FSU vs. Oklahoma: Best Matchup of Week 3 Also Has Implications Outside the Lines

No. 5 Florida State has been off the map in college football for a long time now.

Not since the '80s and '90s have the Seminoles been a top football program.

But, at No. 5 in the AP poll now, the Seminoles have a chance to take fans back to the glory days, when the program finished in the Top Five of the poll from 1987 to 2000—a 14-year streak that is the NCAA record.

Now, in his second season as Seminoles coach since Bobby Bowden's retirement in 2009, Jimbo Fisher has the talent and opportunity to lead Florida State back to the promised land and begin a new era for the program.

It all could start Saturday against the No. 1 Oklahoma Sooners. If the Seminoles pull this off, they would not only be firmly in the discussion of college football's elite, there's a chance they could win the whole thing.

Said Fisher, via the Orlando Sentinel:

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"People should come to expect big games like this. This is what I came to Florida State for; was for these big games. I'm not going to be surprised and overwhelmed by them. This is what I dreamed for my whole life."

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Fisher, as well as several of Florida State's key players, downplayed the game's importance, giving us the whole coach/player speak of "every game's important."

But starting quarterback E.J. Manuel, the successor to Christian Ponder, hasn't been shy about his feelings, noting the overwhelming confidence this would give to the program.

Said Manuel:

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“(A win) would mean everything to this whole state, this whole town. Everybody would be extremely excited about Florida State football again. And not fake excitement, I think true excitement. People will truly start believing in us again knowing that we are able to play on the national scene and the national level like that."

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Manuel is the X-factor for a loaded Florida State team this season. He's had some big games in the past when given the chance behind Ponder, and he's off to a great start, passing for 561 yards and six touchdowns to just two interceptions.

The Seminoles finally have a legitimate shot at avenging their loss to the Sooners in the 2000 BCS Championship Game—a game that sent both programs in opposite directions.

Don't let the coaches and players fool you.

This game means more to them than anything.