RB Respect Month Vol. 3, Day Two: Fred Taylor and Florida deny Florida State a national title (1997)
Magic in The Swamp.
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Welcome to day two of Running Back Respect Month! Yesterday, We paid homage to one of the greatest RB duos of all-time in Minnesota's Marion Barber III and Laurence Maroney. Here's where we're at today, and how the rest of the month looks:
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Today: Fred Taylor vs. Florida State (1997)
RB Respect Month Vol. 3, Day Two: Fred Taylor vs. Florida State (1997)
As impactful as the Florida State-Miami rivalry was in shaping college football from the late-1980s through the early 2000s, Florida State-Florida was just as important from 1990-2000. In their 13 meetings during that span, the Gators and Noles were both ranked in the top ten in all 13, with at least one of them ranked in the top three in nine. The rivalry was great on its own, but nearly every matchup in the 90s having national championship stakes attached took it to the next level. Fittingly, one of them was actually for the national title!
Their 1996 meeting pit the 10-0, No. 1 Gators against the 11-0, No. 2 Seminoles in the final week of the regular season. A tight, 24-21 Noles win in Tallahassee vaulted FSU to the top spot, clinching their spot in the Sugar Bowl, which was the de-facto national championship game under the Bowl Alliance agreement between the major conferences. The only problem was they couldn't play the new No. 2 team in New Orleans. Second-ranked Arizona State –the only other undefeated team in the country– was contractually obligated as the Pac 10 Champion to play Big Ten Champion Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. That meant FSU's Sugar Bowl opponent was slated to be No. 3 Nebraska. All the back-to-back national champion Huskers had to do was beat 7-4 Texas in the inaugural Big 12 Championship. If you're of a certain age, you already know how that ended:
After all the dust on the field and in the binding contracts settled, Florida State's Sugar Bowl opponent ended up being the SEC Title Game winner......No. 3 Florida. As a certified 12-team College Football Playoff hater, even I can't pretend like every pre-playoff system wasn't also messy in its own way.
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Even though the Florida-Florida State rematch was No. 1 vs. No. 3, it became the true national title game when No. 2 Arizona State allowed an Ohio State TD with 20 seconds left for a devastating 20-17 Rose Bowl loss. The next night, Florida made the most of their second chance, destroying FSU 52-20 for the program's first national title. Junior RB Fred Taylor only had 60 yards on 18 carries, but did score to extend the Gators' early lead:
Ten months later, the two met again as top ten opponents, though Florida State was the only one with legitimate national title hopes. Losses to Georgia and LSU relegated Florida to playing spoiler against a 10-0 FSU squad with a 40-13 average margin of victory. The Noles were a juggernaut across the board, starting with a run defense built like a concrete wall:
In a game that's among the most dramatic in The Swamp's history, Florida somehow found a way to break through that defense and cost Florida State another potential national championship. Taylor was the main cog in the 32-29 win, running 22 times for 162 yards and four touchdowns - the last of which put the Gators up for good with 1:50 left.
His standout moment was an electric 61-yard TD in the third quarter:
