A look back: The best Florida State football games of this decade
It's the end of the decade in a few days.
And what that means, of course, is that it's time for yours truly to come up with a list or two about what we watched over the last 10 years.
It was truly a decade like no other in Florida State history. There was a new head coach for the first time in 34 years, a rise to greatness, a Heisman Trophy, a national championship, and a slide back toward mediocrity that became an avalanche when that head coach left for the dusty tundra of College Station.
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We lived through it all. And now we can look back at the rolliest of roller-coaster decades with my ranking of the Top 10 FSU games from 2010 to 2019 (Spoiler alert: There isn't one game from 2019 on the list!).
10. FSU 49, N.C. State 17 -- Oct. 26, 2013
This might seem like an odd one to include, but I have my reasons.
First and foremost, I think it's a great illustration of how dominant this team was. They had a number of huge blowout wins in 2013, but I think this was the best representation of how FSU completely obliterated its opponents. Plus, it marked Bobby Bowden's return to Doak Campbell Stadium, too. So that was cool.
What always struck me about this game, and I wrote about it then, was how impressive it was for the Seminoles to come back one week after crushing Clemson on national television (more on that game later) and completely hammer an out-manned team. You could've excused them for maybe going through the motions a bit, or being bored, or not taking the Wolfpack seriously. Instead, they were up 35-0 less than 13 minutes into the game. Just an all-time great team playing at its absolute peak. Also, pretty good retribution for the 17-16 nightmare loss from the year before.
9. Florida State 33, Michigan 32 -- Dec. 30, 2016
This was, in a way, the end of an era for Florida State. It was the last time the Seminoles beat anyone worth a flip. It had high drama, it had Noonie, it had Dalvin, it had Keith Gavin making a play (!!) and it did NOT, I repeat it did NOT, have Jabrill Peppers. The Michigan star didn't play in that contest, which the announcers chose to mention every time there was a stoppage in play. Sometimes even when the play was still happening.
"Cook breaks loose. Look out! There's no Peppers in the secondary to tackle him."
"Deep ball to Murray, where is Jabril Peppers? That's right, he's on the sideline. Touchdown Florida State."
"Gavin hesitates. But he's still going to bring it out. Because he knows Peppers isn't on kickoff coverage."
You get the point.
At any rate, it was a fun game. A great win. Against a good team. A year later, Jimbo would be in Texas, Taggart would be in charge, and the program that won the Orange Bowl in 2016 was in deep trouble.
8. Florida State 31, Northern Illinois 10 -- Jan. 1, 2013
I will always love this game. Because everything about Northern Illinois bothered me. From their "Heisman candidate" predicting FSU's defense would be on its knees in the fourth quarter, to the way their fans (at least the ones I saw) interacted with FSU fans before the game, to one of their administrators complaining to a national reporter about an Orange Bowl rep (of which there are hundreds) saying Northern Illinois didn't belong. That Orange Bowl rep should get credit for at least being right.
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Florida State out-gained the Huskies 534-259. Jordan Lynch was terrible. He was a Wednesday night, nothing-else-is-on-TV-MACtion-created Heisman candidate who soiled himself when he finally faced a good defense. He was 15 of 41 in the game. Vince Williams (god bless him) called him "sorry" afterward. He wasn't wrong.
And when the Northern Illinois head coach, after the game, said Lynch was misquoted (he wasn't) on the "knees" comment while chastising the reporter who asked the question, I relished even more the 21-point win over that flash-in-the-pan program.
7. Florida State 29, Miami 24 -- Oct. 10, 2015
Dalvin Cook.
I had to have a game in here that was just solely about Dalvin Cook. So this is the one. A week earlier, he had pulled his hamstring against Wake Forest. I didn't think there was a chance in Hades he could play seven days later.
Instead, he went out and rushed for 222 yards and had 269 yards of total offense and three touchdowns in the win. It was the last time I was wrong. About anything.
It's laughable that Cook was never even a Heisman finalist (unlike the great Jordan Lynch!), and games like this are the reason why. Everett Golson was the quarterback. Miami was actually decent. And yet Cook, on one good hamstring, still carried the Seminoles to victory. That night, he should've proved to everyone watching that he wasn't just one of the best running backs in the country, but he was one of the best running backs in college football history. Truly a special, special talent.
6. Florida State 49, Clemson 37 -- Sept. 22, 2012
Just an all-time great game. Clemson got ahead 28-14 in the third quarter. And then E.J. Manuel, in what was easily the best performance of his career, led an offensive onslaught over the final two quarters. He finished with 380 yards passing, 102 yards rushing and two touchdowns as the Seminoles stormed back to take control of the Atlantic Division race.
Two things I'll always remember about that game: Chris Thompson's final TD run. It was just a blur, and the explosion of noise in Doak Campbell Stadium was seismic. And Nick Waisome (I used to love talking to that guy!) making a critical interception in the second half. Those two plays will always stand out.
5. Florida State 45, Miami 17 -- Oct. 9, 2010
Hey, speaking of Chris Thompson: You know you've made a team quit when your backup running back breaks off an 80-yard TD run in the fourth quarter, but it's called back because of holding. So you call the exact same play again, with the same guy, and he busts a 90-yard TD run.
This was the beginning of the turn for Florida State under Jimbo Fisher. Coming into the game, the Seminoles were underdogs. They had played only one ranked team so far that season and had gotten pummeled in Norman by Bob Stoops' team (what is Bob up to these days, anyway?).
Miami was ranked No. 13. Hurricane fans were saying, "The U is back." And, well, I mean they keep saying that every year, but back then they actually believed it. Anyway, Fisher's team went down there and completely destroyed them, setting off a run of seven straight victories over the former power from Coral Gables.
No. 4. Florida State 42, Louisville 31 -- Oct. 30, 2014
This one is on the list to basically represent all of the games FSU played that year. Seemingly every week that season, the Seminoles found themselves trailing by multiple scores. Then, behind Jameis Winston, they would somehow come back to win, ripping hearts out all across the nation of fans (and media members) who desperately wanted to see them lose.
Louisville was up 21-0 in this one. Louisville had 10 draft picks on that team. Louisville was pretty darn good. At home. On a Thursday night.
Didn't matter.
Winston and the Seminoles stormed back. Jameis threw for 401 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions (in other words: a typical Bucs game). One of the touchdowns was a what-in-the-world-just-happened TD pass to Ermon Lane in the middle of the field. And the go-ahead score came from a freshman tailback named Dalvin.
I didn't look back to see for sure, but I'm confident Florida State dropped in the College Football Playoff rankings after this win. Because what's impressive about coming back from 21 down on the road, against a good team, to remain undefeated? Oh, that's right. It wasn't against an SEC team. So the comeback didn't count (rant over).
3. Florida State 31, Florida 7 -- Nov. 27, 2010
The Miami game was a positive start to the turnaround. This helped seal it. Not only did FSU end its long losing streak against the Gators, but the beating was so thorough that Urban Meyer quit a few days later. FSU assistant coach Eddie Gran even said as much to Fisher when Meyer elected to punt down by 24 points in the fourth quarter. "You made him quit," is what Gran could be seen saying to Jimbo on the TV broadcast.
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That win cemented FSU as the best team in the state. And it's no small coincidence that the Seminoles then landed the No. 1 recruiting class in the country a couple of months later. That class would be the backbone of the Seminoles' 2013 national championship team.
It was also essentially the last game of Christian Ponder's career. He didn't play in the ACC Championship Game the following week, and then he got hurt in the first half of the bowl game against South Carolina. So his last full game as the FSU starter was a 24-point win over the arch rivals from Gainesville. On Senior Day. Not a bad way to go out.
2. Florida State 51, Clemson 14 -- Oct. 19, 2013
Maybe the best single game an FSU team has ever played -- when you consider the opponent, the atmosphere and the pregame hype. It was truly an unforgettable night for the Seminoles' football program. We had an inkling that team was special the week before when they handled a solid Maryland team by 63 points (turns out the Terrapins weren't much of a problem that afternoon). But to then go on the road and dominate a Top 5 team like that? The beatdown let the rest of the country know that not only was FSU's freshman QB for real, but the whole team was a juggernaut.
Favorite moment from that game: The Nick O'Leary truck show. Go back and watch the video on YouTube and listen to William Floyd's reaction. He almost convulses he's so excited.
Second favorite moment: Rashad Greene housing that short pass in the second quarter. I haven't mentioned him on this list until now, but you best believe that dude was a part of some of the all-time great wins in FSU history. And it was cool getting to see him showcase his talent on a stage like that. He also had a huge game against the Tigers in 2014 as well (an overtime win that just missed making this list).
1. Florida State 34, Auburn 31 -- Jan. 6, 2014
Not much needs to be written about this one. An all-time great bowl game. Won by an all-time great team.
What makes this win so special, in my mind, isn't just that it captured the program's third national title. It showed that the Seminoles had some serious resiliency as well. All year long, they had been so good, so incredibly dominant, that they were never really close to losing. Starters rarely played in the fourth quarter. During one ACC blowout, some of the defensive backs were actually sitting on the bench, playing a game of Hangman on a grease board.
That's what that season was like.
So to get challenged like that, to get down 21-3 to the SEC champions, to be on the ropes and seemingly on the verge of getting knocked out ... well, it takes a special kind of team to come back and win anyway.
Good teams win when they play well. Great teams win when they don't.
And that 2013 Florida State team was just about the greatest in the history of college football.
Contact senior writer Corey Clark at corey@warchant.com and follow @Corey_Clark on Twitter.
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