FSU heartbroken: Richt, UM win
Hurricanes’ late rally should have Seminoles’ fans celebrating rebirth of their in-state rivalry
TALLAHASSEE — Don’t be sad, Florida State fans. Be happy. Don’t be deflated. Be elated. You never want your team to lose a big game, but in the grand scheme and the big picture, FSU fans should actually embrace Saturday’s heart-stopping, gutwrenching, nail-biting 24-20 loss to the Miami Hurricanes.
Embrace it because — hallelujah! — it means this oncegreat rivalry has been re-ignited after years of laying dormant. Embrace it because it means the ’Canes are back after seven straight seasons of losing to the Seminoles in every way imaginable. Embrace it for your old buddy — classy Miami head coach Mark Richt, the former FSU offensive coordinator who helped Bobby Bowden build his dynastic championship program at FSU in the 1990s.
“It’s crazy!” Richt said after Malik Rosier threw a 23-yard touchdown pass to Darrell Langham with six seconds left to clinch the victory. “It’s crazy, but it’s a rivalry again.”
The fact is, Richt and his pro-
gram needed this a million times more than the Seminoles did. The ’Canes, after all, were 0-for-Jimbo, never having beaten FSU head coach Jimbo Fisher in the series. An eighth straight FSU victory on Saturday and my lead to this column would have been, “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today with broken hearts and tear-stained eyes to mourn the death of a once-proud rivalry.”
If Miami had lost this year, the rivalry would have been deader than disco. If the ’Canes couldn’t beat the Seminoles at FSU’s lowest point in decades, it was never going to happen. This is an FSU team that started out 0-2 for the first time in more than 30 years and nearly started 0-3 before scoring a game-winning touchdown against Wake Forest last week with 51 seconds left.
The ’Canes came into the game unbeaten, playing with confidence and with a healthy roster. The ’Noles came into the game with a losing record, a banged-up offensive line and teetering confidence. This was a must win for Richt and the Hurricanes; it was just another loss in a lost season for the Seminoles.
Sadly, FSU’s season is, for all intents and purposes,
over. The Seminoles had hoped to compete for the national championship, but now you wonder if they will even be bowl-eligible. They are 1-3 overall and 0-2 at home for the first time since 1974 — two years before Bowden arrived.
Even in this downtrodden state, the Seminoles, to paraphrase the great Dylan Thomas, did not go gentle into that good night on Saturday. In fact, they raged, raged against the dying of the streak.
They raged with true freshman running back Cam Akers gashing the ’Canes for 121 yards on 20 carries.
They raged with true freshman quarterback James Blackman, rallying from an abysmal first half, to throw two fourth-quarter touchdowns, including a 20-yarder to Auden Tate to give the Seminoles a 20-17 lead with 1:24 left.
They raged until the final six seconds of the game when Rosier threw the winning pass to Langham, who fell into the end zone for the game-winner.
“There’s no reason to hang our heads,” Fisher said. “That was a great game. A classic game.”
Classic might be overstating it a bit considering it came on the 30-year anniversary of a true classic that most experts agree kickstarted this great rivalry. It was Oct. 1, 1987, when thirdranked Miami beat fourthranked FSU, 26-25 after a gutsy Bowden chose to go for the two-point conversion instead of kicking for a tie at the end of the game.
The conversion failed and Jimmy Johnson’s undefeated Hurricanes would go on to win the national title. The Seminoles would finish with one loss by one point and finish No. 2 in the country.
In all, 63 players on those two teams would go on to make NFL rosters. It was an amazing display of talent, showmanship and theater on national television, and signified the beginning of the golden age of Sunshine State football.
Now fast forward 30 years to Saturday’s game, which was symbolic in its own way.
Oct. 1, 1987, will go down as the historic day the FSUMiami rivalry was born.
Oct. 7, 2017, will go down as the euphoric day that the rivalry escaped death. mbianchi@ orlandosentinel.com Follow Mike on Twitter @BianchiWrites or listen to the Open Mike radio show every weekday from 6 to 9 a.m. on FM 96.9 and AM 740