FanNation - The Republic of Sport

August 28th 1999…Louisiana Tech @ FSU

Yes you read that correctly. It was the first game of the 1999-2000 season and it was the first game in FSU’s record setting year. That was the year that FSU went wire-to-wire as the #1 ranked team in the country. The first team to do so.  So as you can gather, FSU is ranked #1.

The atmosphere was great. The atmosphere at Doak is always great for the Seminole faithful. As I said earlier, this was the first game of the season. The long anticipated start of the new college football season. La. Tech had about 1,000 or so fans stationed on the visitors side at about the 20 yard line. There were of course other La. Tech fans spread out amongst the crowd but that section stood out! 

1^st Quarter:
-Anquan Boldin (switched to WR from QB three weeks before the game) catches a 4-yard pass from Chris Weinke with 5 seconds left in the quarter. (0-7)  Most people who don't follow recruiting (which I was one at that time) were wondering who in the hell this kid was!

2^nd Quarter:
-With 7 minutes left in the quarter, Tim Rattay hit John Simon from 13 yards out to tie the game at 7! Surprising! Talk about a quiet stadium! (7-7)
-With 39 seconds left, Peter Warrick births “The Run” as I like to call it. The best college play I have ever seen with my very own eyes in person! He made many guys miss and cruised into the endzone for a 20-yard rush. This run is iterally burned into my memory! (7-14)
From a USA Today article: “Warrick’s 20-yard touchdown run that capped the ensuing 95-yard, seven-play drive should stand up as one of the top plays of the season in college football. On an end-around, Warrick started left, broke a tackle, bobbled the ball while breaking a second tackle, cut right, brezzed through two more defenders and cruised into the end zone for a 14-7 lead 39 seconds before the half.” 

Halftime:
Thanks to Warrick’s late score, FSU had a 14-7 lead at the break. With the teams in the locker rooms, you could hear a faint sound coming from the La. Tech fans section which looked like a blueberry in a strawberry patch! I listened hard and as the noise grew you could clearly hear a chant of “OVER-RATED” followed by five claps, over and over again. Remember FSU was ranked #1 in the country while La. Tech couldn’t even sniff the polls from their position. It got louder and louder! It was hard to imagine the number of decibels coming from that section. It really got my blood boiling! How dare they chant such garbage at my beloved #1 ranked Seminoles! But in my head I knew…I knew that FSU would come out a whole new team in the 2nd half. During that era, FSU was a second half team! Plain and simple! They typically came out of that locker room even more pumped and ready to play than they did before the game! I knew that the La. Tech faithful would soon be quieted and I would have the last laugh! 

3^rd Quarter:
-5 minutes into the quarter William McCray runs for a 1-yard score. The La. Tech section gets a little quieter. (7-21)
-4 minutes later, Sebastian Janikowski hits from 49 yards out. Not bad for his second field goal attempt of the season…he missed a 48-yard attempt earlier. (7-24)
-1 minute later, Boldin snags a 29-yard pass from Weinke. Gosh that blueberry is awfully quiet! Who the hell is Anquan Boldin!? Just the future OROY in the NFL. (7-31)

4^th Quarter:
-1 minute into the quarter, Linebacker Theon Rackley intercepts Rattay for a 10-yard return and score. (7-38)
-The game was capped off by a 23-yard field goal by Janikowski 7 minutes into the quarter. The blueberry looks like it got smaller! (7-41) 

Florida State wins the game 41-7, and guess who had the last laugh? Over-what? A very exciting game to watch and indeed the best game that I have ever attended. Mix in Anquan’s debut with Warrick’s run, La. Tech’s blueberry, the second half blowout, the fact that it was the first game in a record setting season and a National Championship and a Heisman Trophy Winner…you got my vote!