FSU Football: The most crucial loss in history we would trade for a win

FSU football has had plenty of heartbreaking losses in their history that shaped things with the program, but there is one we would trade to get back.

In the 72 seasons that the FSU football team has taken the field, there have been so many great memories for the garnet and gold – from three national championships to 15 times winning the ACC to countless bowl victories and numerous players that have gone on to do great things both on and off the field.

At the same time, there have also been moments for the Seminoles on the field that they would do anything to get back – close losses that helped shape the program in the years that followed that, in the spirit of Wednesday being the trading deadline in Major League Baseball, the Noles would trade the outcome of.

From the 1997 loss to Florida that kept the Seminoles from playing in the Orange Bowl for a national title to last season’s one point loss to rival Miami that essentially ended FSU football’s streak of winning seasons and bowl game appearances that went back to the administrations of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.

But, through the history that documents the Seminoles, there is one loss that stings the most because of what it did in making the Noles wait before they could call themselves champs – the 1987 one point loss to the Miami Hurricanes.

Florida State Seminoles Football

Entering the game, each teams was ranked in the top four nationally as the ‘Canes had a two game winning streak in the series as the teams met for a nationally televised game in Tallahassee in what was – at that point – the most important game between the teams in their series.

It was a game where, statistically, FSU football dominated their foes and looked like they were going to break that losing streak – building a 19-3 lead late in the third quarter that had head coach Bobby Bowden looking at a path that could have led to their first national title game appearance in the 41 seasons of the program.

It was also the game that started the battle of kicking woes between the rivals as the Hurricanes came back to score 23 points and were aided in part by the Seminoles missing an extra point beforehand and a field goal during that run that saw them trailing by one point with less than a minute to go.

At that point, after Danny McManus had connected with Ronald Lewis for a touchdown, Bowden made the decision to go for two points and the win – a decision that ended with an incomplete pass and the only loss that season for the Seminoles, a season that ended with an 11-1 record and a No. 2 ranking behind those pesky Hurricanes.

Now, of course we are being optimistic here, but let us say that the teams end up in a tied ballgame. Do the Seminoles end up playing then top ranked Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl to end the season and play for the national title?

After all, FSU football ended up smoking their remaining six regular season foes by an average of nearly 25 points a game and were playing like the nation’s best team – but instead, they settled for a win in the Fiesta Bowl over Nebraska and would have to wait six more seasons before finally getting a national title victory.

Of all the losses that the Seminoles would love to have back, the one on the first week of October nearly 32 years ago is one that any in garnet and gold would trade right now – for everything that played out later that season and in the three decades that followed.