As with any historic football program, there are plenty of what-ifs with Florida State. What if Travis Hunter hadn’t flipped to Jackson State? What if the 2023 team had gotten into the College Football Playoff, or better yet, what if Jordan Travis hadn’t been hurt? But there’s a new FSU what-if that might just vault right to the top of the list.
During the new Netflix documentary, Untold: The Testimony of Vince Young, Young explained how he grew up idolizing Charlie Ward and became a huge Florida State fan. The No. 1 recruit in the 2002 class was seemingly dead-set on heading from Houston to Tallahassee before Bobby Bowden and the Seminoles offered him as a wide receiver, not a quarterback.
It seems FSU could have had Vince Young if it recruited him at QB
Young said it “kind of broke my heart,” and essentially stated that Bowden’s lack of interest in him as a QB opened up his recruitment and ultimately led him to Texas, where he would lead the Longhorns to the 2005 National Championship.
Finding out Vince Young grew up loving FSU, wanted to be the next @RealCharlieWard and we recruited him…as a wideout .
— Didier Occident (@DidierOccident) August 26, 2026
I did not need this information in my life.😭 pic.twitter.com/IjZLpfEQ8P
Meanwhile, during Young’s four years in Austin, Bowden’s Noles failed to contend for a title with Chris Rix primarily leading the way at QB after Adrian McPherson, a 2001 blue-chip recruit, was arrested in 2002 and dismissed from the team.
When Bowden looked at Young, a 6-foot-5, 200-pound supreme athlete, he likely had Anquan Boldin in mind. When Bowden recruited the 6-foot-2, 205-pound Boldin out of Pahokee, Florida, in the 1999 class, he was listed as a Pro-style QB. Bowden quickly turned him into a dominant outside receiver; even as a freshman on the 1999 title team, he had an impact as a pass-catcher. In 2002, he put up 1,011 yards and 13 touchdowns.
Young probably would have been a great wide receiver, and Bowden is far from the only coach to make that mistake with a great QB. Even Mack Brown himself, who landed Young’s commitment to Texas, later recruited both Robert Griffin III and Patrick Mahomes as safeties.
After he became the No. 3 overall pick in the 2006 NFL Draft, Young didn’t last long as an NFL QB, so a position change could have prolonged his pro career, but he wasn’t just a good college quarterback; he was a great one, and he could have given Bowden another shot at a title.
Vince Young could have given Bobby Bowden one last shot at a third national title
By 2002, Florida State was only a few years removed from its 1999 title, but an 8-4 season in 2001 was a sign of things to come. The program never quite fell off, but from 2001 through Bowden’s final season in 2009, FSU had just one double-digit win season. For many of those seasons, you can argue that quarterback play held the Noles back.
Rix had decent years in 2001 and 2003, but his freshman season was his best, statistically, and across his 43 games as a Seminole, he was a 55% passer with a 63-40 TD/INT ratio. It’s not bad, but it’s also not Vince Young. Then, in 2005, as FSU went 8-5, Drew Weatherford threw 18 touchdowns and 18 interceptions.
That same season, Young finished as the Heisman runner-up with 3,000 yards through the air and 26 touchdowns to 10 interceptions plus 1,050 yards on the ground and 12 more trips to the end zone.
He certainly didn’t win that 2005 title by himself, though his game-winning touchdown on fourth-and-five in the national game was heroic. So FSU may not have replicated Texas’s success with Young, but it would have come much closer.
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