62 Days Until FSU Football: Bill Peterson Wins 62 Games as FSU Head Coach

There are now 62 days until Florida State football takes the field for the 2018 season. As part of the offseason, we’re doing a countdown that highlights players, games, and specific moments from FSU football history.

On Monday, it was the 1963 FSU team that pulled off a stunning upset of the Miami Hurricanes.

Today, it’s former FSU head coach Bill Peterson winning 62 games during his time at the program.

It’s an interesting reality that one of Florida State’s most important coaches doesn’t get nearly the recognition that men like Bobby Bowden and Jimbo Fisher do. A couple of obvious reasons include the fact that Peterson never won a national title, and his last season at FSU was almost 50 years ago. Yet when looking at the history of the program and college football in general, there is a legitimate argument to be made that Bill Peterson was more influential than either Bowden or Fisher.

We start with the obvious fact: before Peterson, FSU football was a low-level program. The only major success was a 3-year stretch from 1948 to 1950 under Don Veller, but that was achieved by playing teams in the Dixie Conference. Other than that small stretch, FSU had gone to just two bowls and had never finished the season ranked in 13 years.

Peterson spent 11 seasons in Tallahassee and totally revamped Florida State’s image. He took the Seminoles to four bowl games and finished in the top 15 of the polls in three different seasons.

He was also responsible for the program’s first victory over the the Florida Gators, as well as the first significant bowl victory in the 1964 Gator Bowl over Oklahoma. Peterson was the first FSU coach to recruit black football players. The Seminoles became a legitimately feared opponent for major programs in the top conferences.

Florida assistant Gene Ellenson and Peterson “fight” over the Governor’s Cup after a 3-3 score following their annual match-up in Gainesville in 1961. (Florida Archives)

Yet, what he did for FSU football pales in comparison to what he did for college football at large. Peterson achieved success with a revolutionary passing offense that would become standard in the years following his stint at Florida State. Most teams of the era were still utilizing offensive strategies dominated by running and option plays.

Peterson opted to exploit the forward pass, leading to high-scoring FSU squads that allowed receivers like Fred Biletnikoff and Ron Sellers to rack up incredible numbers. He also came up with the idea of a “hot receiver” that countered blitzes, which is now standard in almost every team’s playbook.

Peterson was not solely responsible for the forward pass dominating football. But his results proved that it could be done by established programs and smaller ones alike.

Even more impressive than the offensive innovations is Peterson’s coaching tree. We discussed this partly in a previous article, but it bears repeating: Peterson might have one of the best coaching trees in football history.

His hires at FSU include Bill Parcells (2-time Super Bowl champion), Don James (1991 national champion), Joe Gibbs (3-time Super Bowl champion), and Bobby Bowden (2-time national champion). That’s an absurd hit rate on coaching hires.

So Peterson’s overall record might be just a decent 62-42-11. But without Peterson, there may be no modern FSU football, and the sport as we know it might be a lot different.