By Bob Ferrante
The 1993 season began with plenty of anticipation and excitement at Florida State. A preseason No. 1, the Seminoles opened up against Kansas in a kickoff classic game at East Rutherford, N.J.
And the season certainly started off on the right foot on Aug. 28. Yes, FSU ran for 248 yards and had four touchdowns. And Charlie Ward had a good day in passing for 194 yards en route to a 42-0 win.
But what you remember about that day — or the clips you’ve seen on YouTube — are from the goal-line stand that FSU had.
Twelve times, Kansas snapped the ball inside FSU’s 10-yard line. And 12 times, after a number of penalties went against FSU, the Seminoles came up with stop after stop.
It was an exhausting performance for the ages — coaches had to help a number of defensive players to the sideline as temperatures on the turf field were well above 100 degrees.
But this was also a goal-line stand that set the stage for how the defense would perform in 1993 — four shutouts in total and the Miami Hurricanes were held to just 10 points.
Former FSU linebacker Derrick Brooks reflects on the opener against Kansas and the 1993 season in another in our series looking back on the Seminoles’ first national title.
Did you feel going into the 1993 season that it would be a special one?
BROOKS: We definitely felt that. The offense had figured out what was its strengths with Charlie at quarterback. Defensively we were the young kids coming up that were more athletic, smaller, quicker. We were now the leaders of the team. The coaches felt good about the defense that year.
That summer, really, I believe, we came together as a team because we all stayed in Tallahassee and worked out. It was about 80 percent of the football team. When you saw that type of commitment, we really felt good about our team. The one hiccup you knew we had to overcome was Miami, we had them at our place and we felt that all the arrows pointed for us to go wire-to-wire as national champions.
What did that goal-line stand mean not just to beat Kansas but for the defense the rest of the season?
BROOKS: That goal line stand represented a lot for our football team. That was our mental attitude. We wanted to kill a mosquito with an axe. That’s the analogy of not letting Kansas score. Clearly the game was a blowout, but we felt the message had to be sent. We were striving for attention defensively because our offense was the poster child. They were getting all the praise.
Defensively we were a little jealous. We wanted to show that we were just as good if not better than our offense. That was the internal competition that goes on within a team. We wanted to show our mental makeup that we were not the Florida State of all those years past that was just satisfied with just winning. We wanted to dominate. That’s what the goal-line stance was all about. Finishing, dominating.
FSU had four shutouts that year (Kansas, Clemson, Georgia Tech and Wake Forest). Nobody loved to get a shutout more than DC Mickey Andrews.
BROOKS: It meant a lot. Coach Andrews, his attitude -- we ran more when we gave up 7 or less than if we gave up 21. We’d come that close and we should have finished. To stop the offenses that we were going against for four quarters and leading the nation in scoring defense, those things were important. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about – being one point better than your opponent.
What are your memories from the 28-10 win over Miami, finally beating the Hurricanes after the missed field goals in 1991 and ’92?
BROOKS: Miami, was it special? Heck, yeah. From a defensive standpoint, Devin Bush scoring a defensive touchdown. All of those things meant something big. We had the makeup of a championship. That’s what the Miami game meant to us. At the same time we went from being a little bit confident to walking that borderline of cockiness. That’s the other side of beating Miami that we let ourselves get exposed to, we got humbled at Notre Dame.
How did you rebound from Notre Dame loss?
BROOKS: We were not going to let small things distract us. We were bigger than the teams of the past. We were stronger than them mentally. Whereas losing a game like that, then you lose another game like to Florida. We were different and we showed that we were different.
After the letdown, obviously Boston College pulling out that win (over Notre Dame) gave us momentum. We all drove from Thomasville (where the team stayed the night before home games) to run up to our dorms, the whole team actually saw the end of the game before we went down to the locker room to take on N.C. State. It was all that type of momentum. N.C. State, no matter who you put in front of us, they had no chance. They really didn’t. You could have probably brought in an NFL team. They had no chance. You just saw all of our talents come to play.
What about the win at Florida to close out the regular season?
BROOKS: I think you saw the depth of our team at Florida. You saw Warrick Dunn, being a freshman, making plays for us. You saw Tamarick Vanover, another young guy, making plays for us. A lot of young guys stepped up and made plays for us at critical times. It showed that resolve of what we developed that summer. Staying there training. Reaching down and grabbing hold of something that no other team had.
The Orange Bowl game was a defensive one. Nobody could get much going on offense that day. What was the game like for you?
BROOKS: We always felt at some point in the year we were going to have to win defensively. We were going to have to do something to carry our team. And that’s basically what the national championship game was. Us stepping up as a defense when our offense got grounded. In the past, no offense and I was on two of those teams, we were not able to overcome that if our offense struggled. Defensively we had playmakers and we were able to overcome it.
We never bought into the point spread. We knew it was going to be a tough game. We knew we weren’t going to blow this game out. The score, coming down to a final kick, that didn’t surprise us as players. Coaches did a good job preparing us for that.
What was the locker room like afterwards?
BROOKS: Coach Bowden after the game, he finally felt like something was lifted off his shoulders, his back. He seemed like there was a look of relief. That’s the look I saw. To know that we were part of his first national championship and you were on that team, obviously means what it means today.
When I look back 20 years I appreciate it now more than I did at the time because I really understand what it meant.
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