Once, not that long ago, the season opener between Florida State and Miami loomed as the biggest game of the 2004 college football season.
Then came Hurricane Charley, followed by Hurricane Frances. As the game’s four-day postponement attests, Floridians suddenly had far more critical matters to attend to than a football game, even one between fierce rivals.
While the game no longer may be quite as important as it once was, a sense of normalcy finally appears to have returned. As the fourth-ranked Seminoles prepare to face the fifth-ranked Hurricanes at 7 p.m. Friday at the Orange Bowl, there’s trash talk in the air.
“It’s a motivation that we’re ranked No. 5 right now,” Antrel Rolle, Miami’s All-America candidate at cornerback, said before the postponement.
“That’s a motivation because there’s no doubt in my mind that we’re the No. 1 team in the nation right now. Being that they have ranked Florida State above us, that’s just crazy. I think that that is going to take care of itself.”
Florida State receivers took exception to some of Rolle’s other comments too.
“He said no one caught a pass on him, period,” Florida State’s Chauncey Stovall said.
“Then he said Craphonso Thorpe doesn’t match up with him because he’s physical and Craphonso Thorpe is just speedy. We are here to change that and change his mentality.”
Not even two real-life hurricanes can change the intensity the Hurricanes and Seminoles feel toward each other. Or the stakes when the teams meet.
Because Miami has joined the Atlantic Coast Conference, this year’s Florida State-Miami matchup will affect more than the national title chase. The winner essentially holds a two-game lead over the loser in the ACC race, and another regular-season loss likely sends the loser to a non-Bowl Championship Series game once the regular season ends.
Pride and bragging rights enter the picture too. Miami has defeated Florida State five consecutive times, including twice last year, and Seminoles seniors could leave school having never beaten Miami.
“When I’m gone, done playing for the University of Miami, it will be a great thing to look back on and be like, `Wow, I’ve never lost to Florida State,'” Miami senior defensive tackle Santonio Thomas said.
Florida State senior cornerback Bryant McFadden said that while Florida State has “shown strides of doing things and accomplishing great things . . . we won’t be the dominating team that we need to be until we beat the Hurricanes.”
For the teams’ two senior quarterbacks, Florida State’s Chris Rix and Miami’s Brock Berlin, Friday’s game provides their best opportunity yet to prove their value. Rix is 0-4 in games he started against the Hurricanes, and he needs a victory to enhance his legacy. Berlin is looking to shed his erratic, inconsistent ways of last season and avoid a potential quarterback controversy.
“They both have a lot to prove, and they both are in a position now to do it,” Florida State coach Bobby Bowden said. “If they’re going to do it, it better be this year.”
The postponement has given Rix, Berlin and their teammates extra practice time to master the nuances of their game plans.
But that postponement also sent players from both teams through a roller coaster of emotions. The delay forced them to bottle up those emotions for four more days.
“It’s been somewhat of a disruption, but . . . those are things we’ve got to handle,” Miami coach Larry Coker said. “And I think the team that handles it best has got a great chance to be successful.
“Our team’s ready to play. It’s time to play.”
It’s time, in a sense, finally to focus on football.
