Bowden has eye on perfection

Steve Guiremand

Monday, Jan. 3, 2000 | 10:19 a.m.

NEW ORLEANS -- He has won 303 games.

He has won a national championship.

His team has finished in the top four of the Associated Press poll an unprecedented 12 straight years.

But Florida State coach Bobby Bowden still comes in second best in the family when it comes to one statistic -- undefeated seasons.

Son Tommy went 12-0 last year at Tulane. Another son, ABC analyst Terry Bowden, did it a few years earlier at Auburn.

Dear old dad? He has to settle for a 12-1 mark and a national title in 1993 to go along with five other 11-1 campaigns since 1987.

Robert Cleckler Bowden gets once more chance at perfection on Tuesday night when his No. 1-rated Florida State Seminoles (11-0) face No. 2 Virginia Tech (11-0) in the 66th annual Nokia Sugar Bowl at the Superdome.

It's the third time in Bowden's 24 years in Tallahassee that he has taken an undefeated team into a bowl game. The previous two times -- 1979 against Oklahoma (24-7) and 1996 against Florida (52-20) -- the Seminoles lost.

"Terry and I have finished undefeated. You don't know what it's like to be the third-best coach in the family," Tommy Bowden, now the coach at Clemson, joked this week. "There's a lot of pressure on that man. You should see how our family vacations are."

It's the third time in the last four years and fourth time in the last seven years that the Seminoles have played for the national championship. Only once -- an 18-16 victory over Nebraska in the 1994 Orange Bowl -- has Florida State left with the Sears National Championship trophy.

All of which hasn't gone unnoticed by FSU's players.

"I don't want to be the answer to the trivia question 'What team in the '90s had the best teams and the best players but won only one national championship,' " Seminoles wide receiver Ron Dugans said Sunday.

"Coach (Bowden) wants to win very badly. I know the last few years have been tough on coach Bowden. He has had so many wide rights and wide lefts. I'm sure he still thinks about that."

Added linebacker Bobby Rhodes: "An undefeated national championship has not happened at Florida State. It would be a dream come true."

Even the normally reserved Bowden tipped his hand earlier this week.

"Being No. 1 from preseason to the end of the year would be special," he said.

To accomplish that feat, the Seminoles must find a way to strike midnight on this year's college football version of Cinderella, Virginia Tech.

The Hokies, led by redshirt freshman quarterback Michael Vick and All-American defensive end Corey Moore, cruised to their first undefeated and untied season since 1918 en route to the Big East Conference title. It's their first appearance in the national championship game.

"Virginia Tech is Cinderella," Bowden said. "They're the new kid on the block. We've been hanging around for awhile."

The 6-1, 212-pound Vick finished third in the Heisman Trophy balloting and was named Big East Offensive Player of the Year after leading Division I in passing efficiency (180.37). He also rushed for 585 yards on 108 carries (5.4 avg.) and scored eight touchdowns.

"Virginia Tech's single greatest threat is Vick," Bowden said. "He's like (Florida State's) Peter Warrick at wide receiver. When he escapes, it's illegal."

"We've got to contain him," Seminole linebacker Tommy Polley said. "If you don't, he can break a big play on you."

Florida State players feel confident that they can contain Vick. They point out to the fact that they have already faced and beaten two similiar scrambling quarterbacks this year in Georgia Tech's Joe Hamilton and North Carolina's Ron Curry.

"I think Joe Hamilton is the best of the three," Polley said. "He's 23 and been through the wars. Vick is only 19. He's only a freshman. He hasn't seen it all yet."

Hamilton put together a highlight film against the Seminoles in a 41-35 loss earlier this season, completing 22-of-25 passes for 387 yards and four touchdowns.

"Seeing Hamilton play against Florida State should give Michael some inspiration," Virginia Tech running back Shyrone Smith said. "(Hamilton's) speed and his ability to make plays on the run probably gave Florida State problems."

Virginia Tech's biggest nightmare figures to be trying to contain Warrick, arguably the most dangerous player in college football this year.

Despite missing two games due to suspension, Warrick still caught 71 passes for 934 yards (13.2 avg.) and eight touchdowns. He also rushed for three more touchdowns and averaged 12.6 yards on punt returns.

"He is one of the best, if not the best, receivers in the country," Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster said. "You have to get the right angles on him. You can't let him turn a little play into a big play. That's where he's so dangerous."

As for the theory that Virginia Tech has more motivation to win Tuesday night because it has never played for a national title, don't try telling that to Bowden.

"Everybody's saying that Virginia Tech's hungry and Florida State's not," Bowden said. "Forget that. People did not see these kids after the Fiesta Bowl (a 23-16 loss to Tennessee last year) crying and stomping the locker room floor. That's not fun. Don't fall for that hungry stuff. We're both hungry."

Especially Bobby Bowden.