A field storming. A top-20 ranking. Will a bowl win be the star atop FSU's resurgence?

For many Florida State football fans, the opportunity to storm the field after the Seminoles’ 45-38 win over Florida last month at Doak Campbell Stadium had little to do with the victory.

It was pure, unrehearsed elation with the program's resurgence, which will face its final test in a postseason bowl game.

“I think it was a culmination of things,” said Brian Sauls, 51, a Leon High and FSU graduate who celebrated with teenage sons Lincoln (16) and Brogan (13) and was among the thousands of Seminole fans that embraced the unique moment on the field.

“It was great contrast from the past few seasons. I think it was an outpouring of emotion and everyone is happy with the direction the program is going.”

FSU’s turnaround under third-year coach Mike Norvell continues Dec. 29 in Orlando at Camping World Stadium, where the No. 13 Seminoles (9-3) meet Oklahoma (6-6) in the Cheez-It Bowl at 5:30 p.m. on ESPN.

The Seminoles enter on a five-game win streak, the program’s longest since 2016. They have also scored at least 38 points in each of those wins. That's FSU’s best stretch since the first 11 games in 2013, when the Seminoles won their third and last national title.

Despite winning 33 games over the next three years (2014-16), FSU uncharacteristically struggled and entered a startling downward spiral. Now, after four consecutive losing seasons and two head coaching changes, FSU has the opportunity to win 10 games for the first time since 2016.

And there is plenty of optimism, symbolized by that takeover of the field last month.

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Jim McConnaughhay, 78: ‘I was going over that wall’

Jim McConnaughhay’s family has been intertwined with FSU since 1917, when his mother graduated from Florida State College for Women. Jim’s older brother John, a quarterback from Ocala, played football (1958-62) at FSU and Jim followed as a team manager in 1962.

Jim McConnaughhay, 78, a retired local attorney, attended the FSU-UF night game on Black Friday, Nov. 25, with son Allen, 48, and granddaughter Emily, 14.

A sold-out crowd of 79,560 and ABC television audience watched the highest scoring game in the rivalry that dates to 1958. Its outcome wasn’t settled until the dramatic, closing minute as the Gators marched down the field. But Anthony Richardson’s fourth-down pass over the middle from the FSU 26-yard line was incomplete with 39 seconds remaining.

An earsplitting celebration ensued. Fireworks lit the sky when the scoreboard clock read zeroes.

Seminole fans from all sides and corners of the stadium — children to adults — started to head down the stands and over the 8-foot brick wall that separates Bobby Bowden Field from their seats.

Three generations of the McConnaughhays made it on the field, too. But not without a polite rebuttal from Jim to his attorney son.

“Allen suggested we should meet back at the car. But I said, ‘No way.’ I wasn’t going to miss it,” Jim said and laughed.

“But it was a big wall. I thought I was going to hop right over it. When I got down there, I wasn’t sure I could do it. Luckily, there was pipe that came halfway up the wall. I was able to grab it, and with the help of Allen and some other folks, we got over.

"It was a great experience, a great feeling.”

For Jim McConnaughhay, it was the first time he had stepped on the field since he was the Seminoles’ team manager 60 years ago.

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Conferences have different policies for field-rushing

While fans have been rushing fields and courts to celebrate landmark wins for years, the Power Five conferences have different ways of dealing with the spectacle.

The SEC, for example, implements hefty financial penalties against schools. FSU is a member of the ACC, which does not have a policy on field storming. However, FSU has law enforcement and planning in place as safeguards.

At Clemson, the Tigers have a long-standing postgame tradition where fans mingle with the team at midfield after home games. (It restarted this year after being previously suspended for the 2020 season and all but one game of the 2021 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic).

Ironically, Seminole Boosters, Inc., had scheduled a similar event inviting boosters on the field after the FSU-UF game last month. Instead, thousands of fans crashed the party.

Nobody seemed to mind.

“It was great to see the excitement around the program and the support of our student athletes,” FSU Athletics Director Michael Alford told the Democrat. “Such a special night for Seminole fans everywhere.  It speaks volumes to the direction of our program.”

The last FSU field storming was in 1996

The last time FSU football fans rushed their home field was Nov. 30, 1996.  Again, it came at the expense of the Gators.

For only the fourth time in college football history, two undefeated teams met in the regular-season finale as No. 2 FSU beat No. 1 Florida 24-21 before a sold-out crowd of nearly 81,000. FSU fans were not deterred by law enforcement pepper spray or the threat of arrest, tearing down the goal posts that had more than $100,000 in ABC camera equipment attached.

“They (ABC personnel) said they were considering mounting a camera on the goal post and (asked) whether we thought there was a chance our fans would storm the field,” said Rob Wilson, FSU’s current associate athletics director for communications who was the department’s sports information director at the time.

“I assured them that our fans just didn’t do that. He came back and said well we could mount them and take them off with five minutes left in the game, just in case (fans) climbed the goal post. Again, I assured them – not necessary.

"And, of course, they watched their camera carried along with the goal post down Tennessee Street.”

While fans managed to take patches of turf as keepsakes last month, Bobby Bowden Field was not significantly damaged, according to the athletics department.

Student Hailey Hobbs: 'It was electric'

FSU senior Hailey Hobbs, a former Maclay athlete, watched the FSU-UF game from a skybox with family and friends.

When Hailey and her younger brother Carson, a sophomore at FSU, saw fellow students and fans make their way on the field after the game, they left the skybox and weaved through the stands. Carson jumped the 8-foot wall first and then helped Hailey, in a dress, down and on the field.

They spent around 15 minutes on the field cheering, celebrating, taking videos and snapping photographs before exiting through the players’ tunnel in the north end zone.

“It was electric,” said Hailey, whose parents and grandparents attended FSU. “It probably looked chaotic … but it wasn't. It was the coolest experience. Beating Florida, the feeling of winning. It was so much fun."

FSU senior Megan Scanlan, of Tampa, watched the game from the student section near the Marching Chiefs in the north end zone.  As the final seconds of the game ticked away, Scanlan and friends mentioned to each other “how it would be so fun if we could storm the field.”

Their wish came true.

“It was crowded, but so much fun,” said Scanlan, who made her way to midfield. “A (FSU) player would pass by you and you were a little star-struck . … everyone was so happy. People were singing, dancing. It was just a special moment to be part of.”

Sauls, who resides in Anna Maria, understood the moment's impact.

He has attended FSU games with family and friends since his youth and enjoyed the great times. In recent seasons, however, the first-time season-ticket holder had experienced his share of disappointment.

FSU's win over UF erased those memories.

And generated a renewed enthusiasm heading into the bowl game and beyond.

The Seminoles are one of four teams ranked in the top-20 in total defense, scoring defense, total offense and scoring offense. They are also the only team in the country ranked in the top-10 in yards per play average on both offense and defense.

As celebrating FSU fans made their way onto the field after beating UF, Sauls' sons looked at him and said, "Let's go!"

"I had no appreciation of how high that wall was - I ain't going to lie, I thought I'd nonchalantly go over it but I landed feet-first, then butt," said Sauls, a 1995 FSU graduate.

"It seemed like every time we'd come over for a big game, we'd lose. It was fun. We took a ton of photos. We were probably on the field for 20 minutes or so. The band was still playing. Everybody was kind of lingering, taking it all in. It just felt like a lot of emotion.

"To win a big game to finish up the regular season and get back to a bowl."

Reach Jim Henry at jjhenry@tallahassee.com.

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU bowl game a chance to build on Seminoles' resurgence