Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 28, 1993 TAG: 9308280111
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. LENGTH: Medium
A school-record 12 football victories would not be greeted with any wild celebrations at Florida State this season.
For one thing, the Seminoles plan to play 13 games, counting a 12th consecutive bowl trip. For another, this is a program that will accept nothing short of perfection.
"We've won 10 and 11 games before," Florida State fullback William Floyd said Friday. "We won't be happy till we get that elusive national championship."
The Seminoles, whose title hopes have sagged the last two years on missed field-goal attempts in the closing seconds against Miami, carry the No. 1 ranking into today's meeting with Kansas in the Kickoff Classic at Giants Stadium (noon, WSET Channel 13).
"The pressure comes from hoping you don't let anybody down," coach Bobby Bowden said, "but this is the third time we've been No. 1 in the preseason. We can relate to this."
Bowden reiterated Friday that he was not eager to play in the Kickoff Classic, but the Seminoles have been installed as 26-point favorites against Kansas, a preseason choice to finish fourth in the Big Eight Conference.
"When I first heard about the Kickoff Classic, I wanted to play Texas A & M," Florida State linebacker Derrick Brooks said. "Once I found out about Kansas, it was just another game as far as I was concerned."
Brooks, a first-team All-ACC selection as a sophomore, is the marquee name on a Seminoles defense that lost All-America linebacker Marvin Jones, the fourth player selected in the NFL draft after passing up his final season of eligibility.
"This defense looks to me to extend myself beyond my area of responsibility," said Brooks, whose 98 tackles ranked second behind Jones for the Seminoles last year.
"I want to get this game over with so we know what to expect from our defense. We don't know ourselves what we have yet. We know we are the weak link."
Keep in mind, the Seminoles led the ACC last year in total defense, rushing defense and pass-efficiency defense. Maryland was the only team to gain more than 400 yards against Florida State, and much of that was against the second team in a 69-21 Seminoles romp.
Many of those second-teamers are starters now, although there is plenty of talent on hand, not to mention speed. Brooks was named the nation's defensive player of the year by USA Today after his senior year at Washington High School in Pensacola, Fla.
"We never won a state championship in high school and that was one of the incentives for going to Florida State," Brooks said.
"When I turned down Coach [Dennis] Erickson [at Miami], he said, `Our players know what it feels like to win a national championship.' I said, `I want to be there when Florida State learns what it feels like.' "
Brooks wouldn't say if his career will be unsuccessful if Florida State doesn't win a national championship. However, the Seminoles aren't hiding from the challenge and have printed T-shirts that read, "One Thing Left."
The biggest obstacles appear to be a home date with Miami, which has won seven of the last eight games with the Seminoles, and a Nov. 13 trip to Notre Dame that already has Bowden fretting about the possibility of snow.
Nobody seems too concerned about ACC opposition. The Seminoles went 8-0 last year against a conference schedule that included four 1991 bowl teams on the road, and all those teams come to Tallahassee, Fla., this year.
"We've talked among ourselves about which [Florida State] team is going to be the first team to lose in the ACC," Brooks said. "It wasn't the cakewalk I thought it was going to be last year.
"The most irritating thing to me was all the rules they have in the ACC. We were always signing forms, and I kept thinking, `If we were an independent, they wouldn't be nagging us this way.' "
In Brooks' mind, the Seminoles accepted the Kickoff Classic invitation to help offset all the money they now have to share with the ACC. Bowden had another theory.
Bowden estimated that 90 to 95 percent of the Florida State players had not been to the New York metropolitan area before this week, although quarterback Charlie Ward may return in several months for the Heisman Trophy ceremonies.
The Kickoff Classic will be televised nationally by ABC, which should give ample exposure to Ward and the Seminoles' "Fast Break" offense that also features 1992 ACC Rookie of the Year Tamarick Vanover at wide receiver.
"We've got a passer, catchers, runners," Bowden said. "We've got the type of offense, if we get enough at-bats, it's going over the fence."
by CNB