1997 Florida State Seminoles football team

1997 Florida State Seminoles football
ACC champion Sugar Bowl champion
Sugar Bowl, W 31–14 vs. Ohio State
Conference	Atlantic Coast Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 3
AP	No. 3
Record	11–1 (8–0 ACC)
Head coach	Bobby Bowden (22nd season)
Offensive coordinator	Mark Richt (4th season)
Offensive scheme	Pro-style
Defensive coordinator	Mickey Andrews (14th season)
Base defense	4–3
Home stadium	Doak Campbell Stadium

1997 Atlantic Coast Conference football standings

	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
No. 3 Florida State $		8	–	0					11	–	1
No. 6 North Carolina		7	–	1					11	–	1
Virginia		5	–	3					7	–	4
No. 25 Georgia Tech		5	–	3					7	–	5
Clemson		4	–	4					7	–	5
NC State		3	–	5					6	–	5
Wake Forest		3	–	5					5	–	6
Maryland		1	–	7					2	–	9
Duke		0	–	8					2	–	9
$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

The 1997 Florida State Seminoles football team represented Florida State University in the 1997 NCAA Division I-A football season. The team was coached by Bobby Bowden and played their home games at Doak Campbell Stadium.

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 6	3:30 p.m.	at No. 23 USC*	No. 5	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles	ABC	W 14–7	72,783
September 13	3:30 p.m.	Maryland	No. 5	Doak Campbell Stadium Tallahassee, Florida	ABC	W 50–7	72,238
September 20	3:30 p.m.	at No. 16 Clemson	No. 5	Memorial Stadium Clemson, South Carolina (rivalry)	ABC	W 35–28	80,939
October 4	12:00 p.m.	Miami (FL)*	No. 4	Doak Campbell Stadium Tallahassee, Florida (rivalry)	ABC	W 47–0	80,165
October 11	7:00 p.m.	at Duke	No. 4	Wallace Wade Stadium Durham, North Carolina	PPV	W 51–27	21,557
October 18	3:30 p.m.	No. 21 Georgia Tech	No. 3	Doak Campbell Stadium Tallahassee, Florida	ABC	W 38–0	78,157
October 25	7:00 p.m.	at Virginia	No. 3	Scott Stadium Charlottesville, Virginia (Jefferson-Eppes Trophy)	ESPN	W 47–21	45,300
November 1	3:30 p.m.	NC State	No. 3	Doak Campbell Stadium Tallahassee, Florida	ABC	W 48–35	71,415
November 8	7:30 p.m.	at No. 5 North Carolina	No. 3	Kenan Memorial Stadium Chapel Hill, North Carolina (College GameDay)	ESPN	W 20–3	62,000
November 15	12:00 p.m.	Wake Forest	No. 2	Doak Campbell Stadium Tallahassee, Florida	JPS	W 58–7	70,026
November 22	3:30 p.m.	at No. 10 Florida*	No. 2	Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Gainesville, Florida (rivalry) (College GameDay)	CBS	L 29–32	85,677
January 1	8:00 p.m.	vs. No. 9 Ohio State*	No. 4	Louisiana Superdome New Orleans (Sugar Bowl)	ABC	W 31–14	67,289
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Eastern time

Rankings

See also: 1997 NCAA Division I-A football rankings

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking
( ) = First-place votes

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Final
AP	3 (7)	3 (6)	5 (6)	5 (4)	5 (1)	4 (1)	4 (1)	4 (1)	3 (3)	3 (9)	3 (8)	3 (5)	2 (23)	2 (24)	5	4	4	3
Coaches	4 (3)		5 (3)	6 (3)	5 (2)	4 (1)	4	4	3 (1)	3 (3)	3 (3)	2 (2)	1 (26)	1 (29)	5	4	4	3

Roster

1997 Florida State Seminoles football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class WR 9 Peter Warrick So QB 12 Thad Busby Sr WR 19 E. G. Green Sr OT 70 Tra Thomas Sr	Defense Pos. # Name Class CB 2 Samari Rolle Sr CB 23 Andrew Howard II Jr CB 11 Dexter Jackson Jr CB 15 Mario Edwards Jr FS 16 Sean Key Jr LB 40 Lamont Green Jr DL 53 Corey Simon So DL 85 Andre Wadsworth Sr DE 90 Greg Spires Sr	Special teams Pos. # Name Class	Head coach Bobby Bowden Coordinators/assistant coaches Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt