1988 Florida State Seminoles football team

The 1988 Florida State Seminoles football team represented Florida State University in the 1988 NCAA Division I-A football season. The team was coached by Bobby Bowden and played their home games at Doak Campbell Stadium.

1988 Florida State Seminoles football
Sugar Bowl champion
Sugar Bowl, W 13–7 vs. Auburn
Conference	Independent
Ranking
Coaches	No. 3
AP	No. 3
1988 record	11–1
Head coach	Bobby Bowden (13th season)
Offensive coordinator	Wayne McDuffie (6th season)
Defensive coordinator	Mickey Andrews (5th season)
Home stadium	Doak Campbell Stadium (Capacity: 60,519)

1988 NCAA Division I-A independents football records
	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 1 Notre Dame		–		–				12	–	0	–	0
No. 2 Miami (FL)		–		–				11	–	1	–	0
No. 3 Florida State		–		–				11	–	1	–	0
No. 5 West Virginia		–		–				11	–	1	–	0
Southern Miss		–		–				10	–	2	–	0
No. 13 Syracuse		–		–				10	–	2	–	0
Army		–		–				9	–	3	–	0
Louisville		–		–				8	–	3	–	0
South Carolina		–		–				8	–	4	–	0
Northern Illinois		–		–				7	–	4	–	0
Pittsburgh		–		–				6	–	5	–	0
Memphis State		–		–				6	–	5	–	0
Southwestern Louisiana		–		–				6	–	5	–	0
Rutgers		–		–				5	–	6	–	0
Akron		–		–				5	–	6	–	0
Penn State		–		–				5	–	6	–	0
Tulane		–		–				5	–	6	–	0
Louisiana Tech		–		–				4	–	7	–	0
Temple		–		–				4	–	7	–	0
Tulsa		–		–				4	–	7	–	0
Boston College		–		–				3	–	8	–	0
Cincinnati		–		–				3	–	8	–	0
East Carolina		–		–				3	–	8	–	0
Navy		–		–				3	–	8	–	0
Virginia Tech		–		–				3	–	8	–	0
Rankings from AP Poll

Defensive back Deion Sanders was a Heisman finalist, finishing in eighth place.

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 3	9:00 p.m.	at No. 6 Miami (FL)	No. 1	Orange Bowl Miami, FL (rivalry)	CBS	L 0–31	77,836
September 10	7:00 p.m.	Southern Miss	No. 10	Doak Campbell Stadium Tallahassee, FL		W 49–13	53,129
September 17	2:30 p.m.	at No. 3 Clemson	No. 10	Memorial Stadium Clemson, SC (rivalry)	CBS	W 24–21	85,576
September 24	4:00 p.m.	Michigan State	No. 9	Doak Campbell Stadium Tallahassee, FL	ESPN	W 30–7	61,757
October 1	8:00 p.m.	at Tulane	No. 6	Louisiana Superdome New Orleans, LA		W 48–28	34,364
October 8	2:00 p.m.	Georgia Southern	No. 6	Doak Campbell Stadium Tallahassee, FL		W 28–10	59,109
October 15	2:00 p.m.	East Carolina	No. 5	Doak Campbell Stadium Tallahassee, FL		W 45–21	56,391
October 22	2:00 p.m.	Louisiana Tech	No. 5	Doak Campbell Stadium Tallahassee, FL		W 66–3	51,703
November 5	8:00 p.m.	at No. 15 South Carolina	No. 5	Williams-Brice Stadium Columbia, SC	ESPN	W 59–0	75,000
November 12	7:00 p.m.	Virginia Tech	No. 5	Doak Campbell Stadium Tallahassee, FL		W 41–14	50,910
November 26	7:30 p.m.	Florida	No. 5	Doak Campbell Stadium Tallahassee, FL (rivalry)	ESPN	W 52–17	61,934
January 2	8:00 p.m.	vs. No. 7 Auburn	No. 4	Louisiana Superdome New Orleans, LA (Sugar Bowl)	ABC	W 13–7	75,098
Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game

[1]

Roster

1988 Florida State Seminoles football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class FB 22 Edgar Bennett So RB 31 Marion Butts Sr TB 13 Dexter Carter Jr QB 5 Chip Ferguson Sr QB 14 Brad Johnson Fr RB 33 Sammie Smith Jr QB 11 Casey Weldon  Fr QB 4 Peter Tom Willis Jr	Defense Pos. # Name Class DB 6 LeRoy Butler Jr DL 53 Odell Haggins Jr CB 2 Deion Sanders Sr DB 68 Johnny Downs Fr	Special teams Pos. # Name Class K 9 Richie Andrews So	Head coach Bobby Bowden Coordinators/assistant coaches Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt

Rankings

Further information: 1988 NCAA Division I-A football rankings

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking.
NR = Not ranked. RV = Received votes. т = Tied with team above or below. ( ) = First place votes.

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	Final
AP	1 (44)	1 (41)	10	10	9	6	6	5	7	6	5	5	5	5	4	4	3
Coaches	1 (37)	1 (37)	12	12	9	8	7	6	7	7	8 (1)	5 (1)	5 (1)	5 (1)	4 (1)	4 (1)	3 (1)

[2]

Game summaries

at Miami (FL)

Florida State at Miami (FL)

1 2 3 4 Total #1 Seminoles 0 0 0 0 0 • #6 Hurricanes 3 14 7 7 31 Date: September 3 Location: Orange Bowl, Miami Game attendance: 77,836 TV announcers (CBS Sports): Brent Musburger, Pat Haden, and John Dockery

Scoring summary 1 11:46 MIA Carlos Huerta 46-yard field goal MIA 3-0 2 14:27 MIA Cleveland Gary 2-yard run (Carlos Huerta kick) MIA 10-0 2 0:11 MIA Rob Chudzinski 19-yard pass from Steve Walsh (Carlos Huerta kick) MIA 17-0 3 8:54 MIA Leonard Conley 5-yard pass from Steve Walsh (Carlos Huerta kick) MIA 24-0 4 1:30 MIA Pee Wee Smith 17-yard pass from Craig Erickson (Carlos Huerta kick) MIA 31-0

See also: 1988 Miami Hurricanes football team and Florida State–Miami football rivalry

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
13–18	1987	L 25–26

[3][4]

Southern Miss

See also: Southern Miss Golden Eagles football

	1	2	3	4	Total
Southern Miss	0	10	0	3	13
Florida St	14	14	14	7	49

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
11–7–1	1987	W 61–10

at Clemson

Florida State at Clemson

1 2 3 4 Total • #10 Seminoles 0 7 14 3 24 #3 Tigers 7 7 0 7 21 Date: September 17 Location: Memorial Stadium Game attendance: 82,500

Scoring summary Q1 CLEM Cooper 61 yard pass from C. Davis (Seyle kick) CLEM 7–0 Q2 FSU D. Carter 40 yard pass from Ferguson (Andrews kick) Tie 7–7 Q2 CLEM R. Williams 7 yard run (Seyle kick) CLEM 14–7 Q3 FSU D. Sanders 76 yard punt return (Andrews kick) Tie 14–14 Q3 FSU D. Williams 1 yard run (Andrews kick) FSU 21–14 Q4 CLEM T. Johnson 19 yard run Tie 21–21 Q4 FSU Andrews 19 yard field goal FSU 24–21

See also: 1988 Clemson Tigers football team and Clemson–Florida State football rivalry

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
2–1	1976	L 12–15

[5]

Michigan State

Michigan State at Florida State

1 2 3 4 Total Spartans 0 0 7 0 7 • #9 Seminoles 7 6 0 17 30 Date: September 24 Location: Doak Campbell Stadium Game attendance: 61,757

See also: 1988 Michigan State Spartans football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
1–0	1987	W 31–3

at Tulane

	1	2	3	4	Total
Florida St	10	21	0	17	48
Tulane	0	14	7	7	28

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
5–0	1987	W 73–14

Georgia Southern

	1	2	3	4	Total
Georgia Southern	0	0	3	7	10
Florida St	7	0	0	21	28

East Carolina

	1	2	3	4	Total
East Carolina	0	14	0	7	21
Florida St	14	14	3	14	45

Louisiana Tech

	1	2	3	4	Total
Louisiana Tech	0	3	0	0	3
Florida St	28	7	17	14	66

at South Carolina

	1	2	3	4	Total
Florida St	14	17	14	14	59
South Carolina	0	0	0	0	0

Virginia Tech

	1	2	3	4	Total
Virginia Tech	0	7	0	7	14
Florida St	0	14	20	7	41

Florida

See also: 1988 Florida Gators football team and Florida–Florida State football rivalry

	1	2	3	4	Total
Florida	7	3	0	7	17
Florida St	21	3	21	7	52

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
7–22–1	1987	W 28–14

vs. Auburn (Sugar Bowl)

Florida State vs. Auburn

1 2 3 4 Total • #4 Seminoles 10 3 0 0 13 #7 Tigers 0 7 0 0 7 Date: January 2 Location: Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans Game attendance: 75,098 Game weather: Indoors TV announcers (ABC): Al Michaels, Frank Gifford, Dan Dierdorf

Main article: 1989 Sugar Bowl

See also: 1988 Auburn Tigers football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
2–12–1	1987	W 34–6

[6]

1989 NFL Draft

Main article: 1989 NFL Draft

Player	Position	Round	Pick	NFL club
Deion Sanders	Cornerback	1	5	Atlanta Falcons
Sammie Smith	Running back	1	9	Miami Dolphins
Pat Tomberlin	Guard	4	99	Indianapolis Colts
Marion Butts	Running back	7	183	San Diego Chargers
Victor Floyd	Running back	11	287	San Diego Chargers
Stan Shiver	Defensive back	12	310	Green Bay Packers

[7]

References

1. http://nolefan.org/summary/f1988.html
2. "Florida State 1988 AP Football Rankings". collegepollarchive.com. Retrieved August 26, 2018.
3. NoleFan.Org
4. "MIAMI CRUSHES FLORIDA STATE". Chicago Tribune. September 4, 1988. Retrieved November 23, 2019.
5. Gainesville Sun. 1988 Sep 18. Retrieved 2017-Aug-27.
6. "SUGAR BOWL: FLORIDA STATE 13, AUBURN 7 : In Prime Time, Sanders and Florida State Stop Auburn Short". Los Angeles Times. January 3, 1989. Retrieved November 23, 2019.
7. "1989 NFL Draft". Pro Football Reference. Retrieved November 23, 2019.