FSU Football: How 1979 Noles started tradition of excellence still standing

The FSU football did something during that season that set forth a tradition of winning that is still expected by fans of the Seminoles to this day.

On a warm September 8th night that took place 40 years ago, the FSU football team put together a fourth quarter comeback after being down by two possessions to defeat Southern Miss in the season opener of the 1979 campaign. That win would be the closest that the Seminoles would get to losing over the course of the next 10 games.

The following weekend was a blowout win over Arizona State in a game played at the old Tampa Stadium. After that was a win over the rival Miami Hurricanes inside Doak Campbell Stadium…followed by road wins over Virginia Tech and Louisville…followed by a home win over a ranked Mississippi State team…followed by a huge road win at LSU.

You see where we are going with this,right?

Florida State Seminoles Football

By the time the FSU football team defeated the rival Florida Gators on the day after Thanksgiving, the Seminoles had done something that they never had accomplished before since becoming a big time college football program: go undefeated in the regular season.

Sure, the Noles had done plenty of other big things in the first three seasons under head coach Bobby Bowden – in just his second season in 1977, the Noles had won 10 games in a season for the first time in their history while the win over Florida was their third straight victory over the Gators, something that had never taken place before.

But, the biggest thing that took place 40 years ago was that the 1979 season built the FSU football program into what it is today: a program that expects and quite frankly demands winning and will expect nothing less from a team of star players like what is out there in garnet and gold.

When you look at what the FSU football team did that season, not many people are going to be impressed by the two quarterback system of Wally Woodham and Jimmy Jordan combining for just over 2,100 yards passing or one running back having over 1,000 yards (Mark Lyles), but it’s more about the fact that what they did was perfect.

Yes, they got blown out in an Orange Bowl loss to Oklahoma, but that 1979 regular season built the Seminoles into what they have been in the four decades since. It brought national attention to the Seminoles that also brought in better assistants and, in turn, better recruiting classes.

It was a season that was just the third time in program history where FSU football beat both the ‘Canes and Gators in the same season and a season that ended with the Seminoles being ranked inside the top 5 for the first time in program history before the bowl game.

Since that point, a total of four teams for the Seminoles have duplicated the feat of going through the regular season without a loss – but none of the national titles or national glory would be possible without the swagger brought out by the 1979 FSU football team.