FSU Football's Most Memorable Bowl Wins: No. 2

FSU football is heading back to another bowl game – here’s a look at the one of the more memorable postseason games in program history.

On January 2nd, 1950, the Florida State Seminoles made program history in just their third season of play. FSU football traveled from Tallahassee to Tampa to take on the Wofford Terriers in the Cigar Bowl – the first time the ‘Noles had been selected to play in a postseason bowl game since the program started.

This season, the Seminoles will take part in their 46th all-time bowl game when they play in the (bowl game) against the (opponent). It will be another in the list of memorable postseason contests for FSU football – a list that has taken the team everywhere from Miami to San Francisco and Atlanta to Dallas and points all over the place.

But, which bowl games have truly been the best ever for the Seminoles? Here’s a look at another memorable moment in the postseason for Florida State.

No. 2 – 2014 BCS National Championship Game (Florida State 34 Auburn 31)

Entering the 2013 season, the Florida State Seminoles were expected to compete for the ACC, but some wondered how much the team could do while starting a redshirt freshman at quarterback named Jameis Winston. 13 games later, the ‘Noles were unbeaten, conference champs again, Winston was the Heisman Trophy winner and the ‘Noles were playing for a national championship.

If the first half of the game could have gone any worse for the Seminoles, I’m not sure what they would have looked like. After scoring first on a field goal by Roberto Aguayo, the Tigers answered back with 21 straight points and looked like a team that was ready to make it eight straight titles for the SEC. Then, in maybe the gutsiest call of his career, head coach Jimbo Fisher called for a fake punt that Karlos Williams ran for a first down. Devonta Freeman would score and FSU football had some momentum entering the half.

A touchdown from Winston to Chad Abram that cut the deficit to one – then, after an Auburn field goal, Kermit Whitfield returned the ensuing kickoff 102 yards and the Seminoles had the lead again. Auburn would retake the lead with a touchdown with just 79 seconds left in the game.

With 80 yards to go and trailing by four, Winston engineered a drive where he completed six of seven passes – including a 49 yarder to Rashad Greene to put them inside the red zone – to give the ‘Noles hope. After penalties on each team that put the ball on the two-yard line with under 20 seconds to play, Winston found Kelvin Benjamin on a jump ball over the middle and the Seminoles were national champs for the third time.

When the history books are written, the 2013 Florida State Seminoles football team will go down as one of the best in the history of the sport. Ranked top five in both offense and defense when the season was done, 21 of the 24 starters would play in the pros. They were part of the best winning streak in program history and won by an average of 39 points a game that season.