Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 27, 1993 TAG: 9307270064
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LAKE LANIER ISLANDS, GA. LENGTH: Medium
As long as the Seminoles remain a serious contender for the national championship, the ACC title chase will have to be secondary.
"If we can't win that other one - if we can't win the big one [the national championship] - then, by God, it's nice to win any championship," Bowden said. "Remember, we were also the Orange Bowl champions."
After going undefeated in the ACC last year against a schedule that included four 1991 bowl teams on the road, the Seminoles were selected first on all 41 ballots cast Monday by the media.
North Carolina was a narrow choice for second place over Clemson, coming off its first losing season since 1976. North Carolina State, under new coach Mike O'Cain, was chosen fourth.
Georgia Tech was next, followed by Virginia, which dropped from third in the 1992 preseason poll to sixth this year. The Cavaliers were followed by opening-game opponent Maryland, Wake Forest and Duke.
"We were nearly had twice last year in our own conference," said Bowden, referring to fourth-quarter comebacks in victories over Clemson (24-20) and Georgia Tech (29-24).
"Two of them we were just beat and pulled them out. After we won the Georgia Tech game, for the first time I had the feeling that Miami must feel when they beat us."
The Hurricanes have won seven of the past eight games between the teams, including Florida State's first loss in each of the past two seasons. Missed field goals cost the Seminoles in both games.
Many publications have selected Florida State as the preseason No. 1 team in the country, although the Seminoles must play Miami, Notre Dame and Florida out of conference - the latter two on the road.
The Seminoles open the college football season Aug. 28, when they meet Kansas in the Kickoff Classic at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. It is a game Bowden did not embrace enthusiastically.
"I wasn't [opposed]," Bowden said. "My approach to those [preseason games] has always been, `If you can make enough money, take it. If you don't make any money, let's not go.'
"We don't need a 13th game just to have a 13th game. If our primary goal was to win the national championship, we wouldn't play Kansas. It's hard enough to win 12 [games] without trying to win 13."
So, obviously, Bowden's primary goal is not to win the national championship.
"I'm glad it ain't," he said with a chuckle. "They'd be getting another coach, probably. But the fact we're going to make some money on [the Kickoff Classic], we didn't have any other choice."
For the record, Florida State's primary goal is not to win the ACC championship.
"If the president of every school in the United States said, `Hey, you better win the national championship, baby, or else you're gone,' then there wouldn't be many coaches around," Bowden said.
"I think the primary focus of our program is to have a clean, winning program that will glorify the university. By golly, that don't mean the football coach or players don't want to win a national championship as much as anything else."
If the primary goal was to win a national championship, Bowden said, he might not have jumped at scheduling Notre Dame when the Fighting Irish and Miami broke off their series.
"That was done before we got into the conference," Bowden said. "If we had known we were getting into the ACC, we might have gone a different year. [But] I would love to have Notre Dame on our schedule every year.
"When I came to Florida State, our schedule was built on money games away from home, but that's probably what put us on the map - beating some of those teams some of the time.
"Ten games on our schedule are set every year with Florida and Miami [outside the ACC]. If you want to win a national championship, you got to schedule the dang thing. There's no doubt about it, we haven't scheduled a national championship."
by CNB