Florida State Football: Top 15 players in program history
15. Sam Cowart III
Sam Cowart played his high school football at Mandarin High School in Jacksonville, FL where he was an honorable mention member of the USA Today All-American team in 1992. He signed for the 1993 season and was a reserve linebacker on the 1993 National Championship team logging 31 tackles and a sack as a true freshman.
Cowart led the ‘Noles in tackles two of four seasons in garnet and gold. He finished his senior season with 116 tackles after a knee injury and a number change to No. 1. He also made six All-America lists after the 1997 season.
It’s a wonder how FSU didn’t win a national title in 1997 with all of the defensive talent we’ll cover in this article. Before leaving Tallahassee, Cowart also won the ACC’s Brian Piccolo Award for the conference’s most courageous player.
The Buffalo Bills drafted Cowart in the second round of the 1998 NFL Draft. Cowart played in the NFL through the 2006 season, playing for the Bills for four seasons before moving on to the Jets and Vikings to end his career. Over his extensive NFL career, Cowart was an All Pro in 2000 and logged 715 career tackles and 12.5 sacks.