The best era of football for every current ACC school

Florida State Seminoles: Bobby Bowden Era(1976-2009)

Without a doubt, this is the greatest era of Florida State football. Anybody would agree with that in a heartbeat and it made Tallahassee a consistently legitimate threat in the college football world. However, before I dive in I would like to acknowledge the Bill Peterson era through the mid-1960s. Peterson gave the Noles their first taste of success in football which included their first top 10 ranking and bowl win in 1964. Jimbo Fisher's time at Florida State from 2010 to 2017 brought the school back after a few mediocre years and he even led FSU to one of their three National Championships in 2013.

With that being said, Bobby Bowden and his squads remain the standard that all future Florida State coaches and players are compared to. In 1976, coming off of a successful tenure with West Virginia, Bowden became the head coach of the program that was considered dead to most. Florida State was coming off three straight losing seasons, including the worst season in program history, an 0-11 finish in 1973. Nobody was expecting Bowden to do what he did for the next 34 years. Bowden's time at Florida State includes two National Championships that were won in 1993 and 1999. He won 21 of the 31 bowl games he coached in. From 1982 to 1995, the Seminoles played in 14 consecutive bowl games without a loss.

After they joined the ACC in 1992, the Seminoles claimed twelve conference championships. Florida State ended 16 seasons ranked in the top 10. Two Heisman winners were produced in quarterbacks Charlie Ward(1993) and Chris Weinke(2000). Bowden also had plenty of other players in the final balloting such as Ron Simmons(1979), Greg Allen(1984), Deion Sanders(1988), Casey Weldon(1991), Marvin Jones(1992), Warrick Dunn(1995 & 1996), and Peter Warrick(1999).

With 24 Consensus All-Americans, along with four different Coach of the Year awards, what else is needed to justify that this is the best era Florida State has ever had? Other than those Coach of the Year awards, Bowden also ranks second in college football history in career games, career wins, bowl games, and bowl wins. During this run of 34 seasons, Florida State had a record of 315-98-4, with a .760 winning percentage.