Looking back at FSU football’s 2007 upset of No. 2 Boston College

It’s one of the few, distinct bright spots in the mid-2000s for Florida State.

On a November night in Chestnut Hill, the Seminoles took down No. 2 Boston College.

(Technically, the game never happened in the eyes of the NCAA, but technically, me eating $10 worth of McDonalds yesterday can also have never happened if I just say it didn’t.)

2007, as you might recall, was one of the more whackadoodle years in college football history. The Eagles were the fourth straight No. 2 to lose that year, which really, was only the beginning of highly-ranked teams blowing it that year.

That year was an up-and-down one for Florida State, who won a neutral site game against Alabama in Nick Saban’s first year and went 4-1 to start the season but had sputtered a bit at mid-season. Now sitting at 5-3 with three of the next four games of the schedule against ranked opponents, FSU was possibly looking at missing a bowl for the first time since 1981 (spoiler alert, it didn’t, though double spoiler alert, it eventually would, in case you forgot.)

Florida State struck in the second quarter, with Preston Parker scoring a 23-yard touchdown off a Drew Weatherford pass. Weatherford had just taken back over as starting quarterback in a win vs. Duke the week before, and tonight, he was doing just enough to let his defense ride.

Patrick Robinson, Geno Hayes and Tony Carter all picked off Boston College quarterback and future former potential Heisman candidate Matt Ryan that night, with Hayes returning his interception 38 yards for a game-clinching score with under two minutes left.

It was one of the few high-stakes games in the short history of the two schools, who have played just 17 times (with FSU winning 12 of those games). The Eagles have won just once since the turn of the decade a, um, 35-3 Friday night victory in 2017 that for some reason, I just can’t quite remember that well.

Other than being a battle to secure bowl eligibility, there’s not much excitement for this year’s matchup. So instead, each time an arm tackle is broken and a lame duck pass floats gently to the turf, think about the time all that same stuff was happening, except when it was 12 years ago and happening for a way cooler reason.