Can Florida State and Florida rely on their aura of INVINCIBILITY?

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© St. Petersburg Times
published August 27, 2002

The season opens Saturday. In years past, Florida would have been 8-0 already.

It is late August. Time was, FSU would have been 9-0 by now.

Not so long ago, you could look at the schedules of each team and you could count the teams that were beaten already.

There was this opponent, which could be counted on to faint dead away. And that one, which was sure to get out of the path. And the other one, which had plenty of white flags.

There were the posers, the pawns, the prey.

This was the reward of being the neighborhood bully. Usually, the fight was over before it began.

Florida State scared people. Florida intimidated people. They took away other teams' hopes, other teams' wills, other teams' lunch money.

This year, however, is different.

This year, other teams don't seem as nervous.

As the season enters full speed this weekend, opponents are looking at Florida and FSU differently. For one thing, they aren't hiding behind a bush when they do so.

Intimidation factor?

The Gators will have to fight to hold on to theirs.

The Seminoles will have to fight to get theirs back.

For years, both teams have made others wilt as they rolled into a stadium with their ability and their aspirations and their auras. They stormed in like a biker gang at a bake sale, and the competition was over as soon as they arrived.

Oh, players are slow to admit it because the only thing worse than being beaten is accepting its inevitability. It's okay to have slow feet and narrow shoulders, but having a weak spine is unacceptable. No one wants to admit giving up lunch money to the bully. If college football players fear anything, it's fear.

Great teams get inside your head, however, and they immediately start shutting off valves. The mouth goes dry. The palms get wet. The eyes get wide. It's harder to breathe. It's harder to think. And why can't the cornerback feel his legs?

It is a mental problem, not a physical one. Already, there is a lot of pressure on an underdog. Then the first rock falls, and suddenly, it is hard to stop the avalanche.

For a team that aspires to be great, this is the ultimate goal. Do other teams fear you? When you run into a stadium, do they have to fight the urge to run out? Does the sound of their bravado sound like whistling in a graveyard?

Ask FSU coach Bobby Bowden. For months now, Bowden has heard this from Atlantic Coast Conference coaches. "We aren't afraid of you guys anymore."

Bowden's response? "When were ya'll afraid of us?"

The correct answer is: Just about every hour on the hour since the Seminoles entered the conference. Until last year, when FSU slipped a few notches from the powerhouse it had been for a decade and a half. Suddenly, other ACC teams weren't afraid of no ghosts.

"I think it's more mental than physical," Bowden said. "You go out there and have your mind made up that you can't win, and then things go wrong. If you're not careful, it comes to a breaking point where you just accept it. I think that happened in our conference when we first joined it. That's what other coaches tell me, anyway. I never saw it."

Here's the thing FSU learned about intimidation last year. First, you have to be good. No one is afraid of a bully who won't hit anyone.

Here's the thing FSU will learn about intimidation this year. The Seminoles are going to have to be a lot better than they were in their opener against Iowa State before anyone gives them a second thought. If FSU plays pass defense like that all year long, yesterday's victim is going to think this about playing the Seminoles: Whee!

"If we had (an intimidation factor), we probably lost a little of it last year," Bowden said. "We probably have to re-establish a little of it. I don't think anyone is afraid of us now."

And the Gators? Do teams still fear them?

Probably. But they probably have an opportunity to get over it.

Around the SEC, other teams are dancing as if a house has fallen on the wicked witch. Steve Spurrier cast that kind of shadow across the SEC.

Now that he is gone, the comforting thought around the league is that when Steve Spurrier left, he took greatness with him. Put it this way: If you are a cornerback from, say, Georgia, you probably aren't going to miss seeing Spurrier on the sideline.

"I don't know what we have to re-establish," Zook said. "Florida's been pretty good the last 12 years. They ain't changed yet. Obviously, we have some things to find out."

Again, intimidation comes second. To be thought of as a bully, you have to push some people around first. Miami lost its intimidation factor for a while, precisely at the moment the talent level dipped. Once it returned, so did the opponents' fear.

As the college teams of Florida begin anew, that's worth remembering.

The first sign of royalty?

It's when other people start to bow.

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