Garnet & Great

From year one of the program til the early 60s, Florida State never had a pure passer. Even Lee Corso, best-known of the early signal-callers, ran for twice as many yards as he passed. Then Bill Peterson installed an NFL-style offense to compete against an increasingly tougher schedule of big time opponents. To pilot his aerial circus he chose Steve Tensi, a lanky kid from Ohio with a howitzer for an arm. Tensi connected—both on the field and off—with a sure- handed receiver named Fred ...

It was late 1973 and FSU Football was 0 - 11. Fans were either unhappy or apathetic. The program was in shambles and Larry Jones resigned as coach. What's more, the deck was stacked against whoever replaced him.Enter Darrell Mudra, fresh off rebuilding programs at Arizona and Western Illinois. Now if he could just work that same magic in Tallahassee...Sorry, he wasn't the savior FSU was looking for. But Mudra paved the way by leaving the program better than he found it. Taking bab...

Arguably the most impressive win of the pre-Bowden era was actually a tie. The year was 1967 and FSU had lost its opener to Houston. Next up: Alabama, riding a 21-game win streak.Here's the story, told by FSU players who shocked the college football world that night at Birmingham's Legion Field. Including original radio play-by-play as the Noles scored more points than Bama gave up the entire previous season.

Joe Avezzano was an undersized offensive lineman on FSU’s 1964 team that crashed the big time college football party. But you’ll know him better as the Energizer Bunny on the Dallas Cowboy’s coaching staff in the 90s when they won three Super Bowls. Along the way, he was a college assistant, a head coach, Big D. celebrity, entrepreneur and radio talk show host. Which is why this episode of Garnet & Great is more than an interview, it’s the story of a life in football, right up til the end...

Listen to Geno Hayes talking Seminole memories while back at FSU for a Sod Cemetery event during the 2014 season. One of the program's most ferocious linebackers and a fan favorite, Geno passed away from liver disease on April 27 at age 33.

As one of Bowden’s first recruits, Kurt Unglaub saw first-hand what the legendary coach did to resurrect FSU Football from the bottom tier of college football. And lately, Kurt’s been inside the locker room and on the field to observe how Mike Norvell is turning things around. Here’s how he compares their efforts.

Kurt Unglaub reveals how a core group of FSU freshmen ignited a 180-turnaround for the program and laid the foundation for a dynasty under Bobby Bowden.

How did Florida State's program rise from a winless 1973 season to earn 14 Top Five finishes? Mike Schumann knows first-hand. He was a Nole wide receiver during that nightmare season, and later on Bobby Bowden's 1977 team that turned it all around, going 10 and 2 including a Tangerine Bowl victory. In this episode, Mike talks about the similarities between then and now, including coaching changes and division among players — and what it took to make the transformation.

The way Florida State’s teams practiced in the 1960s was enough to impress a Marine Drill Sergeant. Take it from John Crowe and Dale McCullers, who lined up at linebacker and safety respectively back then. They and their teammates set the standard for how Florida State defenses should play. And their book, “FSU’s Sons of the Sixties: A Case for the Defense,” is a tribute to those guys who played their guts out, and how it formed a lifetime brotherhood. We invited John and Dale to talk about w...

FSU’s rise to college football prominence in the 80s wouldn’t have been possible without quarterbacks whose names still resonate with Nole fans over 40: Rick Stockstill, Kelly Lowrey, Chip Ferguson, Casey Weldon, Peter Tom Willis and Danny McManus — an unbroken line of brothers in arms, one after the other through the decade. The outlier of the group, though, is McManus, who continued lighting up scoreboards for another 19 years. Call him the Dan Marino of the Canadian Football League after p...