Could 2011 be the Seminoles' Best Year Ever? Depends on Your Perspective

By Charlie Barnes, Executive Director - Seminole Boosters

The theme selected for this issue of Unconquered is "The Year in Review." Our fans aren't really looking back right now; they're much more excited about looking forward.

We're excited because the years to come may bring the best times ever for Seminole football. The best times ever. We'll talk about why in a little bit.

In looking back it's always useful to remember the importance of perspective. Let me give you an example. Do you remember - or have you ever heard of - the five game series in 1981 that Bobby Bowden christened the "Octoberfest?"

Our 1981 schedule was one of the most brutal ever faced by any college football team. The magnificent senior defense that took us to the Orange Bowl in 1980 was gone. The Seminoles returned only three starters on each side of the ball.

A long-departed Athletics Director had constructed the schedule ten years earlier. It was designed to bring in revenue, with little thought given to the fate of the players who would have to undertake the job.

In addition to the traditional rivalry games against Miami and Florida, the Seminoles would confront in one six-week span, five consecutive away games against Nebraska, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh and LSU.

Coach Bowden was candid about the fact that he had not intended to stay at Florida State more than a few years. "When I got here in 1976, I remember looking at that 1981 schedule and thinking, 'I wonder who's going to be coaching here then.'"

But Bowden was still here in 1981, and he prepared for the suicidal run by giving it a clever name, the Octoberfest, and used it to promote the image of Florida State as a team that would travel anywhere, anytime and play anyone.

Florida State's unofficial football historian Jimmy Joanos wrote that "the series of events of October, 1981 shocked the college football world." And so it did. After losing at Nebraska, the Seminoles travelled to Columbus where they defeated the 7th-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes. A week later in South Bend, FSU defeated Notre Dame.

A week after that the Tribe was in Pittsburgh to take on Dan Marino and the 13th-ranked Pitt Panthers. It was a loss but the 'Noles didn't have time to dwell on missed opportunities. They had to prepare for their final Octoberfest match against the LSU Tigers. FSU hammered the Tigers 38-14 on Homecoming night in Baton Rouge.

The Seminoles' record after eight games was an incredible 6-2. They had defeated three of the biggest names in college ball in a five game stretch. FSU was celebrated as America's college football "Road Warriors" in every television sports broadcast.

And that is the way we remember that iconic year of glory. Those heroic 1981 players and coaches deserve to be remembered that way. But that is not the end of the story. The three remaining games of the season were played in November, against Miami, Southern Mississippi and Florida.

The team was spent, emotionally and physically. We lost all three games. For all the triumphs of October, the Seminoles finished 1981 unranked. The Seminole team that had been national media darlings in October faded into obscurity by the end of November. It was one of only three years out of Bobby Bowden's thirty-four that the Seminoles did not get invited to a bowl game.

At the football awards banquet, quarterback Rick Stockstill addressed his team and the hundreds of Seminole fans who were there to support their players. Today, Stockstill is the championship Head Coach of the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders. In 2006 he was the Sunbelt Conference and ESPN.Com Coach of the year.

But on the night of that football banquet, Stockstill would not keep his emotions in check. He spoke for all the exhausted players and coaches. "I'm sorry," he said, his voice choked with tears. "I'm sorry for six-and-five."

Perspective.

Let's look back at the 2010 season, keeping perspective in mind. If you were inclined to gamble, how much of your net worth would you have lost if someone had come to you last August and offered you this bet: "I'll bet you that the 2010 Seminoles will lose three ACC games, BUT we will dominate both Miami and Florida and we will humble the SEC's best rushing defense in the most watched Chick-fil-A (Peach) Bowl in history." Would you have taken that bet?

And now our fans are exuberant. We are confident in Jimbo Fisher and his staff and our optimism is fired by their extraordinary recruiting success. Ten wins plus victories over old ghosts have fueled talk that a new Dynasty is underway.

But let's put 2010 into perspective of The Dynasty. That historic fourteen-year run may never be matched by any other college football team. Every Dynasty team won at least 10 games. Our 2010 team also won 10 games, but we played fourteen. None of the Dynasty teams played that many games in one season.

In 2010 we lost to three ACC opponents. There were only two ACC losses in total during the entire Dynasty run.

The Seminoles finished every season ranked in the nation's Top Four, with the exception of the Dynasty's final year when we finished ranked #5 after the 2000-01 Orange Bowl. For all their success and promise, our 2010 Seminoles finished #16 in one poll and #17 in the other. It is not displeasing that in both polls Florida fell into the ambiguous dustpan of "others receiving votes."

Placed into perspective, the original Dynasty looks even more impressive. That span from 1987-2000 was a wonderful ride, wind whipping through our hair. At that speed our fans only glimpsed the up-turned faces of less fortunate teams as we flew past. We complained that we were weary of a monotonous series of BCS bowl games in the same places. I mean, after all, how many more great meals can you consume in New Orleans? How many more good golf courses can you find in Phoenix? Miami again? Please; been there, done that.

We became jaded. We yawned. We groused about the idea of losing to any ACC team ("Well! That's not supposed to happen!"). Our fans didn't bother to show up early in New Orleans for the 1999 National Championship game. Tens of thousands of Seminoles stayed camped out in casino hotels along the Gulf coast. On game day, Virginia Tech fans were stunned to see an endless caravan of limousines curl down the ramps into the French Quarter, disgorging half a Super Dome full of loud and happy FSU Seminoles.

So if the Dynasty established a near impossible standard, then why would we think that the future of Seminole football is going to be even better than that? Why do we believe that the best times ever are coming?

One reason is that it's not the 1990s anymore and we are a larger, better, more mature fan base than we were. Another is that our football program is in sync with cultural and technological changes. Seminole fans stay connected with their program through Facebook, Twitter and Seminoles.Com and a wide range of fan websites none of which existed fifteen years ago. Our fan base is much more engaged now than in the past.

The Boosters and Athletic Department have created wonderful new initiatives. You say you can only come to three games this fall? We have a 3-game package that includes Oklahoma and two others, or Miami and two others. Visit Seminoles.Com.

A firm of stadium architects has been retained to make Doak more comfortable and fan-friendly. And you've heard about "College Town." That entire broad swath of old warehouses between the stadium and the civic center is being taken down to make way for a fabulous district of shops and restaurants, housing and entertainments and avenues for strolling with your family and friends.

One of the first things we must do and right away, is to reclaim Doak Campbell Stadium. Do you realize that through the 1990s our stadium averaged 102 percent of capacity in a given year? Do you remember when the Florida Gators did not win a game in Doak for nearly twenty years?

We fans have got to make winning in our stadium as close to a sure thing as possible. It used to be that way. In the last six or seven years, thousands upon thousands of season ticket holders have dropped their tickets. The economy is responsible for a large measure of that.

But Florida State graduates between 5,000 and 8,000 students every year. As we return to national prominence the ticket demand should be higher and the atmosphere more attractive for those game weekends. Young alumni and their families want to stay connected with the game day experience they so enjoyed as undergraduates.

We have a proven professional coaching staff and access to the best high school talent in America. We're a football school with passionate fans who insist on excellence. We're still a national TV fan-favorite. Our program is well funded and well led with integrity.

To have once had success and then lose it is painful. But while success is wonderful, it's not a very good teacher. We've learned the hard lessons, and those lessons will help make us great again.

We can be better, stronger even than we were.