10 Days Until FSU Football: FSU Wins 10 Games in 24 Different Seasons

There are 10 days left until Florida State football starts the 2018 season. As part of the offseason, we’re highlighting players, games, and specific moments from FSU football history.

On Thursday, it was Florida State’s NCAA record 11 consecutive bowl wins from 1985 until 1995.

Today, it’s a look at the 10-win seasons in school history. Florida State has hit that plateau 24 times.

Through 30 seasons of football, it was a feat that the Seminoles never accomplished. FSU did manage to go a perfect 8-0 in 1950 and went 9-1-1 in 1964, which was the first season it would finish ranked. In the second season under head coach Bobby Bowden however, that would all change.

After a 5-6 campaign in 1976, Bowden’s 1977 FSU team completed its first 10-win season with a 40-17 thrashing of Texas Tech in the Tangerine Bowl. After an 8-3 finish in 1978, the Seminoles finished 11-1 in 1979 and 10-2 in 1980.

It would be seven years later before Florida State accomplished the feat again. In 1987, FSU capped an 11-1 season with a 31-28 Fiesta Bowl win over Nebraska to finish No. 2 in the country. It would begin a streak of 14 straight top-5 finishes from 1987-2000 in which the Seminoles won at least 10 games every year. Over that span, FSU would claim a pair of national championships.

Peter Warrick’s 59-yard punt return for a touchdown against Virginia Tech in the 2000 Sugar Bowl gave FSU a 46-29 lead. (Bill Frakes /Sports Illustrated/Getty Images)

Over the final nine years of the Bowden era from 2001-09, the Seminoles managed to reach the 10-win mark just once. FSU finished 10-3 in 2003 and ranked No. 11 in the final AP Poll.

Bowden’s successor Jimbo Fisher would return the Seminoles to double-digits in the win column when he took over the program in 2010 by going 10-4. In eight years as head coach, Fisher reached the 10-win plateau six times. That includes a perfect 14-0 season in 2013 when FSU claimed its third national championship.

Over the last 41 years, the Seminoles have won at least 10 games more often than not or 59 percent of the time. New head coach Willie Taggart will have large shoes to fill, but Taggart seems eager for the challenge.

Mike Ferguson is the editor of The Daily Nole. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson