Sunshine State showcase

Glory days return to the state of Florida this weekend

Posted: Friday September 17, 1999 11:22 AM

After some lean years brought about by NCAA sanctions, Miami is again a team to be reckond with. Jamie Squire/Allsport

By John Donovan, CNN/SI

In the heydey of college football in the state of Florida, every fall Saturday was a huge Saturday. The state's Big Three -- Florida, Florida State and Miami -- were all terrors to be reckoned with, all national champions in waiting.

Bobby Bowden, the down-home coach of Florida State's football team, didn't worry about winning a national championship back then. With both Florida and Miami on his schedule, he had enough trouble simply winning the state.

That heydey, in all its hard-hitting, trash-talking, chest-thumping glory, returns this weekend.

"Miami and Penn State is mighty big. Florida and Tennessee is mighty big," Bowden said this week. "And us and North Carolina State is big.

"I would betcha there's never been one [a weekend of college football in Florida] any bigger than this."

Saturday, five of the nation's Top 10 teams play in the Sunshine State in a day that could radically alter the polls and this season's national title picture. It's a college football dream Saturday, highlighted by the best blood feud in the Southeastern Conference: Defending national champion Tennessee, ranked No. 2 in the nation, against high-powered and fourth-ranked Florida at The Swamp in Gainesville.

But Saturday is way more than that. It's the resurgent Miami Hurricanes, ranked No. 8 now, hosting No. 3 Penn State at the Orange Bowl that night. And it's Bowden's top-ranked Florida State team hosting No. 20 North Carolina State in Tallahassee that afternoon.

Whoa Nellie, indeed.

Since the late 1980s, Florida teams have all but ruled college football. Then-powerhouse Miami won national titles in 1987, '89 and '91. Florida State won in '93. Florida won in 1996. Since '90, a team from the state has played for the national title eight times.

At least two of the Big Three Florida schools have finished in the Top 10 every year since 1987.

In the past five years, both Florida and Florida State have had chances to win the national championship. In fact, they played each other in 1996 for the title in the Sugar Bowl. Miami, on the other hand, plummeted into mediocrity following some NCAA sanctions handed down in 1995.

After some lean years rebuilding, though, the Hurricanes are back and Saturday get a chance to prove it against Penn State, Sports Illustrated's preseason No. 1 pick.

The Nittany Lions' marquee player, linebacker LaVar Arrington, actually considered playing at Miami at one time.

"Miami always had a style of their own," Arrington said. "A lot of teams around the country tried to imitate and emulate them, even though they wouldn't admit it.''

Florida State, which has finished in the Top 4 every year for the past 12 years, faces a North Carolina State team that shocked FSU last year in Raleigh. Luckily for FSU, the loss came early in the season and didn't prevent the Seminoles from playing for the national championship against Tennessee in the Fiesta Bowl.

Luckily for FSU, the North Carolina State game this year is in Tallahassee, where the Seminoles are 51-1-1 in the '90s. That one loss, by the way, is to Miami. The tie was with Florida.

Florida has won 29 straight at their home, which may give the Gators a slight edge against the Volunteers of Tennessee. The Tennessee-Florida game has become one of college football's best, from the pre-game trash-talking to the thrillers on the field.

Last year, the Volunteers broke a five-game losing streak to Florida with a 20-17 overtime win in Knoxville. This year, though, as the Gators are quick to point out, the Vols are in The Swamp.

"The game will decide the season, it will decide where everyone stands," said Florida wide receiver Darrell Jackson. "It will decide how good we are, it will decide how good they are."

That's about as nice as any player on either side was this week.

"I don't know what it is about Florida," Tennessee defensive back Deon Grant said. "I just don't like Florida, period. Florida is not my style."

Said Florida defensive end Thaddeus Bullard: "We don't like them, and we're going to go out there and try to embarrass them."

Well, well, well.

Maybe no one knows how hard it is to play in Florida better than Bowden, in his 24th year at Florida State. The Seminoles play both Florida and Miami every year, and it has often come back to burn them. Miami has beaten FSU three times since 1987 to keep the Seminoles from going undefeated. Florida has done it twice.

It's a feeling that many teams have had to endure. And it's one that teams like Penn State and Tennessee, with title aspirations of their own, want to avoid this weekend.

"You got a state with a big population, a lot of great high schools -- a lot of big high schools -- and the competition is good. Then, of course, you have the weather and all that, everything that is conducive to an athlete getting out there and running and jumping," Bowden said. "If we get the best [players from Florida] -- and I'm talking about Miami, Florida and Florida State -- then we're all going to have a chance to have a good ballclubs. And Miami and Florida are about as good as any of them."

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