CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - Here's all you need to know about Florida State coach Bobby Bowden's focus: Though he couldn't help but realize he entered Saturday's game against Virginia with 337 career wins, one behind Division I-A leader Joe Paterno, he didn't know he would tie him with a win.
"Don't they play this week?" Bowden asked of Paterno's Penn State.
No, Coach. The struggling Nittany Lions had a needed bye.
"I was starting to say, "You counting them out?' " Bowden said, laughing.
But Bowden was more concerned with his team rebounding from an emotional loss to Miami and remaining in control of its Bowl Championship Series destiny against its ACC rival. Tying Paterno is a mere subplot or, for Bowden, background noise.
"It's just something if it happens, it happens," he said.
For the record, Paterno had 229 wins entering the 1990 Blockbuster Bowl against the Seminoles, 25 more than Bowden.
FEELS LIKE THE FIRST TIME: FSU sophomore defensive tackle Brodrick Bunkley, the former Chamberlain star, freshman center John Frady and sophomore guard Ron Lunford made their first starts.
SIGN OF THE TIMES: A Virginia student, who was in the front row adjacent to the FSU bench, brought a large, homemade blue handicap placard - an obvious dig at FSU quarterback Chris Rix's parking woes this season.
REMEMBER WHEN: Virginia quarterback Matt Schaub said he and teammates don't watch tape of the 1995 win against FSU, the Seminoles' first ACC loss, nor do they talk about it.
"It's a new era these days here," he said last week.
But Schaub and company have seen the game. It's annual programming on ESPN Classic and was on Friday afternoon.
"I think it was last fall before we played them," he said, adding a roommate taped it. "Then (quarterbacks) coach (Mike) Groh would come over and we'd show him some of the game and he'd just smile at us just so we wouldn't forget he was the one who led them to victory."
Groh was the starting quarterback in that game, while his father, current Virginia coach Al Groh, was with the New England Patriots. Al recalled he began work each day that week about 30 or 40 minutes earlier than normal so he could go home on Thursday and watch the game.
"I got home at 30 seconds before the kickoff," he said. "I paced around the floor in front of the television set for most of the next three hours. Pretty exciting."
NO LOVE FOR BOWDEN: Contrary to the motto, Virginia is not for lovers ... of Bobby Bowden. According to a recent Sports Illustrated poll of 412 Virginia residents who identified themselves as sports fans, Bowden finished third (7 percent) when asked who was the No. 1 "Enemy of the State." Or Commonwealth, in this case. Apparently, folks here haven't forgotten FSU's 46-29 win in the 2000 Sugar Bowl, which gave Bowden his lone undefeated season and second national title.
So who outpolled Bowden? Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones (13 percent) and Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos (8 percent).
TOUGH GUY: Despite a sore, heavily wrapped right foot, center David Castillo entered on the second series for the Seminoles.
INJURY: Senior cornerback Stanford Samuels went down with a tingling sensation is his fingers after Virginia's first play. He did not return.
COLOR SCHEME: For the second time this season, but eighth in the Bowden era, the Seminoles wore white uniforms. They beat North Carolina 37-0 in the opener.
