Tony Haynes: Seminoles Showed Pack, Rest of ACC the Way

By Tony Haynes

Raleigh, N.C. When NC State hosts Florida State on Thursday night at Carter-Finley Stadium (7:45 p.m.), the outlook for the home team will be a lot more promising than it was about a decade ago. For the first few years after Florida State joined the ACC, the only suspense in the league race was the battle for second place. Back in those days, FSU’s dominance was about as predictable as an 8:00 a.m. traffic jam on I-40 West.

So one-sided were those games in the early and mid-90s that it often seemed as if the Seminoles were in a league of their own. In truth, they WERE in another league.

Now in its 15^th season in the ACC, Florida State has captured 12 league titles and remains one of the teams to beat. But the Noles have also become to a certain extent -- victims of their own high standards of excellence. Not long after FSU joined the league in 1992, athletic directors, coaches and booster clubs from around the ACC started to mobilize forces. Embarrassed by crushing, one-sided losses to Florida State, the old-guard ACC started fighting back. Facilities around the league were upgraded, while recruiting strategies changed.

Repeatedly overwhelmed by FSU’s blazing team speed, ACC coaches started to recruit faster football players at every position, particularly on the defensive side of the ball.

It was about fighting fire with fire.

Perhaps no one has a better perspective on the Florida State juggernaut than current Wolfpack head coach Chuck Amato, who was an assistant coach in Tallahassee during those days when the Seminoles battered the rest of the ACC on a regular basis.

“The biggest disparity visually was team speed,” Amato said. “People then started going out and getting team speed. I remember years and years ago, Pat Dye at East Carolina brought the concept of speed into the game just as Jerry Claiborne at the University of Maryland brought strength and conditioning into the game. When you add those two together, you’ve got a chance.”

The scores of some of those early ACC games between NC State and Florida State were merely a microcosm of what the Seminoles were doing to the rest of the league. In 1992, FSU whipped the Pack 34-13. The next year it was 62-3. In 1994, the Noles thumped NC State 34-3. And just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, Florida State put 77 points on the board in a 60-point victory over the Wolfpack in 1995.

After joining the ACC in 1992, Florida State won 29 consecutive conference games before finally losing for the first time at Virginia in 1995. When FSU running back Warrick Dunn fell just inches shy of what would have been a winning touchdown and a 30th straight conference victory, Uva wasn’t the only school celebrating that night. It was if a 5,000 pound gorilla had been lifted off the shoulders of the rest of the ACC.

Even in the aftermath of that disappointing defeat, Florida State coach Bobby Bowden acknowledged that the Virginia upset was huge for the rest of the ACC.

“Coach always says the right thing at the right time,” Amato said. “It did show that Florida State could be beaten.”

Another turning point occurred in 1997. Although FSU outscored NC State 48-35 in Tallahassee, the Seminoles defense often looked helpless trying to stop Wolfpack receiver Torry Holt, who caught five touchdown passes in the game.

“It showed that NC State was well coached and that they didn’t quit,” Amato said. “When you start playing that competition week in and week out, that competition makes you better.”

A year after that ’97 game, NC State did more than just compete. Picking off six Chris Weinke passes, the Pack stunned the Seminoles at Carter-Finley Stadium, 24-7. Since then, the Wolfpack has won four of the last eight meetings, including three of six under Amato.

Bowden and his program gave NC State and the rest of the ACC a blueprint for success, a plan of attack that is now making life in the league a little more challenging for FSU.

“We joined the league 15 years ago and we waltzed through it for about three years before we got knocked off,” said Bowden, the winningest coach in Division 1-A football with 362 career victories. “Then we got knocked off twice. Then we got knocked off three times. Then we got knocked off four times. The conference has gotten better, there’s no doubt about it. It’s not that Miami and Florida State have gone down that much, the conference has just gotten tougher and it’s tougher to win these days.”

A lot tougher, and as a result, not quite as predictable as tomorrow morning’s rush hour traffic on I-40.

North Carolina State University Athletics

Tony Haynes: Seminoles Showed Pack, Rest of ACC the Way

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