The Florida State Seminoles football team, known traditionally as the Florida State University Seminoles, represents Florida State University (variously Florida State or FSU) in the sport of American football. The Florida State Seminoles compete in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Atlantic Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).
Florida State has won two national championships (1993 and 1999) and finished in the top five of the AP Poll for 14 straight years from 1987 through 2000. The team has produced two Heisman Trophy winners: quarterback Charlie Ward in 1993 and quarterback Chris Weinke in 2000. The Florida State Seminoles have featured 35 players that have garnered consensus selection to the College Football All-America Team. Longtime Head Coach Bobby Bowden retired following the Seminoles' win in the 2010 Gator Bowl. The Noles have won two national championships and thirteen ACC titles in the 66-season history of their varsity football program.
Florida State officially began competing in intercollegiate football in 1947. They gained success during the 1980s and 1990s. The Seminoles joined the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1992 after competing for many years as an independent program. In its short history, the team has been honored with many awards. Florida State has won or shared a total of sixteen conference titles (including thirteen ACC titles, as well as the title of inaugural champions of the ACC Championship Game), four Atlantic Division titles, three ACC championship game berths resulting in two wins, two national championships (including one BCS National Championship), five title games, and many bowl appearances as well as notable wins along with two Heisman winners, thirty-five consensus All-American players, many all-conference team selections including All-ACC player and All-ACC academics, multiple MVPs and Rhodes Scholar athletes along with other academic honors. Florida State coaches have been honored with the Coach of the Year (both conference and national) honor several times while players have received the honor of Player of the Year. Florida State athletes and coaches have also been nominated for and won many other awards. Multiple players and coaches have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Florida State players have had success in the NFL Draft with several being first round picks, and former Seminoles have gone on to have successful careers in the NFL, winning the Rookie of the Year award with some being elected into the NFL Hall of Fame. FSU has also completed two undefeated seasons in its storied history.
The team is known for its distinctive helmet, fight song and colors as well as the many traditions associated with the school.
Despite the relatively short history of its football program, Florida State has been ranked in the AP Poll the seventeenth most times out of all college programs since the inception of the poll in 1936. The Seminoles also finished in the poll more times than any other school during the 90s, and is considered by the Associated Press as one of the greatest football teams of all time.
Through the end of the 2011 season, the Florida State Seminoles have the tenth-highest winning percentage among all college football programs in Division I FBS history (.6641), and have compiled 473 victories despite only having been in existence since 1947. The Seminoles have appeared in forty-one postseason bowl games and ranking ninth nationally for bowl winning percentage. Florida State's archrival is in-state foe Florida. The Seminoles and Gators meet annually in the last game of the regular season, considered one of the biggest rivalries in all of college football. Florida State has a rivalry with their other in-state foe and conference rival Miami. The Seminoles also maintain rivalries with ACC foes Clemson and Virginia. Florida State has developed lesser rivalries with other teams over time.
The current head coach of the Seminoles is Jimbo Fisher, in his third year, and the team plays its home games on Bobby Bowden Field at Doak Campbell Stadium, currently the 16th largest stadium in college football, the 30th largest non-racing stadium, and the largest stadium in the ACC, located on-campus at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida.
Read more about Florida State Seminoles Football: Overview, History, Historical Ranking, Notable Moments, Stadium, Current Coaching Staff, Head Coaches, Undefeated Seasons, Rivalries, Traditions, Mascot, Atlantic Coast Conference Awards, Uniform, Seminoles in The NFL, Famous Alumni, Future Non-conference Opponents
Famous quotes containing the words florida, state and/or football:
“In Florida consider the flamingo,
Its color passion but its neck a question.”
—Robert Penn Warren (1905–1989)
“One usually dies because one is alone, or because one has got into something over one’s head. One often dies because one does not have the right alliances, because one is not given support. In Sicily the Mafia kills the servants of the State that the State has not been able to protect.”
—Giovanni Falcone (1939–1992)
“People stress the violence. That’s the smallest part of it. Football is brutal only from a distance. In the middle of it there’s a calm, a tranquility. The players accept pain. There’s a sense of order even at the end of a running play with bodies stewn everywhere. When the systems interlock, there’s a satisfaction to the game that can’t be duplicated. There’s a harmony.”
—Don Delillo (b. 1926)