Game time: 8 p.m.
TV: ABC
In November 2009, Florida State was struggling at home to defeat Maryland to notch its sixth win of the season.
The Seminoles got a 29-26 win, extending their streak of consecutive seasons in which they were bowl-eligible to 28, but they needed a drive in the final minutes to push ahead against a Terrapins team that was 2-8 going into the game. And it spoke volumes about how far Florida State's program had fallen.
A few weeks later, legendary coach Bobby Bowden was dismissed and forced into retirement. In stepped offensive coordinator/head-coach-in-waiting Jimbo Fisher.
The new job title was shorter but brought with it a long list of challenges. Fisher had to rebuild the program, and he did it quickly by hiring new assistants and recruiting a number of four-star and five-star prospects. He also had to rebuild the culture as Fisher often noted that in his first year as head coach, 2010, there was a sense of complacency with winning seven or so games a year.
He knew the program could -- and should -- get back to a team that annually was a contender for an ACC title and perhaps a national title. The process has been gradual, and the program has seen steady improvement. Florida State has enjoyed three bowl wins under Fisher as well as an ACC title last December.
The next step for Fisher and Florida State is earning a signature win over a top-5 team. Fisher's biggest wins to date have been bowl victories over the likes of Steve Spurrier's South Carolina team, Notre Dame, Georgia Tech to clinch the ACC title and Northern Illinois to claim the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day. There was also a regular-season win over No. 10 Clemson last year in Tallahassee.
But, in fairness, while all of those wins are considerable, a victory Saturday night over No. 3 Clemson at Death Valley would be elevated to No. 1 on Fisher's list. It could be an ugly, grind-it-out win. It could be a two-touchdown rout. It won't matter.
A loss, of course, isn't the end of the world for Florida State in 2013. The Seminoles' goals of a national championship would be gone, but the Seminoles could still be in the running for a division title if Clemson tripped up a few times down the road.
A win for Florida State would speak volumes. About Fisher. About how far the program has come from the abyss that was the late 2000s.
It's clear that Florida State is on its way back to something special in 2013. Just how special? We'll know by midnight Saturday.
* Clemson plays at Memorial Stadium but almost everyone calls it Death Valley. The team is 18-2 at home in the ACC since Dabo Swinney took over when Tommy Bowden was fired in 2008. The Tigers' fans are extremely loud, all 81,500 of them. It's considered the loudest of the ACC stadiums. So Florida State coaches have once again brought speakers to practice this week and pumped up the volume to simulate the crowd noise -- so much that the noise can be heard around campus.
* Florida State has not won at Clemson since 2001, a streak of five
straight losses. Coincidentally, it was a redshirt freshman quarterback
(Chris Rix) that outperformed a Clemson senior QB (Woodrow Dantzler) as Rix threw for 369 yards and four TDs while Dantzler had 336 total yards and two TDs. On
Saturday, Florida State is starting a redshirt freshman (Jameis
Winston) against a Clemson senior (Tajh Boyd).
* Florida State has been off to a 5-0 start a few times ... only to have things fall apart in Game 6. The Seminoles were 5-0 in 2003 and lost at home to Miami. And they started 5-0 in 2005 but lost at Virginia. And in 2012, Florida State was 5-0 and ahead 16-0 in the second half before N.C. State rallied for a 17-16 win in Raleigh. What happens this time? If the Seminoles open 6-0 it will be the first time they have done it since the 1999 unbeaten national championship team.
* Florida State has had a "sod cemetery" outside the practice field for decades. After every significant road win (Florida and Miami are always included), a piece of sod is cut from that field and brought back to Tallahassee, where it is buried and a plaque is placed to remember the game.
* The winner at the end of the night is not guaranteed to be the ACC's Atlantic Division champion. But this is a pivotal game. Of course the winner will be up there in the national championship conversation, along with No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Oregon. But the first step in the path is to win the division. And since the first tiebreaker in the ACC is the head-to-head winner, either Florida State or Clemson would essentially have a two-game lead.
* Jameis Winston is cool and calm. He has handled the pressure of being a starting quarterback at a top program very well, especially considering that he’s still just 19. He said this week that he's confident in his offensive line as they prepare for Clemson's physical defensive line. Winston is also sure that things like crowd noise won't bother him and the offense. If Winston is right, Florida State will win and be in the national championship hunt.
* Tajh Boyd has already helped Clemson knock off Georgia, then No. 15 when the teams opened the season. A win over No. 5 Florida State would only strengthen his resume. Boyd is one of the nation's top quarterbacks, a 6-1, 225-pounder with a strong arm, mobility and a leader that has helped the Tigers win 27 of 33 games that he's started. Boyd knows No. 28 puts Clemson on the national-title track in his senior season.
* Sammy Watkins didn't exactly have his worst day against Florida State in 2012. But it wasn't pretty: Watkins caught six passes for 24 yards and had five carries for 37 yards. Just 61 yards from one of college football's top playmakers. And now with DeAndre Hopkins gone to the NFL (a first-round pick by the Houston Texans), Watkins needs to put up some numbers on Saturday. Watkins has 582 receiving yards in six games in 2013.
* Vic Beasley leads the nation with nine sacks. The junior defensive end is physical but also very smart. If his first move doesn't work, he just spins the other way and tries again. Beasley is a challenging matchup for FSU left tackle Cameron Erving, who will be protecting Winston's blind side. Erving said that Beasley has improved since the two went head-to-head last season.
* Fisher had plenty of choices when Mark Stoops left for Kentucky last November. But Fisher decided on Jeremy Pruitt, the defensive backs coach at Alabama. Yes, Pruitt had already won a national title (and soon added a second in January 2013 before starting his new job in Tallahassee). But Pruitt had just four seasons of college coaching experience and no college coordinator background when Fisher hired him. It was a risky hire that looks good now. But this is Pruitt's first big game as a coordinator and he faces a potential Heisman candidate at quarterback.
"He compares to (former FSU defensive end) Brandon Jenkins. He plays with such a great motor."
-- FSU left tackle Cameron Erving on Clemson's star defensive end, Vic Beasley
"Nervous is not even in my vocabulary when I'm on the field. I feel like I've always been a confident person because if you’re not confident in yourself, who else is going to believe in you?"
-- Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston on his confidence
"Believe it or not, your practices usually become better when they're really locked in because they know they have to (focus harder). Then all of a sudden they're paying more attention to detail and what's going on."
-- Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher on being able to hear (or the lack thereof) at Clemson’s stadium and the Seminoles practicing this week with crowd noise
"The quarterback is special. I mean, I know he's listed as a redshirt freshman, but he doesn't look like a freshman. He looks like a full-grown man to me. He's a great player, very accurate, very poised, and so far has answered every call that he's had."
-- Clemson coach Dabo Swinney on Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston
"Personally, I love being in those situations where the ball is in your court, it's in your hand. You have to go out there and make a play when the game is on the line. It's kind of always been me. That's kind of why I love to play the position. Growing up I wanted to be a quarterback because I wanted the ball in my hands."
-- Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd on running the offense in late-game, pressure situations
* Florida State leads the ACC in scoring offense, averaging 53.6 points per game. The Seminoles also lead the ACC in scoring defense, allowing just 12 points per game.
* Florida State has won nine straight ACC games. That's the longest winning streak since the Seminoles won 24 straight from 1998-2001.
* And Florida State has won seven of its last eight ACC road games. The last loss was in October 2012 at N.C. State. The Seminoles also picked up a neutral-site victory over Georgia Tech in the ACC championship game.
* Jimbo Fisher is 36-10 in four seasons at FSU, giving him a .782 winning percentage. That's the best winning percentage of any coach in ACC history. No. 2 is the man he replaced, Bobby Bowden (.764).
* Jameis Winston ranks third nationally with a 73.2 completion percentage. He's also fifth in passing TDs (17). Florida State's school record for passing touchdowns is 33 by Chris Weinke as a senior in 2000, and Winston has at least seven games and perhaps nine to surpass Weinke's total. As a freshman, Winston could shatter Weinke's record.
* Redshirt freshman Roberto Aguayo has done more than capably fill the shoes of the Atlantic Coast Conference's all-time leading scorer, Dustin Hopkins. Aguayo has made every kick -- 7 of 7 on field-goal attempts and all 35 extra-point attempts.
* In five games, Florida State has had 11 players score touchdowns. Rashad Greene leads the team with five TD receptions and Karlos Williams leads the team with six TD runs.
* Florida State is 8-1 all-time against ACC schools that were ranked in the top 10. The Seminoles beat No. 10 Clemson 49-37 in Tallahassee in 2012. Florida State's only loss was at Miami, a 16-10 defeat in overtime in 2004.
* The Seminoles have scored a touchdown on 33 of 59 drives this season, meaning that they find the end zone 55.9 percent of the time they touch the ball. Only Baylor (60 percent) does it better.
* Florida State junior tight end Nick O'Leary has five TDs this season, giving him nine for his career. The school career leaders are Melvin Pearsall and Lonnie Johnson, who each had 10.
Florida State vs. Clemson has all the makings of a showdown that indeed lives up to the hype. The nation gets a chance to see two of the ACC's top teams go head-to-head in a primetime game.
The game has all the ingredients -- two elite quarterbacks, playmakers at receiver, improving defenses and young coaches that have brought stability to their programs. Both teams are seeking the status of "national title contender."
Florida State appears to be the more complete team, the team with the better offensive line, running backs and wide receiving corps. The Seminoles have a better group of linebackers and defensive backs, while Clemson is stronger up front on the defensive line. Florida State's kicker is perfect this season. Quarterbacks? Call it a push. For now.
Give Florida State the edge in a very close and entertaining game.
Contact Bob Ferrante at bobferrante17@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @bobferrante
