Entering the 1993 season, the FSU football team had known all too well what it was like to play the role of bridesmaid. In the previous 46 seasons the Seminoles had taken the field, the garnet and gold had finished seven times before ranked in the top five of the AP poll – including second place finishes in 1987 and 1992.
For head coach Bobby Bowden, the monkey was starting to get heavier on his back as being the big name coach who at the time didn’t have a national crown. An argument could be made that if not for a few missed kicks, he could have had several crowns entering this season.