The Florida State Seminoles football team represents Florida State University (variously Florida State or FSU) in the sport of American football. The Florida State Seminoles compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Atlantic Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The team is known for its storied history, distinctive helmet, fight song and colors as well as the many traditions associated with the school.
Florida State has won three national championships, eighteen conference titles and six division titles along with a playoff appearance. The Seminoles have achieved three undefeated seasons and finished ranked in the top four of the AP Poll for 14 straight years from 1987 through 2000. The 1999 team received votes from ESPN as one of the top teams in college football history.
The team has produced three Heisman Trophy winners: quarterbacks Charlie Ward in 1993, Chris Weinke in 2000 and Jameis Winston in 2013. The Biletnikoff Award, presented annually to the top receiver in college football, is named for Florida State hall of famer Fred Biletnikoff. Other awards won by Florida State players include the Walter Camp Award, the Maxwell Award, the Davey O'Brien Award, the Lombardi Award, the Dick Butkus Award, the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, the Lou Groza Award, the Dave Rimington Trophy and the Bobby Bowden Award. Florida State coaches have been honored with the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award, the Walter Camp Coach of the Year Award, the Home Depot Coach of the Year Award, the Broyles Award, and the Paul "Bear" Bryant Award. Many former Seminoles have gone on to have successful careers in the NFL.
The program has produced 218 All-Americans (45 consensus and 15 unanimous) and 250 professional players. Florida State has had six members inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, two members inducted into the College Football Coaches Hall of Fame and four members inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The Seminoles have the tenth-highest winning percentage among all college football programs in Division I FBS history with over 500 victories. Florida State has appeared in forty-six postseason bowl games and rank ninth nationally for bowl winning percentage and fourth for bowl wins. The Seminoles' archrivals are Florida, whom they meet annually in the last game of the regular season, and Miami; both games are considered among the greatest rivalries in college football. A rivalry with Clemson has developed and grown due to both teams competing yearly for the ACC Atlantic division.
The current head coach of the Seminoles is Jimbo Fisher, in his seventh year, and the team plays its home games at Doak Campbell Stadium, currently the 20th largest stadium in college football, and the 2nd largest stadium in the ACC, located on-campus in Tallahassee, Florida.
Overview
Florida State University joined the Atlantic Coast Conference in July 1991, and it is one of the fourteen current members of the ACC. Florida State is considered one of the teams that brought the conference to its pinnacle becoming the overall most successful program in the ACC. Since the ACC expanded from nine to twelve universities in 2005, and instituted divisional play in football, the Florida State Seminoles football team has competed in the ACC Atlantic Division.
Florida State plays an eight-game ACC football schedule. Six of these contests pit the Seminoles against the other members of the ACC Atlantic Division: Boston College, Clemson, Louisville, North Carolina State, Syracuse and Wake Forest. The conference schedule is filled out with an annual game against Miami and one additional foe from the ACC Coastal Division on a rotating basis between the other teams in the conference: Duke, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh. Throughout a rotation schedule, Florida State plays each coastal division team at least twice every six years with possible meetings in the championship game in between regular season meetings. Florida State will also play Notre Dame as a home-and-home twice every six years per a conference agreement.
Key conference rivalries include the inter-divisional Florida State-Miami rivalry game with their permanent ACC Coastal Division foe, Miami, the Florida Stateâ€"Clemson rivalry game which usually carries division implications, and the Florida State-Virginia game which is played on a rotating basis for the Jeffersonâ€"Eppes Trophy (this game was played on an annual basis until the ACC divided and the teams were placed in separate divisions).
In addition to the conference foes, the Seminoles face in-state rival Florida from the SEC at the end of the regular season. The two teams' emergence as perennial football powers in the 1980s and 1990s helped build the Floridaâ€"Florida State football rivalry into a game that has often held national title implications. Florida State remains the only team in the state of Florida to play both powers, Florida and Miami, every year.
The remaining dates on Florida State's regular season schedule are filled with various non-conference opponents that vary from year to year.
Doak S. Campbell Stadium
The Florida State Seminoles originally played their home games at Centennial Field until 1950. The Seminoles had an 8â€"4 record at Centennial, including two undefeated home records. The team currently play their home games at Doak Campbell Stadium, which has a capacity of 79,560. Florida State is 291â€"89â€"4 in 384 games played at Doak.
The stadium, named after former Florida State President Doak S. Campbell, hosted its first game against the Randolph-Macon College Yellowjackets on October 7, 1950 with the Seminoles winning the game 40â€"7. At that time the facility had a seating capacity of 15,000. Florida State first began play at Centennial Field during the team's inaugural 1947 season and would continue to play there for the following two years (1948 and 1949). Doak Campbell Stadium, with its original capacity of 15,000 in 1950, was built at a cost of $250,000. In 1954, the stadium grew to a capacity of 19,000. Six thousand more seats were added in 1961. During the Bill Peterson era (1960â€"70), the stadium was expanded to 40,500 seats, and it remained at that capacity for the next 14 years. Since that time, the stadium has expanded to almost 83,000, largely due to the success of the football team under head coach Bobby Bowden coupled with the ever-growing student body. It now is the second largest football stadium in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).
Aesthetically, a brick facade surrounding the stadium matches the architectural design of most of the buildings on the university's campus. In addition to the obvious recreational uses, The University Center surrounds the stadium and houses many of the university's offices as well as The College of Motion Picture Arts, The Dedman School of Hospitality, and The College of Social Work. The field was officially named Bobby Bowden field on November 20, 2004 as Florida State hosted intrastate rival Florida. Florida State has been recognized as having one of the best gameday atmospheres in the country, and Doak Campbell Stadium has been named one of the top stadiums in college sports.
Doak Campbell Stadium has been a great home field advantage for the Noles. Florida State is one of only three schools that can boast a decade home field unbeaten streak. The Seminoles never lost a home game from 1992â€"2001, a total of 54 games, and have completed twenty-three undefeated seasons at their home stadiums, including twenty-one at Doak Campbell.
The record crowd for the stadium is 84,409; set during a game against the Miami Hurricanes on November 2, 2013.
Head coaches
Florida State has had nine head coaches since organized football began in 1947. The team has played 751 games in their 66 seasons. In that time, six coaches have led the Seminoles in postseason bowl games: Don Veller, Tom Nugent, Bill Peterson, Larry Jones, Bobby Bowden, and Jimbo Fisher. Three of those coaches also won conference championships: Veller, Bowden, and Fisher. During his tenure, Bobby Bowden won two national championships with the Seminoles.
Bobby Bowden, who spent thirty-four years at Florida State, has been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. The current head coach is Jimbo Fisher, who was hired as offensive coordinator in January 2007 and promoted to head coach after Bowden's retirement. In December 2014, Florida State gave Coach Fisher an eight-year contract extension.
^ Bobby Bowden's record does not include 12 wins that were vacated that would otherwise make his record 316â€"97â€"4.
Polls
Florida State has ended their football season ranked 38 times in either the AP or Coaches Poll.
Top-10 finishes are colored ██
