FSU Football’s Best 15 Games Of The Last 40 Seasons: No. 12

Here’s a look at one of the best 15 games over the last 40 seasons of FSU football.

For the four decades, two men have led FSU football: Bobby Bowden and Jimbo Fisher. Over that span, the Seminoles have gone from a football program that seemed to be just weeks from being cancelled to one of the top teams in the country and a known brand across the country and all over the world.

There have been big road wins that set the tone for FSU football’s “play anyone at anytime” attitude to rivalry wins against Florida and Miami. The 34 seasons with Bowden at the helm saw two national titles won and one of the greatest dynasty eras in the history of the sport take place. The last six seasons under Fisher have seen the ‘Noles bring another title to Tallahassee and restored FSU football’s place as one of college football’s elite teams.

Of all the games over the past four decades, which are the ones that meant the most to where FSU football is today? Let’s take a look at the best games over the past 40 seasons the ‘Noles have taken the field.

No. 12 – Florida State 51 Michigan 31 (September 28, 1991)

For the previous four seasons, FSU football had a successful run that saw them finish in the top four at the end of each year. 1991 was going to be different…this was the team that was going to finally get the ‘Noles over that hump and compete for that national title that had alluded Bobby Bowden during his first decade and a half in Tallahassee.

The ‘Noles went into Ann Arbor for just the second time in program history, having dropped a close affair just five years before. In the days before the BCS, College Football Playoff and conference championship games where losses don’t matter as much because of the chance to rebound, this was basically an elimination game between two of the top five teams in the country through the first month of the 1991 season. FSU football had Casey Weldon under center to go along with multiple threats at running back and wide receiver. On defense, future award winners and NFL stars like Marvin Jones and Terrell Buckley took the field on a cool fall afternoon.

The tone was set in this game on the first drive, when Buckley stepped in front of a pass intended for eventual Heisman Trophy winner Desmond Howard and took it to the house for the score. The first half was a back and forth affair, as the teams combined for 54 points at the break. The second half belonged to FSU football, as Weldon connected on two more touchdown passes, one each to Eric Turrall and Lonnie Johnson, to go along with Toodrick McIntosh lumbering in for another pick six for the FSU defense en route to a 20 point victory.

FSU football would hold on to the number one ranking until back-to-back losses to Miami and Florida ended hopes of being crowned the champs for another year. The ‘Noles would finish the year 11-2 after a defensive slugfest win over Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl.