Photo provided by Garnet and Great/FSU archive collection
We are now 89 days away from the start of Florida State football for 2018. As part of the offseason, we’re doing a countdown that highlights players, games, and specific moments from Florida State football history.
On Tuesday, we looked back at the decade of dominance for FSU known as the 1990s. With 89 days until the opener against Virginia Tech, we remember a performance from an all-time FSU great to open the 1989 calendar year.
The 1988 season started out as a disaster for the Seminoles. They were awarded a No. 1 ranking in the preseason polls, only to get shut out 31-0 by the rival Miami Hurricanes in the opener. The demoralizing loss dropped them all the way to No. 10, causing many to write off the Seminoles as serious national contenders.
Florida State then embarked on 10 straight victories, including two top-25 opponents in Clemson and South Carolina. It rose all the way back up to No. 5 in the nation and was rewarded with a Sugar Bowl match-up against the No. 7 Auburn Tigers on Jan. 2, 1989.
Observers expected a defensive grudge match between the two squads. Auburn’s unit allowed 10 or less points in 10 different regular season contests, while the similarly impressive FSU defense was loaded with talent. Familiar names included Deion Sanders, Odell Haggins, Kelvin Smith, and Stan Shiver.
Sanders was by far the most recognizable of the bunch, considering his national accolades and punt return heroics against Clemson earlier in the season. The 1989 Sugar Bowl was the last game that “Primetime” would ever play for Florida State.
Defensive grudge match is probably an understatement for what occurred. Just two touchdowns were scored in the entire game, with both coming in the first half. Besides a decent game from FSU running back Sammie Smith, both teams were relying on their defenses to do the heavy lifting.
Auburn got the ball back down 13-7 late in the fourth quarter. The Tigers began a methodical drive from their own 4-yard line, which included two fourth down conversions through the air. They made it all the way to the FSU 22-yard line with 12 seconds left — enough time for at least one more pass into the end zone.
On third down, quarterback Reggie Slack surveyed the field, looking for any receiver with space for a catch. He saw Lawyer Tillman coming across the middle of the field with just enough separation for a tight throw. Watch the embedded video and see how it looked like slack was going to the thread-the-needle for a score.
What Slack forgot is that Deion Sanders closes separation in the blink of an eye. In his final play as a Seminole, Sanders did it one more time, jumping in front of the ball and intercepting to seal the win. Primetime then (unsurprisingly) walked by the Auburn bench to say a few words about his spectacular play.
Sanders finished his FSU career with 17 interceptions, including three in bowl games. As far as a fitting end to a career goes, Sanders in the 1989 Sugar Bowl is the textbook example.
His big-play ability and knack for showing up in clutch moments had its roots in Tallahassee. Sanders would spend 14 years in the NFL and make eight Pro Bowls before being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011.
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