Champs Sports Bowl: "Game of the Century"...18 Years Later

Before all of the hoopla of the LSU-Alabama rematch and all of the Game of the Century talk this season, their was a game played in November 1993 between two legendary teams of the gridiron, Florida State and Notre Dame. As these two teams prepare to take part in the Champs Sports Bowl, you can definitely sense the fact that these two programs are leaps and bounds from where they want to be.

As much as we want to look at this as a marquee match-up, we can't. Sure, Notre Dame versus Florida State has a nice ring to it, but unless Lou Holtz, Charlie Ward and Warrick Dunn run out of that tunnel, we are reminded that this is an afternoon Champs Sports Bowl game.

Florida State was a preseason darling and Notre Dame started the season 0-2. They both ended up 8-4, but they didn't do it with much style.

In the last game of the season Florida State gained only 95 yards, but relied on its defense to defeat the Florida Gators 21-7. This was coming just a week after having its five game winning streak snapped by Virginia.

Notre Dame had a more difficult task by taking on Andrew Luck and the Stanford Cardinal and left with a 28-14 defeat at Stanford, seeing its four-game winning streak broken and Tommy Rees was benched. According to Kelly, Rees will be back with the first team.

Although it isn't 1993, their are playmakers and tough defense on the field. Notre Dame wide receiver, Michael Floyd set a single-season school record with 95 receptions while leading the Irish with 1,106 yards and eight TDs. He will leave South Bend as the most prolific wideout in Notre Dame's storied history.

He will have to be on top of his game going against the Seminoles defense. This is the Irish's fourth match-up with an ACC school and they are 3-0 so far, but they haven't faced a defense like Florida State's who is led by junior Greg Reid.

Florida State led the conference and was fourth in the country in allowing 15.2 points per game. The Seminoles allowed an FBS-low 2.3 yards per carry and 81.8 per game that ranked second nationally, and they will have to shutdown Cierre Wood, Notre Dame's first 1,000 yard rusher in five years.

The players may have changed. Their reputations may not be bulletproof, as they once were. But when all is said and done, it is still Florida State versus Notre Dame, and that's just screams "HISTORY!"