Florida State just made Week 0 extra special with Sebastian Janikowski jersey retirement

There are plenty of reasons to be excited about Florida State’s Week 0 season-opener against New Mexico State on August 29: Eric Luallen’s first game as the voice of Doak Campbell, the first season with completed stadium renovations, and the first look at a new starting quarterback. 

Now the Seminoles just added another, announcing that legendary kicker Sebastian Janikowski will have his No. 38 jersey retired. Janikowski remains the only two-time winner of the Lou Groza Award as the nation’s best kicker, and is the last kicker to have been selected in the first round of the NFL Draft, going No. 17 overall to the Raiders in 2000. 

Janikowski will join elite company as the 13th Seminole to have their jersey or number retired: 

• 2 Deion Sanders
• 5 Jameis Winston
• 9 Peter Warrick
• 10 Derrick Brooks
• 16 Chris Weinke
• 17 Charlie Ward
• 25 Fred Biletnikoff
• 27 Terrell Buckley
• 28 Warrick Dunn
• 34 Ron Sellers
• 50 Ron Simmons
• 55 Marvin Jones

Janikowski will officially be honored with an in-game ceremony at Doak Campbell Stadium. 

His No. 38 jersey is currently being worn by freshman linebacker Daylen Green. Sanders, Ward, Biletnikoff, Sellers, and Simmons are the only Seminoles with their numbers' retired.

A kicker can still be a college football legend

Janikowski kicked at Florida State from 1997-99 and helped lead the Seminoles to their second national championship in program history in 1999. He was a freshman All-American in 1997, broke FSU and ACC records with 27 made field goals and points in 1998 while leading the NCAA in field goal percentage, and led the country in made field goals in 1999 with 23. 

Janikowski was inducted into the FSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2013, but is still awaiting entry into the College Football Hall of Fame. Only two place kickers, Washington State’s Jason Hanson and Kevin Butler, have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, and if anyone deserves to join them, it’s probably Janikowski. 

The Polish kicker who moved to Florida before his 10th-grade year wasn’t just one of the best kickers in college football history and a key piece of a national championship team; he was also an iconic figure who was built like a linebacker at 6-foot-1, 255 pounds. He played in the NFL as heavy as 265 pounds across his 18-year career. That stature added to his legend, and now he’ll be cemented in FSU history along with 12 other Seminole greats.

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