FSU Football: Top 10 best Nole games to re-watch this summer

1993 FSU National Championship game

This game was the program’s first national championship, and that is the only reason it’s this high on the list. Stakes make it different but it’s a tough watch compared to today’s games. The most frustrating element is the reliance on under-center plays and I-formation with Charlie Ward, despite doing the opposite all season for Ward’s Heisman Campaign.

A 15-13 game in the fourth quarter on grainy footage and low audio is not a fun watch. The announcers were annoying, and the refs were atrocious.

The best part of the game was the graphic progression. This game was the first game I watched with a rudimentary bottom crawler graphic. That was fascinating to see how those live updates were included throughout other games.

There is an occasional score update for this game that gives you a live clock, and it looks good.  The broadcast also provides live stats at different periods.

On the play side, it was amazing seeing William Floyd play. I watched him first in the Georgia Tech game and didn’t think much of his performance. However, after seeing him in this game, he popped off the screen. I also didn’t know that he was the “William Floyd” that does games on the radio with Gene Deckerhoff.

Another player that I noticed early was Derrick Alexander, as he was always around the ball. A quick side note on what I noticed about the older games, equipment-wise, more people had neck pads. Another garment element I noticed was how many players played with casts on their forearms.

Back to the gameplay, it was frustrating with how many opportunities were missed, especially inside the red zone early on. After halftime, it was like a different team came to play. Everyone seems to play until the player hits the ground rather than until the whistle.

The game picks up in the fourth as a nine point Nebraska field goal puts them up one going into the last few minutes. FSU, after getting criticized for their kicking issues, the Seminoles sink one in the clutch with 21 seconds left. Then Nebraska was able to get into field goal range, clock expires, then doesn’t, and the Nebraska field goal attempt missed.

Bowden was almost Orgeron’ed and nearly had to take a loss post-Gatorade bath. On another funny note, you are in for quite a surprise when you first hear from the sideline reporter.

4.5 out of 5 footballs