Titleless Seminoles Are 2nd Best Again

MIAMI —  They’ve never won a national title, and they won’t win one this year. Many proclaim them the best team in America, but no trophy or championship rings accompany the compliment.

This season probably will end like too many others for the Florida State Seminoles. They’ll win a bowl game to finish 11-1, capping a campaign that would be a dream at most schools, but maddens Tallahassee fans intent on the bottom line, which reads:

No No. 1.

“It’s kind of like, ‘Ho-hum, here we go again,”’ Florida State coach Bobby Bowden said.

In the final month of the regular season, Florida State took out its frustration on Maryland, Tulane and Florida, winning by a combined 184-52. The Seminoles may be better than ever, but they’re still not national champs.

Wags say FSU stands for Finishes Second Usually, and second is where the Seminoles likely will wind up if they beat Nebraska in the Orange Bowl on New Year’s night. They’re ranked third now, poised to climb ahead of the Miami-Alabama loser in the Sugar Bowl’s national championship game.

Some say Miami, one win away from its fifth title in 10 years, has built the greatest dynasty ever. If not for five losses to the Hurricanes since 1987, the same might be said of Florida State.

The difference between the two programs?

“A kick,” Bowden said.

Florida State’s shot at the national championship has gone wide right each of the past two years. The Seminoles missed a field goal on the final play of consecutive losses to Miami--17-16 in 1991 and 19-16 this past October.

Those are two of Florida State’s nine losses since ’87. Take away one defeat each season--six were by a total of 17 points--and the Seminoles probably become five-time national champs.

Instead, they finished second in 1987, third in ’88 and ‘89, then fourth in ’90 and ’91.

“Maybe coach Bowden isn’t living right, or the players aren’t living right, or Tallahassee isn’t living right,” senior safety John Davis said. “What is it we’re not doing right to have a little luck fall on our side?”

Bowden, 63, may be the best coach never to finish No. 1 (Tom Osborne and Bo Schembechler deserve consideration, too). He ranks second to Joe Paterno in victories by an active coach with 226.

Such sustained success allows Bowden to sound upbeat even when discussing the difference between a dynasty and disappointment.

“I’m thrilled to be this close to a national championship, because I’ve been on the other end of the spectrum, where we could never even become a contender,” he said. “I’m optimistic enough to think that if we stay around the top, one of these days we’ll make it.”

Some of his players find the subject more difficult to talk about.

“I don’t really think there are words to describe the way the team and coaches feel,” Davis said. “Year after year we have come up short. It’s real heartbreaking. You get excited about everything, and it just crumbles. It’s hard to accept.”

If the Seminoles were the best team in the state, they’d be the best team in the nation. But they’ve lost seven of the past eight to Miami.

“I’m infatuated with the University of Miami,” Bowden said. “They’ve always made one more play than we did. If they’re the best, we surely have to be the second-best.”

Under a playoff system, Florida State might be on the verge of its sixth consecutive national championship. After all, Bowden is a postseason wiz--his Seminoles are undefeated in their past 10 bowl games.

“That’s one of the really tragic things about the present setup we have--the national championship is not determined on the field,” Nebraska’s Osborne said. “If it was, I have no doubt that at some time over the past 10 years, Florida State would have won it. When you vote for the national champion, sometimes the best team in the country at the end of the season may not have a chance to win it.”

On the other hand, the Seminoles probably would have the face Miami in a playoff. Maybe that’s why Bowden declines to lobby for one.

“I’ve got no problem with the fact we vote for a champion,” he said.

Even if it’s always someone else.