lsu roster for 1979 tangerine bowl program

#Lsu roster for 1979 tangerine bowl program pro#

He battled injuries during the early part of his career before his break-out season as a junior when he earned first team AP All-America honors and won the ACC’s Brian Piccolo Award. He was a finalist for both the Outland and Lombardi Trophies as a senior. He finished with 84 tackles as a senior ranking fourth on Bobby Bowden’s only undefeated team.

Simon was the defensive leader of FSU’s wire-to-wire national championship team and led the ACC with 21 tackles for loss that season. A consensus All-America defensive lineman as a senior in 1999, Simon takes his rightful place as one of the finest players in FSU’s storied football history. 32- defensive tackle Darnell Dockett Corey Simon (72.3%)Ĭorey Simon embracing the 1999 National Championship trophy after the Seminoles had defeated Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl is one of the iconic images of college football. Dockett made his mark at FSU and rightfully takes his place in the history books among the best players in Florida State history. His sacks and tackles for loss accounted for more than two-and-a-half football fields of lost yardage for opposing offenses. In all, Dockett recorded 248 total tackles, half unassisted, with 10.5 sacks, and a staggering 65 tackles for loss (which, again, set a new school career record) and a frightening 70 quarterback hurries. He was certainly one of the most imposing and ferocious. Despite this, Dockett was once quoted as saying he doesn’t have any down days, and that he’s always cheerful.ĭockett eventually became one of the best in a long line of elite defensive tackles to don the Garnet and Gold. Four months later, his father passed away from cancer, leaving him to be raised by his uncle. When he was just thirteen years old his mother was murdered. Before everything, before all the tackles and the sacks at the pinnacle of his profession, Dockett walked through unimaginable pain and tragedy. Not just because it was so good, but because of what Dockett went through to get there. He recorded more than 40 sacks in his career, good for seventh all-time with the Cardinals. He also tied the immortal Reggie White for most sacks in a single Super Bowl.

#Lsu roster for 1979 tangerine bowl program pro#

He was a three-time Pro Bowl selection and a second team All-Pro in 2009. For four years Ron Simmons made opposition backs miserable and Seminoles deliriously happy.ĭarnell Dockett ended his football career in 2016 after spending ten years with the Arizona Cardinals.

This powerful middle guard led FSU to the top of the polls, into two Orange Bowls and a Tangerine Bowl and to four consecutive victories over Florida. In 19 Ron was consensus All-American and in 1980 a Lombardi Award finalist and captain of the Seminoles. He was ABC-TV player of the game four times and Football News freshman defensive lineman of the year. Midway through his freshman season Coach Bowden said, “Simmons is turning the program around.” In 1977 he was the difference in his first game at FSU and against North Texas State he was national lineman of the week. When he was signed out of Warner Robbins, Georgia, he was one of Florida State’s greatest recruiting victories. Who are the top four defensive tackles in FSU history? Ron Simmons (91.6%) Without further ado, we present to you the Mount Rushmore of FSU defensive tackles. The Tomahawk Nation community has spoken! On Monday, we posted a poll for the Tomahawk Nation community to choose your top four all-time Seminoles’ interior defensive linemen, and yesterday, presented the choices from some of our staff and contributors. To help the off-season pass a bit faster, we’ve been determining the top four Florida State Seminoles in school history at each position, constructing and sculpting a positional Mount Rushmore for them as voted on by the Tomahawk Nation community.