FSU Football: How blowout loss to Wake Forest led to new era for Noles

FSU football will welcome a Wake Forest team to town this weekend, nearly 12 years after the Deacs did something only a handful of teams had done before.

As a longtime fan of FSU football, I never thought that it was even possible for this kind of event to take place. As a student during the start of what some call the “lost decade”, things never got to this point and were this bad. But, as an alumni being one of the 77,000+ fans inside Doak Campbell Stadium on the night of November 11, 2006 I was watching it live.

The Seminoles were not just losing to a Wake Forest team they had beaten since joining the ACC during the 1992 season – they were being shutout at home to the Demon Deacons. When the clock mercifully hit triple zeros and the came was over, the Noles had lost 30-0 and had been shutout for the 10th time at home in what is now the 72 season history of the program.

To put that into context, only two of those times have happened since the start of the 1964 season (a 1973 loss to Kansas) and none have taken place since while it was the first overall shutout loss since the 1988 season opener against Miami.

That’s right – even while many thought FSU football had lost a step in the start of the 2000s despite winning four ACC titles over the first six seasons of the decade, this was a new low for the Seminoles program. But when you hit rock bottom, there is nowhere to go but up…and this was the eye opener that led to change.

It was the first time when the term “lost decade” was really used as the Seminoles dropped to 5-5 on the season and needed a win the following weekend against Western Michigan just to be bowl eligible. It led to the firing of Jeff Bowden as offensive coordinator – something many people had been calling for since he took over for Mark Richt after the 2000 season.

It also was the beginning of the end for legendary head coach Bobby Bowden, who would coach three more seasons that included two 7-6 campaigns. In the eyes of many, a loss can be accepted if you’re competitive – but getting shutout by 30 to a team you used to dominate with ease was unacceptable.

Over the next three seasons, the new offense led by the eventual head coach in waiting who would later take over for almost six seasons became much more of a force while the defense became the biggest problem for FSU football. It led to the eventual revamp of the entire coaching staff as well as the mindset of the Seminoles program.

So, in a way, you can say that the good times of this decade – three conference titles and that magical 2013 national title season – wouldn’t have been possible without the embarrassment that night inside Doak…just like you could say maybe the 35-3 loss to Boston College last season or going 9-6 at home over the last three seasons might be what leads to the next dynasty era.