When the college football season began back in late August, many fans reasonably dreamed about this Saturday’s contest between Florida State and No. 10 Notre Dame. The Seminoles had come off an undefeated regular season and entered the year ranked in Notre Dame’s current position. The Irish came in ranked three spots ahead of Florida State. Add in a primetime Nov. 9 date, huge playoff implications and the prospects of a College Gameday appearance, and the hype was all there.
Forget that. At this point, it looks as if Florida State will end up the worst team Notre Dame plays at home this season. The Seminoles enter South Bend at 1-8 and on a five-game losing skid. They have been dreadful, hence their 25.5-point underdog status for Saturday’s game.
Barring a major letdown from the Irish, we don’t have much to look forward to in terms of competitiveness here. But at least there’s a historical significance to this matchup. Here’s a look back at the 11-game history of the Florida State-Notre Dame series.
Series overview
Notre Dame and Florida State first met in South Bend on October 10, 1981, when the Seminoles won by a 19-13 score. Since then, the Irish and Seminoles have met 10 more times, with Florida State holding a narrow lead of 6-5 in the overall series. They’ve faced off in two postseason contests, the 1996 Orange Bowl and the 2011 Champs Sports Bowl. Florida State won both games. Notre Dame has been the better team as of late, having won all three matchups with the Seminoles since 2018.
Combined, Florida State and Notre Dame have produced 14 claimed national titles, 17 unclaimed national championships, 10 Heisman winners and 154 consensus All-Americans.
Greatest games: 1993 and 2002
If creatures from another planet were to visit The Observer and ask what this “college football” thing is all about, I would show them the scenes of Nov. 13, 1993. This day pitted No. 1 Florida State and No. 2 Notre Dame, two unbeaten squads, against one another in the “Game of the Century.”
It all started with the first on-the-scene episode of ”College Gameday”, which set up shop inside the Joyce Center lobby. NBC also aired a lengthy intro for the game that captured the quest of young football players to partake in games like the one held in South Bend on Nov. 13.
The buildup? Unheard of. The game itself didn’t disappoint, either. Notre Dame jumped out to a sizable lead early on the shoulders of a 100-yard rushing effort from Lee Becton. The Irish would carry a 31-17 advantage into the fourth quarter, but Florida State and soon-to-be Heisman quarterback Charlie Ward weren’t done yet. The Seminoles engineered a scoring drive to move within seven points, stopped the Irish on three plays and earned one last chance to reach the end zone and stay alive. With three seconds left, Florida State snapped the ball from the 14-yard line and threw to the goal line, but Shawn Wooden batted the pass down, winning the game 31-24 for Notre Dame.
For the sake of our Notre Dame-supporting readers, we won’t talk about what happened a week later. We will, however, talk about 2002.
In that season, Notre Dame went down to Tallahassee at 7-0 and ranked No. 6 in the country. No. 11 Florida State, however, entered the game as the favorite by a double-digit point total. In terms of yardage, the Seminoles outdid the Irish by a 418-301 margin, but four Florida State turnovers and 11 Seminole penalties put Notre Dame in position to snatch a victory. The Irish did exactly that, winning 34-24 to enter November at 8-0.
Unfortunately for the Irish, the season fizzled out into a 10-3 record, setting up for an ugly 2003. During that year, Florida State went back into South Bend and pummeled Notre Dame with a 37-0 shutout.
Greatest games: 2014 and 2021
In 2014, a year after Florida State’s national championship, the No. 5 Irish and No. 2 Seminoles met on the biggest stage we’ve seen them on together since 1993. The mid-October scenes at Doak Campbell Stadium were remarkable. Osceola planting the spear at midfield. The Tomahawk Chop raining down from a crowd of 82,431. Brian Kelly and the Irish waiting impatiently in an air-tight visitors’ tunnel rivaled only by that of Notre Dame Stadium.
Notre Dame certainly appeared unfazed by the environment to start, finding the end zone later in the first quarter to go up 7-0. The Seminoles wouldn’t take long to answer, and the game would remain close all night. Reigning Heisman winner Jameis Winston and Notre Dame’s Everett Golson put on a quality show of quarterback play, battling to a stunning finish. It happened with 13 seconds left, when the Irish trailed by four and hit Corey Robinson for a 2-yard touchdown to seemingly win the game. The officials, however, ruled that Will Fuller used an illegal pick play to free up the scorer. Backed up to fourth and goal from the 18, Golson threw an interception that sealed Florida State’s 31-27 victory.
Seven years later, Notre Dame would return to Tallahassee and begin the 2021 season on a Sunday night in Florida State’s house. Excitement abounded for both the ninth-ranked Irish, who had made the College Football Playoff a year earlier, and the Seminoles, ready to snap their rebuild in Mike Norvell’s second season.
Barely more than two minutes into the game, Notre Dame set the tone with a 42-yard passing touchdown from debuting quarterback Jack Coan to star tight end Michael Mayer on fourth down. Notre Dame would eventually pull away to a 38-20 lead in the fourth quarter, only for Florida State to rally furiously. Riding the feel-good story of backup quarterback McKenzie Milton, who entered the game after suffering a tragic leg injury at UCF two years earlier, the Seminoles scored 18 points in less than 14 minutes to force overtime.
To start overtime, Florida State would miss its 37-yard field goal, leaving Notre Dame a shot to win the game by simply scoring points. The Irish would get it done, escaping Tallahassee and a 41-yard make by Jonathan Doerer. After the game, Kelly spoke with ABC’s Katie George on the field and hilariously butchered John McKay’s line about favoring his team’s execution.
“I’m in favor of execution,” Kelly said with a straight face. “Maybe our entire team needs to be executed after tonight.”
Florida State most recently visited South Bend in 2018 and 2020. Notre Dame reached the College Football Playoff in both of those seasons, hanging 42 points on the Seminoles in both games. This weekend, the Irish hope to follow a similar blueprint — blow out Florida State and, eventually, make the 12-team playoff.
