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Crunch time FSU's big, bad 'D' brings a 'tude
Updated: Thursday January 04, 2001 4:54 PM
By Paul Crane, CNNSI.com
ATLANTA -- Ask almost any coach at any level of the game, and they will tell you that defense wins titles. "I always have felt like defense is the key to Super Bowls and national championships," said Florida State's head coach Bobby Bowden. "If you can't play defense, you're not gonna make it." Well, Florida State knows how to play defense. The Seminoles are virtually three-deep at every position, and do not hesitate to rotate players throughout a game. "It's like, when we substitute and put our second-teamer in there," says FSU defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews, "he's really not a back-up. He's a first-teamer. That's because he's out there on the field." One of those first-teamers, is linebacker Brian Allen who points to tradition and the long line of great players who helped bring this program's defense to the level at which it now performs. "Every year we reload and begin the cycle all over again," Allen said. "The hunger starts developing in young players. Then we're on the level the guys, the [Derrick] Brookses, Marvin Jones, Deion Sanders, we're on the level they were because that hunger is now inside of us." Since Andrews arrived at Florida State in 1984 he has sent 58 defensive players to the NFL. That's an average of between three and four every year. And the Seminoles play defense with a passion and purpose where they "hit through the whistle" on every down. "I think coach [Bowden] called it, 'Hit through the echo,'" Andrews said with a laugh. Adds Allen, "It's something you learn when you get here. That the play isn't over until the whistle blows."
Andrews says there's a method to his madness of teaching all-out defense. "We want our guys to play so hard that there's very little time to make a decision if [the opposing player is] in bounds or out, or if the quarterback has released the football or if it's still in his hand." And there's another reason too. "Don't make whipping someone on a block irrelevant," Allen said. "If you can take a shot, take a shot." The Seminoles are among the national leaders in most defensive categories, but are ranked No. 40 against the pass. However, that may be deceiving. More passes have been thrown against Florida State than any other team in the country. Yet the Seminoles have not allowed an opponents' number one receiver to catch a touchdown pass. And their two starting corners have not given up a passing touchdown all season. "The main statistic that you look for in a defense is scoring defense," Andrews said. "If you don't let the other team score you have a great chance of winning." And that's a goal of every defensive player on every play in every game. "We try to shut folks out," said linebacker Tommy Polley. "Every game we leave the huddle saying 'shutout'. We came close to having three or four shutouts. That's what we pride ourselves on." And that's why defense has become such a key to the success of this program. "We keep striving to be the number one scoring defense in the nation," Andrews said. "And I think every year we've done that we've been national champions." Th Seminoles ended the regular season second in the nation in scoring defense, but three of the touchdowns against them came when the defense wasn't even on the field, two in the kicking game, and one on an interception return. If the bowl games were included, holding Oklahoma to 22 points or less would give Florida State the nation's best scoring defense, and create a good chance to win another national championship.
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