Garnet and Great

Scott Bentley remembers being in the zone the night of FSU's first national championship

By Bob Ferrante

Scott Bentley was considered one of the top kickers in the nation in 1993. And Florida State was in search of a kicker.

After Wide Right and Wide Right II, FSU coaches felt that Bentley was their man. So did a bunch of college coaches.

“The whole recruiting process was a learning experience and it opened my eyes to how much attention I was getting,” Bentley said. “The first day coaches could call me, I had my wisdom teeth out the day before. So I couldn’t really talk, but I think I had 40-50 coaches call me that first day.”

Bentley picked FSU. Before he even played a college game, he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated. The headline: Boom! And then continued with “Freshman kicker Scott Bentley gives No. 1 Florida State the winning edge.”

No pressure, kid.

Bentley made 13 of 20 field-goal attempts that season, a respectable percentage for a true freshman. And he delivered in the clutch, nailing 4 of 4 field goals in an 18-16 Orange Bowl win over Nebraska that sealed the 1993 national championship (relive it here).

“I kind of went with my heart,” Bentley said. “I felt like the need at Florida State was of importance. I wanted to play my freshman year, wanted to be on the best team in the land and certainly was able to do that.”

In the final installment in our series with key members of the '93 national championship team, here's our interview with Scott.

You grew up in Colorado. What prompted you to choose FSU?

Bentley: They put a high emphasis on getting a kicker. (Offensive coordinator) Brad Scott was probably the deciding factor. I really felt comfortable with him. And obviously Bobby Bowden. But Brad Scott really invested a lot of time. He was very genuine. He sold me and my family on Florida State and what they could offer me in the future.

How much pressure was there on you as a true freshman? It wasn’t like you could redshirt a season.

 

Derrick Brooks on the '93 national champs: "We were bigger than the teams of the past"

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.

Looking back on Mickey's D and FSU's first crystal trophy

Another in our series on the 20th anniversary of FSU's first national championship as the Noles prepare to win another one in January.

By Bob Ferrante

Mickey Andrews felt like Florida State was knocking on the door of something special in the early 1990s.

The program had been just a few points shy from an unbeaten season in 1991 and 1992. FSU lost to Miami on Wide Right in 1991 and the defense held Florida in check but the Gators won 14-9. And the following year, the only thing that kept FSU from being undefeated was Wide Right II against Miami.

“We felt like the team had gotten to the point where we could compete with anybody in the country,” said Andrews, FSU’s defensive coordinator from 1984-2009. "It was just a matter of being able to sustain it for an entire season."

“We were in the top 4 (to finish the season), we had a good football team. We played in some important ballgames throughout the season but especially beginning with that first ballgame when we went up to the Meadowlands (vs. Kansas) and really had a great performance up there. We felt like we were close but we hadn’t turned the corner and won one (a title).”

Andrews talks about the 1993 season in our look back at Florida State’s first championship season:

We have to begin with the goal-line stand at Kansas. How proud were you of the defense that day?

Andrews: The amazing thing about that goal line stand is, when we finally stopped them on the inch-line, I think it was like the 22nd play of that series. And it was so dadgum hot, it was like 120 degrees on the field. Our kids were just exhausted. But that’s kind of the way we trained and we practiced in the offseason. We really talked about finishing plays, finishing games, finishing was something we harped on all the time. We reinforced it in our practices.

The determination was just unbelievable. I don’t know that I’ve seen a defense to fight as hard as they did to keep them from scoring. For some reason, Kansas decided to go for it on fourth down, and we made the play and we stopped them.

We had a rule that you didn’t walk off the field. And it was amazing to see those guys struggling to get off the field. We had players on the sideline and coaches meet them and help get them off the field.

Nobody loves shutouts more than you. And Florida State had four that season.

Andrews: We were very good on defense that year. But we were equally good on offense. And that’s what you got to have if you are going to go all the way. And we had a great kicking game. It was a complete team. And it was fun to coach.

How frustrating was the Notre Dame loss? And how did the players regroup from it?

Andrews: When you really look at it and think about it, we didn’t play our very best ballgame up there. They played an exceptional ballgame. It was not a deal where we thought, ‘Well, it’s over.’ They had some more games to play. And so did we.

I don’t think the guys ever lost confidence. Sure it was disappointing and it took us out of No. 1, but this was a group that was not only very talented but they were very together. They were a great team. They challenged each other. 

The Orange Bowl against Nebraska was a great defensive contest. What are your memories of the national championship game?

Noles Celebrate in The Swamp: Postgame shots by Chris Holder

More Sideline Shots from the Swamp by Chris Holder

Gator gigging in G-ville: Sideline Shots by Chris Holder