FSU Football’s Best 15 Games Of The Last 40 Seasons: No. 7

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 has been everything from 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. 7 – Florida State 33 West Virginia 21 (January 1, 2010)

In life, all good things must come to an end. While the writing had been on the walls for several seasons to this point, there were not many who expected things to end the way they did for Bobby Bowden as head coach of the Florida State Seminoles. In Bowden’s 34^th season as the leader of FSU football, the ‘Noles saw themselves at the halfway point of the season at 2-4 with home losses to Miami, Georgia Tech and an embarrassing defeat to USF in the first ever meeting between the programs.

Heat continued to be put on the program from the media, alumni and members of the school’s Board of Trustees. FSU football would win four of their final six games to become bowl eligible, hoping to send our longtime defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews (who announced his retirement earlier in the year) the right way. As it turned out, Andrews’ departure would take a back seat to his boss. Days after a bad loss to rival Florida, Bowden announced that he would indeed be stepping down after FSU football’s bowl game that season. In a twist of fate, FSU was invited to the Gator Bowl in nearby Jacksonville…where they would take on Bowden’s former school, West Virginia.

On a cold and wet New Year’s Day morning, Bowden and the ‘Noles arrived at the stadium with hundreds of former players greeting their coach for his final ride. Inside, the crowd went crazy when, instead of Chief Osceola planting the traditional spear at midfield, it was Bowden who was given the honor. Once the game started, FSU football found themselves in trouble as WVU jumped out to a 14-3 lead. Jermaine Thomas would run in the first of his two touchdowns on the day and Dustin Hopkins kicked a field goal to cut the deficit to one. The second half belonged to FSU football, as quarterback E.J. Manuel (filling in since November for an injured Christian Ponder) kept the offense in control and led them on two touchdown drives as well as two drives that ended in field goals by Hopkins. The defense sent Andrews out the right was as well, coming up four sacks (including two by Dekoda Watson) and eight tackles for loss.

It was the end of an era over three decades in the making. Even six years later, there are still plenty of FSU football fans that aren’t too pleased with the way things went down. After a half-decade that saw the team have the same number of losses from 2005-2009 as they did from 1992-2004 (26), it was hard to argue that something needed to be changed. Thankfully, Bowden has returned to support FSU football and been at multiple games, including the team’s third national title win to finish the 2013 season.