When FSU loses, it's just part of the game

By Charlie Barnes, Executive Director - Seminole Boosters

After General Picket's magnificent brigade failed to carry the heights from which General Hancock's cannon were blazing, Confederate survivors staggered back to their own lines followed by cruel taunts of "Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg!" from the victorious Union troops above them on the ridge.

Fredericksburg had been a bitter defeat for these Union soldiers only months before at the hands of this same Confederate Army. Paybacks, as they say, are hell.

I thought about all this as the clock ticked down its final few seconds at Doak Campbell Stadium last Saturday and 12,000 South Florida Bulls fans and their band serenaded our demoralized Seminoles by singing "Hey, heeey baby. I want to know...if you'll be my girl?"

That is what we do. That is the nature of things when we humans are in conflict, whether in sports or in the more violent arenas. That's why we teach sportsmanship, to try and offset our natural inclinations to rub the other guy's nose in it.

If college football fans weren't passionate there would be no fun, no magnificent stadiums, no televised games, and no money to fund all the other sports. Passion is vulnerable to heartbreak, and heartbreak is as familiar a part of the emotional mix as triumph.

Yes, USF stuck it to our team and to our fans. But USF has long labored under the sting of dismissive gestures from our Seminole fans as well as Gators and Hurricanes who glance their way just long enough to sniff that the Bulls are not worthy. Bulls fans ached for respect much as our own fans did so many years ago. Well, now on a hot afternoon in Tallahassee they certainly made their point. Winning makes all the sore muscles feel better, makes all the hurt feelings disappear.

Our Seminole and Gator forerunners, Florida State College and Florida Agricultural College played against each other in the early 1900s, but the modern era began for the University of Florida in 1905 and for Florida State in 1947.

In the modern era, the Gators never wanted to play us and we chaffed under the disrespect. Florida finally scheduled a game with FSU in 1958. We tied in 1961 and when we beat them two years later in only the 18th year of our football program the Gators had already, been playing for six decades. Now, in 2009, USF has beaten us in the 12th season of their football program, and we have been playing for sixty-two years.

After four games we still have no more idea about how this season will finally turn out than we did in August. So far, we have seen things that have thrilled us and things that scare us to death. There is a lot of room for speculation between the triumphal dispatch of BYU in Provo and our bewildering performance against South Florida at home.

But, FSU has been at this game for a long time now. There will be better days for our Seminoles. And winning does make all the bad things go away.