It seems only natural that my personal trilogy reminiscing and honoring FSU greats of the past – both great games and great players, should culminate with a re-posting from last summer in which I do a running commentary of the 1993 FSU/UF game. This is one of my all-time favorite posts (remember I do this just to entertain myself here), it includes probably my favorite Tim Tebow media crush joke (of many) and thanks to some friends at Warchant.com it is also one of my most widely-read posts.
Outside of Alachua County I presume.
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A Gift from the Gods
As if hearing my recent complaints about the dearth of good sports on Saturdays, Fox College Sports is airing a bunch of classic college football games. On a recent Saturday morning, they decided to show the 1993 Florida State/Florida game. In honor of one of the seminal games of my college life, I decided to re-live the memories and keep a running commentary.
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NOTE #1: If you are a Gator fan, it might be time to find another web site to kill some time on. If you are a Seminole fan, read on. This might be the Florida State football highlight of 2008.
Our Hosts today: William Floyd, Warrick Dunn and Derrick Brooks (as well as Keith Jones, a Nole linebacker from the early 80’s acting as moderator).Three of the real giants of Florida State football and keys to this game and team.
Derrick Brooks says when he was coming out of high school he was picking between FSU and UF. I think everyone not living in Alachua county is thrilled about his choice.
On to the game – we have kickoff!
Today’s starting quarterback for the Gators – Danny Wuerffel. At quarterback for the Seminoles – the great one, Charlie Ward. This is one game that God is going to have a tough time deciding which quarterback to cheer for.
Thankfully, they have decided to use the radio broadcast of Gene Deckerhoff and Vic Prinzi. I have to admit it is nice to watch a game broadcast from Gainesville and not have to listen to Gary Danielson go all DaVinyls every time he sees Tim Tebow.
Bad pass by Charlie Ward and it is intercepted on the first FSU drive. The crowd goes wild. You can hear the swishing of their jean shorts as they jump up and down.
Excellent! The crowd is booing the FSU band. Just had our first Warchant and the crowd immediately starts booing. You don’t get that on the Dew Tour. The Gator fans probably don’t like all of that arm chopping messing up their mullets.
Matt Friar makes his first catch. He was always my hero – a white guy, my size and not any faster than me yet a 2 years starter at receiver for FSU. Oh yeah and he went on TV after the Notre Dame game with a massive amount of tobacco in his cheek begging for another chance at the National title. That was awesome.
Am I the only one that has forgotten what it is like to watch football before the days of first down lines and the score, down and distance always being shown? I feel lost.
The first flare pass to Warrick Dunn in the flat gains a first down and is only brought down by a face mask. They should come back to that play (foreshadowing!).
An inside handoff to Dunn for the first down inside the ten-yard line. That kid might be pretty good in a few years.
Touchdown! Charlie Ward is able to scramble away from three different blitzers and zips a pass into the middle of the end zone to Tamarick Vanover.
Floyd and Brooks tell us that when FSU plays at UF rather than staying in Gainesville they stay in Lake City about 30 miles north. Lake City is sort of a dump in the middle of nowhere. Sounds like a big upgrade over Gainesville to me.
We have skipped over an entire UF offensive series. Gotta love the unbiased replay of this game.
The FSU offense is marching right back down the field. Man, I miss those unstoppable offenses.
Charlie dances away from two tacklers. Let’s just say if Drew Weatherford ever repeated that play I would finally get off of his case.
(NOTE #2: I was in the FSU training room one day in the following spring semester, while Charlie was lounging with one of the trainers. I had the following conversation with the trainer for the track team:
Trainer: You know that is Charlie Ward over there?
Me: Of course.
Trainer: You want to touch him?
Me (shocked, slightly disturbed): What? No!
Trainer: Don’t worry, it happens to him all the time. Touch him.
If you ever wondered the level of reverence for Ward at the time that should sum it up. And no, I did not touch Charlie.)
My fellow freshman from Colorado, Scott Bentley makes a chip shot field goal: 10-0 FSU. To clarify, this was before he kicked the winning field goal in the national title game and then got the kicking equivalent of the yips becoming relatively useless his sophomore and junior years.
We have skipped another UF offensive series, which is really limiting the jokes I get to make about Danny Wuerffel. Come on guys, I have a good one about his days with the Redskins all teed up.
FSU going for it on a 4th and 1 at the Gator 35. A tipped pass is caught for a 10-yard gain. Would Bobby do anything but punt that ball today? Sure. Right after Drew Weatherford scrambles away from three defenders.
Talk about pick your poison. Friar has at least seven catches for 60 yards receiving, Vanover has several catches. Kevin Knox and Kez McCorvey both have catches. Not to mention W.D., Floyd and Sean Jackson out of the backfield.
Another swing pass to W.D., you get the feeling that play will be there all day (foreshadowing again!).
Scott Bentley makes another field goal. 13-0 FSU.
The boys are telling the story of watching Notre Dame lose to Boston College the previous week, which gave them another shot at the national title game. That is a memory for me as well that I will keep as long as I live. If you weren’t on the campus in 1993, you can’t really understand but there was no greater moment in FSU’s national championship run both for fans and the team than watching that B.C. field goal split the uprights in South Bend. Thank you Boston College, sorry about that whole ‘beating you when you are #2 thing’ this past year.
Uh oh, they are showing a UF offensive series, this can’t be good.
How many freakin’ Jacksons are there on the UF receiving corps? Willie, Terry, Jack. I think Tito and Jermaine are on punt coverage.
Nice to see that, even as a freshman, Wuerffel’s entire game consisted of throwing the ball up in the air and letting receivers run under it. It is shocking this wasn’t successful in the pros. There is a Rex Grossman joke here, I just can’t find it.
Big sack by the Noles moving the Gators back to the sixteen for 2nd and goal.
Who’s our favorite player? Mr. Derrick Brooks. Even slowed by a gimpy ankle, he stuffs a crossing pattern.
Touchdown Gators – this time it is to Willie. Unlike his brother Michael he is wearing two gloves. 13-7 FSU.
Shot of the crowd in The Swamp. Lots of mullets and jean shorts (or jorts). This isn’t meant to date this game. In Gainesville, trying to count mullets and jorts to differentiate 1993 from 2008 would be nearly impossible.
Another scramble by Charlie, showing approximately 493 times more athletic ability than any quarterback on FSU’s current roster….sssiiiggghhh. I should’ve recorded this game so I can watch it every Saturday this fall.
FSU rushes down the field before half but Bentley gets a 53-yard field goal partially blocked, leaving us a13-7 halftime score.
Derrick Brooks tells the story about his recruiting visit by Bobby. Apparently his little sister sat in Bobby’s lap and fell asleep while he told Derrick’s parents how he would make Derrick a better man (regardless of football). I would say that was a successful visit in every sense of the word.
We are back for the second half. And the Noles start with a pass to the tight end Lonnie Johnson. This might be the last time an FSU tight end caught a pass.
Friar just crossed the 100-yard receiving mark with his 12th reception. Practicing racial profiling, the Gators have single-coverage on Friar all day apparently assuming the white guy can’t beat them. I would say this was a poor decision but who else do you leave single covered?
Charlie once again scrambles from pressure (I don’t think they have touched him yet) and hits W.D. on a deep crossing pattern, he breaks a tackle and scoots to the ten-yard line.
(NOTE #3: That play was so quintessentially W.D., it reminds me of that great commercial during his rookie year in the NFL where Fox showed W.D. and overlaid Soul Coughing’s Super Bon Bon – ‘move aside and let the man go through’. My money for the greatest football commercial of all time.)
It is interesting to see the Gator defense and not recognize a single player who would go on to a major pro career. We are still a year away from the Gators really stepping onto the elite level.
Touchdown in the corner to Kez McCorvey! There are just too many weapons on the Seminole offense for the Gators to deal with. 20-7 Seminoles.
We are skipping another Gator offensive series – this one led by Terry Dean. Only fitting as Dean is one of the lost players of college football history. A year later, Dean will be a Heisman candidate who gets benched for Wuerffel in the middle of a game and is never seen again. Only Spurrier circa 1994 would bench a Heisman candidate for good.
Finally a future pro for the Gators defense – Kevin Carter checks into the defensive line. Sadly he is pre-dread locks.
Interesting how many Noles come from Louisiana and the gulf coast – both Sean Jackson and Warrick Dunn are from Louisiana and Kez McCorvey is from the gulf coast of Mississippi. Is there any chance the Noles steal these guys from LSU if they were coming out today?
We have a Ron Zook sighting on the Gator sideline. As if there weren’t enough good omens from this game, we get reminded that the Zooker is coaching the Gators. I am no longer shocked that the Noles went in to the Swamp and won this game.
I think the whole world has forgotten how great Charlie Ward was. He was Vince Yong before Vince Young. He doesn’t look like he is running fast but no one can touch him. For once I can empathize with Gator fans. I remember watching UT games frustrated at how no one could tackle Young, yet Gator fans felt that same frustration a decade before.
Ouch, interception in the end zone. That would have been the nail in the coffin.
Interception James Colzie! Another freshman coming up with a huge play. I always took more pride in the players from my year. Colzie, who might have been the smallest player to wear the garnet and gold, was one of the earliest contributors from the freshman class of ‘93.
Another touchdown to Kez McCorvey! This offense is unbelievable. Yes, these are great players but how about a little appreciation for Mark Richt. It is no coincidence his departure marked the end of the Noles dominance. 27-7 Seminoles at the end of the 3rd period.
4th and seven at mid-field, Dean avoids a sack by Brooks and throws it up for grabs down the field. Joint possession and they give it to the Gators for a first down. A little reminiscent of the Manning-Tyree Super Bowl pass fifteen years later. Thank goodness, the result of this game is different.
Touchdown pass to Willie Jackson in the corner of the end zone. Also eerily reminiscent of the Plaxico touchdown in this year’s Super Bowl. Glad, I’m not a Pats fan, I might be throwing up in my mouth a little bit, right now. 27-14.
Huge first down for the Noles to keep milking the clock. It should be noted that I have heard very little of that Gator Chomp song. Further evidence that the Seminoles dominance in 90’s was the catalyst for every team finding an arm-motion thing for their fans to do.
Charlie makes another scramble and Vic mentions he has 367 yards passing. Weatherford and Lee won’t combine for that many yards in 3 or 4 games in 2008.
Fumble by Floyd inside the ten-yard line, another missed opportunity to finish the Gators off.
Sack of Dean right at his own goal line. Is it just me or do refs always find a way to not call a safety? It is amazing; with any hint of being within a yard of the goal line the refs give a quarterback the benefit of the doubt.
Gators going for it on fourth and ten from their own 17 with 7 minutes to play. How many coaches would go for it here? Would any? Gotta love the ol’ Ball Coach. Of course they convert. Man I hated Spurrier.
Phenomenal catch by Jack Jackson, bobbling the ball back and forth as two defenders are draped all over him for a touchdown. If I remember correctly, I wasn’t able to sit down at this point, I just wandered around the family room of my parents’ house, muttering (it was the Saturday after Thanksgiving). 27-21 Seminoles.
The rednecks in the crowd and the Gator defense are feeling it right now. They smell the huge comeback. Two batted ball incompletions start the next Nole series. 3rd and ten.
World meet Warrick Dunn, Warrick Dunn meet world. On third and ten, Charlie scrambles and dumps the pass to W.D. who scampers down the sideline for a 79-yard touchdown. That play illustrates why the roommates are the two greatest Seminole players of my time and that play will go down as one of the ten greatest plays in Seminole history. 33-21.
NOTE #4: A moment to appreciate W.D. This game was really his coming-out party. At the time of this game, he was an unheralded freshman from Baton Rouge. While he was in high school, his policewoman mother had been killed in the line of duty. Doug Williams (yes, Super Bowl MVP Doug Williams) called Charlie Ward and asked him to keep an eye on Warrick after he committed to FSU, so the Heisman candidate made the freshman his roommate. It is forgotten now but he actually played in the secondary during two-a-days his freshman year. After a number of injuries in the backfield he came back to running back and became the living embodiment of Omar Epps character from The Program. Right down to dating women as hot as Halle Berry.
Interception by Corey Sawyer. Thanks for coming out Gators, you can put your orange pom-poms in the pocket of your jorts and head back to the trailer park to sip your Natural Light, drink away your pain and say ‘maybe next year’.
NOTE #4: Actually 1994 might be even more painful. The Gators will take a 31-3 lead into the fourth quarter in Tallahassee and the Noles will stage one of the greatest comebacks in college football history to tie it 31-31. The rematch in the Sugar Bowl would be all Seminoles as well.
But that is a game and a story for another day.
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