name Greg Jones, without including this link. My favorite Youtube clip of all time (for the full effect, be sure to listen to the announcers as well). Seriously. I should watch this clip instead of using an alarm clock each morning to get up.

-  As much as I love Greg Jones, not sure I understand handing off to him on 3^rd and 11. Even the homer announcers acknowledge they don’t like the play-calling once the Noles get inside the thirty. I wonder who that offensive coordinator is again. Field Goal 3-0 Noles. Get used to that zero.

- Well, look who comes in at quarterback for the Irish – a young freshman named Brady Quinn, whose first pass is batted back in his face. Is it just me or does seeing Quinn give you a warm feeling? I think this is going to be a good day for the Noles.

-  Three and out for the Irish on the first drive.

-  Another future pro, Leon Washington back to field the punt. I have already seen more future pros (I haven’t mentioned Darnell Dockett, Michael Boulware or Bryant McFadden on the defensive side) than I may this entire fall.

-  After a completion Rix is now ranked second in FSU history in passing yards, possibily the most deceiving stat of all-time as he may have been the first-ever four-year starter.

-  After the announcers mention Rix has problems in wet weather (insert Miami or Louisville joke here), Rix lofts another long pass to Craphanso down the sideline. Wow, that was pretty. 60-yard completion.

-  Leon cuts it up the middle and is taken down inside the ten. I really should just the put the comment about northern teams not being able to keep up with the speed of southern teams in the auto-fill of my Word.

- Rix floats a fade to PK Sam in the corner of the end zone and it is already 10-0, FSUand we are only 7 minutes in. FSU is scoring so fast, I am struggling to keep up. I hope to have this problem again during a live game next fall. 

-  I’ll take this opportunity to mention that at the game, we were literally in the last row of the stadium directly opposite of Touchdown Jesus. For Christians, the Irish certainly weren’t very charitable with their away-team tickets.

-  Also, if you think I am hell-bound, I should mention the three guys sitting in front of us who dressed as garnet and gold monks with F-S-U spelled out on their smocks. If you ever wondered if football is religion in the south, I think that should answer it.

-  We have apparently skipped over the ensuing Irish offensive series. We all saw enough bad Quinn passes during his career that we can imagine what it looked like.

-  ‘Second time we have seen Rix throw it behind the receiver’. The announcer doesn’t say it, but I assume he means in just this quarter. If he is talking about the career, his estimate is about 4,376 throws low.

-  Somehow Rix almost backpedals himself right into a safety, yet avoids two guys and floats it down the field where PK Sam makes the catch for about a 30-yard gain. That single play summed up the Rix era better than I ever could.

-  Another long pass – touchdown to Craphanso. For the record that is 2 touchdown passes and 4 passes of more than 40 yards all in a single quarter. No wonder they are re-showing this game. I remembered this being a thumping, but seriously I thought Notre Dame at least tried. This was over the moment that FSU’s flight landed safely. 17-0 FSU.

-  They just mentioned the FSU touchdown drive came after a blocked Notre Dame field goal. This is a two and a half hour program and they couldn’t show a blocked field goal?

-  Run stuffed by Broderick Bunkley. He is only a future top-fifteen draft pick. But he is a back-up. Seriously, this is what a USC fan will feel like in 6 years watching a replay of a 2008 game – wondering how they ever lost.

-  In his interview in Newport harbor (why they are standing on a dock to discuss a game played in South Bend I don’t know), Chris Rix is wearing two rings. Yet, neither ring is on his wedding finger. He is also wearing some sort of friendship bracelets (note the plural). Do with this, what you want.

-  Also, if Chris were to slip on the dock and fall in the harbor, the amount of hair gel he is using would cause an environmental catastrophe on scale with the Exxon Valdez. I guess now we know who Tebow models his hair style after.

-  For the record, the above is the only time you will ever see the names Tebow and Rix in the same sentence.

-  Quinn just threw a screen to Ryan Grant, who was immediately smothered. Hard to believe Grant would be the starting running back a few years later behind Brett Favre before his first retirement. Or was it his second? I get confused.

-  FSU stuffs the Irish on 4^th and short. Woo hoo, the announcers just noted the ‘roar, coming from the FSU fans who made the trip’. Hey, that was me!

-  Rix throws a twenty yard completion but Thorpe steps out of bounds. That pass actually might have dropped Rix yardage per completion stat for this game. He has 205 yards passing 4 minutes into the 2^nd quarter.

-  After a pass interference (the best pass defense Notre Dame has played today), FSU kicks a field goal. 20-0 FSU.

-  We are skipping another Notre Dame offensive series. At this rate, it is almost like Notre Dame doesn’t score at all today.

-  FSU is again marching down the field like the Notre Dame defense isn’t even there. It is such a common occurrence, it isn’t worth commenting on. Again to repeat, this is a Chris Rix led, Jeff Bowden offense. How bad was Notre Dame?

-  Oh. Just did a quick scan on the internet. Notre Dame was 2-6 coming into this game. Guess that explains it.

-  Notre Dame shows some pride and stuffs the Noles on a 3^rd down, sending out Xavier Beitia for another field goal. 23-0 with a minute to play to halftime.

-  Another three and out, highlighted by some more bad Quinn passes to end the half. Browns fans should be watching this as mental preparation for this fall.

-  First play shown of the second half and Quinn floats the ball high which gets his receiver lit up as the ball arrives, sending the ball straight up in the air before being intercepted. Hope Braylon Edwards isn’t watching this.

-  Another beautiful pass from Rix hits Thorpe in stride down the sideline. Thorpe makes one quick maneuver and walks right into the end zone. 30-0 FSU.

- The announcers have started talking about the possibility of a shut out of Notre Dame (first time in about 25 years) and the all time most points scored in Notre Dame stadium (51 – 1960 Purdue). I think any Irish fan watching can safely turn off the game now.

-  Rix just fumbled the ball but a bad call by the refs ruled that he had recovered it. Apparently Touchdown Jesus was too busy to care about his chosen school today.

-  One play later, Rix wings a pass right into the hands of a Notre Dame defender. Ahh yes, now this is the Rix I remember. At least he waited until the Noles got up by 30-0 before remembering who he is.

-  Ryan Grant just broke a long run to get the Irish inside the Nole forty. Well, they are at least still trying. If this were the Special Olympics they would be winners today.

-  Well, the Irish are now inside the thirty. Hate to break it to you but clearly something bad is about to happen here for the Irish…

-  The Irish actually make it inside the ten but go for it on fourth (which they should – is 30-3 really any better than 30-0?) and Quinn can’t complete the pass in the end zone.

-  Wow, just when Seminole fans are feeling pretty good, they have to show clips from the 1993 FSU/Notre Dame game. That hurts. Why would they do that to me? As fun as it was being in the stadium for this domination and, recognizing that the 1993 season would still end up leading to a National title, I labeled that the most painful loss of my FSU cheering life last fall. It is like someone pulling a nose hair every time I see the end of that game.

-  Notre Dame is back inside the FSU 10-yard line. Again, I hate to play spoiler but…

-  Yep. Another failed fourth and goal. Give credit to Ty Willingham. He had two gimmes to break the shut-out and went for the touchdowns instead. You know Charlie Weiss goes for the field goal there and the extra side of fries with his burger after the game.

- Another drive by Notre Dame gets inside the twenty before Quinn floats a pass to the flat that is picked by Leroy Smith and returned for a 90-yard touchdown. What do you call that? Going from 30-0 to 37-0 isn’t exactly a backbreaker. More like backing over someone with a car for the third time.

-  Another pick and FSU runs out the clock to end the game. Your final from South Bend is 37-0.

-  So what have we learned today? First, it should be acknowledged that many of my feelings for Rix come from him starting for four years. If Jared Jones hadn’t been hitting the ganja and gotten kicked out of school, he would have started for a couple years. Rix would have only started his junior and senior years (the years with 3 losses each), as was always Bowden’s system, and maybe his legacy would be completely different.

-  Since this game has made me re-assess my feelings about Rix, I should mention that this game also made me re-assess my feelings about Notre Dame. You see, after the game we went to a local sports bar (Bookmakers Pub – still have the t-shirt).

-  After all of our friends went back to Chicago for the night, when it is just the Mrs. and I, some students started coming over and started ‘borrowing’ some of the extra chairs at our table. About the 3^rd time it happened we gave the guy some crap about not even asking if they can borrow the obviously extraneous chairs. He sits down and starts talking to us. He tells us he hopes we had fun (umm, did he see the score?), because he had gone to Tallahassee the year before and thought FSU fans were really nice. The Mrs. and I look at each other in shock. Like most southern schools, FSU fans are not known for being real friendly to visitors. He insists it is true and proceeds to tell us about the other schools he has visited. University of Michigan and Michigan State are apparently filled with complete a-holes (shocking as these are the Irish big rivals). Nebraska fans on the other hand are unbelievably nice (a rumor I hope to confirm or repudiate in person this fall).

-  So, despite all of my making fun of the Irish, I left South Bend actually very impressed by how nice they were.

-  Imagine what I would say about the Irish now if they hadn’t been so nice.

Tagged as: brady quinn, chris rix, craphanso thorpe, fighting irish, florida state, FSU, greg jones, notre dame, ryan grant, seminoles