Best FSU Football bowl game for December 23rd: 1977 Tangerine

FSU football isn’t playing in a bowl game this season, so we’re taking a look back at some of the best postseason games for the Seminoles by date.

While some FSU football fans are still in shock over the team suffering their first losing season in over four decades and the first non-bowl season since 1981, those who have been with the garnet and gold for long before that time remember a period when bowl games and winning seasons were few and far between.

That last losing season, under then first year head coach Bobby Bowden in 1976, came in the 30th season of the program in which only eight of those years had ended with the Seminoles going to a bowl game.

Florida State Seminoles Football

As the 1977 season went on, Bowden showed things had turned around with wins over ranked Oklahoma State, SEC power Auburn and the rival Florida Gators for the first time in 10 years – all giving FSU football a chance to have a 10 win season for the first time ever.

Here’s a look at the best FSU football bowl game the program has played on December 23rd.

1977 Tangerine Bowl – Florida State 40 Texas Tech 17

While three of FSU football’s previous eight bowl games had been in the state of Florida, the Seminoles traveled to Orlando for the first time to play a Red Raiders team that was tasked with stopping the momentum of the Noles – and for one quarter it worked as the Seminoles were p just 3-0 entering the second quarter.

After the Red Raiders tied the game with an early second quarter field goal, Larry Key showed his skills as a kickoff returner by going 93 yards for the score and putting the Seminoles up for good. The quarterback duo of Wally Woodham and Jimmy Jordan would each have their own success for the remainder of the game with each throwing two touchdown passes and the rout was on.

The defensive side of the ball bent at some points but did not break – and overcame 130 penalty yards in the game – as FSU football came up with two interceptions and two fumble recoveries that kept the Red Raiders never within two possessions the rest of the game.

Counting the 1977 season, the Seminoles would miss a bowl game just two times over that 41 wining season span at a time when there weren’t as many postseason contests as their are today.

The year would also start the first ever winning streak over Florida (which would go four games) and keep Bowden in the good graces of fans for what would be the best dynasty in college football.