FSU Football: How upset loss to Virginia gave hope to the ACC

FSU Football was coasting through their first three and a half seasons in the conference – until a call still questioned a quarter century later changed it.

For the first three and a half seasons that the FSU football team played in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Seminoles didn’t just run what was then a nine team league – they did it in a fashion that had many people wondering if the Noles were ever going to lose a game in their time in the ACC.

Through the first 29 games in the conference, the Seminoles were barely even challenged in more than maybe two games their first season. Not only did the Noles win each of those 29 games they played against ACC foes, they did so with dominating performances on both offense and defense that had some wondering why they would have joined an inferior group.

On a cool night two days after Halloween in 1995, the Seminoles headed to the state of Virginia on a Thursday night for a game that would change all of that – and give the ACC’s other eight teams hope that things were going to change sooner rather than later.

FSU football, a heavy favorite, came into the game confident and had a 14-7 lead heading into the second quarter – before the Cavaliers put 20 points on the board in the second frame and went into the locker room at the half with a six point lead that had many wondering what’s going on.

That lead was extended into 12 points in the fourth quarter before legendary former FSU football running back Warrick Dunn scored his second touchdown of the game – but with seconds left, Dunn’s comeback efforts would be stopped after taking the snap and being ruled by officials to be just short of the goal line.

With that, the Seminoles lost their first ACC game and the world seemed to be coming to the end in the eyes of both fans of the Noles and the college football world. Things would calm down as the Noles would lose just one of their next 42 games in conference play – but the table had been set that anything was possible.

In the 18 seasons that have taken place since the Seminoles won the first nine ACC titles they were eligible for, FSU football has won six conference crowns while the ACC has seen other teams become those in the conversation for titles – including Clemson, which has won two of the last three national championships.

But, it all started on a colder night in Charlottesville – on a play where I will go to my grave insisting that Dunn scored a touchdown and not a damn person can convince me otherwise.