FSU Football: Newspaper calls 2013 Noles best team in Florida history

FSU football can claim one of the best teams to ever win a national title, with one writer saying that there is no better team from the Sunshine State.

As the FSU football team is just days away from kicking off the 2018 season, there are plenty of us in garnet and gold who wish that they can get back to the type of football that was played not all that long ago – in fact, just five years ago when the Seminoles brought home the third national title in program history.

It was a season to remember for the Noles – a regular season of dominance that was followed by one of the best national title games ever when Jameis Winston and company led FSU football on an amazing comeback to beat the Auburn Tigers in the final game of the Bowl Championship Series era.

It was a season that put the Seminoles in the conversation as having one of the best teams – not just in program history, but in all of college football. Now, one South Florida newspaper writer is going all in on them being the best team from the Sunshine State.

Tom D’Angelo, who has spent over three and a half decades writing in Florida that includes many years covering the Seminoles for the Palm Beach Post, recently ranked the 2013 Noles as the top team ever from the state – ahead of the 2001 Miami Hurricanes, who mistakenly keep getting called the best ever by fans who don’t do their homework.

"While the Hurricanes had the most NFL draft picks, many of those players had nothing to do with the 2001 team’s success.FSU was the highest scoring team in FBS history with 723 points and led the nation in scoring defense, allowing 12.1 points per game.FSU’s schedule was ranked among the 15 toughest in the country. The Seminoles faced five ranked teams including three in the top 10. The Seminoles crushed No. 3 Clemson on the road and No. 7 Miami at home by an average of 32 points."

I made this argument last month when ESPN posted an article claiming the 2013 FSU football team was the fourth best of the BCS era, behind the 2001 Canes among others. The truth is that no team dominated a season more than what the Noles did.

While the Seminoles played three top 10 teams and beat them by an average of almost 20 points, Miami played just one team ranked in the top 10 all season: a Nebraska team that many people think didn’t deserve to be in that game after not even winning their own division.

Interestingly enough, D’Angelo ranked two teams in the top 10 that didn’t win a national title (1987 FSU football and 2000 Miami) while leaving out three of the teams that officially won a title and aren’t just claiming one (1987 and 1989 Miami along with 2006 Florida) – showing just how good football in the Sunshine State is.