Best FSU Football bowl game for January 4th: 1999 Sugar

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.

When the FSU football team took the field to start the final season of the 20th century, they knew that the bullseye was going to be squarely on them as the preseason top ranked team in the country – something they had in previous seasons but weren’t able to stay in that spot the entry way.

By the time they made it to New Orleans for the fourth ever national title game in program history, the number one was still by their names and the target was the size of the Superdome stadium where they were set to take on a smaller conference foe – but one who had just as much fire and made for one of the best title games up to that point.

But, when it was all said and done, there was just one team that was leaving the bayou as the champions of college football – and it was the garnet and gold who were heading back to Tallahassee doing something that no team in college football history had ever accomplished.

Here’s a look at the best FSU football bowl game the program has played on January 4th.

1999 Sugar Bowl – Florida State 46 Virginia Tech 29

On the surface, the Seminoles looked like their dominant selves over the course of the 1999 season. Taking a 11-0 record into the national title game against the Hokies, the Noles had close battles against Georgia Tech, comeback wins over Clemson and a top five Florida team and had to beat ranked Miami without maybe the best player in the country in Peter Warrick.

On the national stage and playing in the de facto BCS title game for the second straight season after losing to Tennessee the year before in the Fiesta Bowl during the inaugural BCS season, Warrick knew that he was going to be the main attraction for FSU football after seeing his Heisman Trophy chances go away following a suspension for stealing clothes from a store.

For the first 29 minutes of game action, the Hokies were no match as future Heisman winner Chris Weinke found Warrick and Ron Dugans for touchdown passes of over 60 yards. Add a blocked punt returned for a score and Warrick taking a punt back for six and the blowout was on for all to see.

A Virginia Tech touchdown before the half gave the Hokies momentum – and a redshirt freshman named Michael Vick was the star of the third quarter as he used his arm and legs to engineer two touchdown drives for the Hokies that, with a field goal added on, gave Virginia Tech the lead heading into the final quarter.

The fourth quarter would be all Seminoles, though, as Dugans caught his second touchdown to retake the lead. A Sebastian Janikowski field goal extended that lead – and then Warrick cemented his legacy with a “How in the heck did he do that” touchdown catch that officially put the Hokies out of their misery and gave the Seminoles their second national title in history.

The stats weren’t sexy for the top ranked Noles, as they gave up 500 yards and threw the game’s only interception. But the defense did force three turnovers and sacked Vick seven times to become the first wire-to-wire champ in the poll era. FSU football would go to the title game a third straight season when they faced Oklahoma the following season in the Orange Bowl.