Seminoles: Cheap Shots Not Our Style

Late Hits, Part II, the defensive coordinator responds.

Mickey Andrews, Florida State’s defensive strategist, said Florida Coach Steve Spurrier’s comments about alleged cheap shots on Gator quarterback Danny Wuerffel in the the Nov. 30 game will have no bearing on Thursday’s Sugar Bowl game plan.

“We’re not going to play any differently than we have in the other 11 games,� Andrews said. “We don’t coach dirty football. We don’t play dirty football. If we have any late hits, we’ll get penalized.�

Spurrier, of course, opened Sugar Bowl festivities by intimating Florida State coaches teach their players to hit “to the echo of the whistle.�

Wuerffel was sacked six times and knocked down a dozen more in Florida State’s 24-21 victory at Tallahassee.

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Tommy Bowden, the new coach at Tulane and the son of Florida State Coach Bobby, said Spurrier’s comments are an insult to his father’s character.

“He’s established certain credibility in the coaching profession,� Tommy Bowden said.

Bowden said anyone who knows his father “knows he would never do anything like that. He’d never intentionally hurt anybody.�

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Sure, he’s a Gator now, but did you know, in ninth grade, Wuerffel drew a picture in his friend’s yearbook of a Seminole stabbing a Gator?

“I was young,� Wuerffel says, “I didn’t know any better.�

Actually, Wuerffel was influenced at the time by his older sister, Sara, a Florida State student.