Best FSU Football bowl game for January 1st: 1993 Orange

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.

Entering the 1993 season, the FSU football team had known all too well what it was like to play the role of bridesmaid. In the previous 46 seasons the Seminoles had taken the field, the garnet and gold had finished seven times before ranked in the top five of the AP poll – including second place finishes in 1987 and 1992.

For head coach Bobby Bowden, the monkey was starting to get heavier on his back as being the big name coach who at the time didn’t have a national crown. An argument could be made that if not for a few missed kicks, he could have had several crowns entering this season.

But, on the first day of the year 1994, all of that would go away inside the historic Orange Bowl stadium – and in the most ironic of fashions, the Seminoles would be saved by a kicker of all things after two straight years of misery that came with that position.

Here’s a look at the best FSU football bowl game the program has played on January 1st.

1993 Orange Bowl – Florida State 18 Nebraska 16

For the third time in program history, the Seminoles started the season as the top ranked team in the country and played like it for most of the year. While the previous times ended at the hands of rival Miami, this time it was at the hands of Notre Dame in a No. 1 vs. No. 2 battle that looked to end hopes of a title.

But, a funny thing happened on the way to the funeral – when the Fighting Irish got upset by Boston College, FSU football returned to the top spot and after a win over rival Florida, the Noles punched their ticket back to downtown Miami and the Orange Bowl for a second straight season where they would again play the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

Heading into the game as 17 point favorites, the Seminoles played like anything but that for much of the first half, salvaging just two field goals by freshman kicker Scott Bentley and trailed by one point at the half. Another Bentley field goal and a William Floyd touchdown gave the Noles an eight point lead into the final period.

Nebraska would not go away quietly and retook the lead after a touchdown and field goal – but with 21 seconds left, Bentley nailed a 22 yard field goal and the Noles retook the lead. Nebraska had one final chance, but this time FSU football was the beneficiary of a missed field goal as the Cornhuskers kick sailed wide and the Seminoles were the champions of college football.

Bowden and the Noles will admit they got lucky to get out of Miami that night with the win after Nebraska outgained Florida State and sacked Heisman Trophy winner Charlie Ward five times – but two crucial interceptions by the Noles defense saved the day.

The national title victory would be one of the final times they would play inside the famed Orange Bowl Stadium, where pain and misery had greeted them plenty before. FSU football would defeat Notre Dame in the final scheduled Orange Bowl game played inside the stadium while splitting the final six meetings with Miami inside the stadium.