Florida State Mount Rushmore: Who was voted as a top all-time FSU quarterback?

To help the offseason pass a bit faster Tomahawk Nation is introducing our new Mount Rushmore series, where we’ll be determining the top four Florida State Seminoles at each position by weighing everything from stats to accomplishments to historical significance.

On Monday, we posted a poll for the Tomahawk Nation community to choose your top four Seminoles at this week’s position group and presented the choices from some of our staff and contributors on Tuesday and finally, after days of polling you, our dear readers, the Tomahawk Nation community has spoken!

We know the suspense is too much to handle for you to see the final results, so without further ado, we present to you the Mount Rushmore of FSU quarterbacks.

Florida State Mount Rushmore: Quarterbacks

As voted on by the Tomahawk Nation community, determined by appearance percentage on ballots

Charlie Ward: 92.6%

The most decorated player in the history of college football, Charlie Ward won literally every award he was eligible for as a senior quarterback on Florida State’s 1993 National Championship team. In addition, Ward was the sparkplug on three Seminole NCAA Tournament basketball teams.

A native of nearby Thomasville, Ga., Ward became Florida State’s first Heisman Trophy winner in 1993 after completing 69.5 percent of his passes for 3,032 yards with 27 touchdowns and only four interceptions. He also won the Davey O’Brien and Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Awards and was named Walter Camp Player of the Year and Toyota Leader of the Year. He is only the second college football player ever to win the Sullivan Award given annually to the nation’s top amateur athlete. Ward still owned 14 FSU football records at the time of his induction into the FSU Hall of Fame.

via Seminoles.com

Chris Weinke: 88.1%

Florida State quarterback Chris Weinke literally rewrote the Seminole record books during his remarkable career as the Seminole’s quarterback. Weinke, who came to FSU after a five-year professional baseball career, led Florida State to a unanimous National Championship in 1999 as a junior and followed that by taking FSU back to the national title game as a senior and winning the Heisman Trophy. A native of St. Paul, Minnesota, Weinke led the nation in passing as a senior in 2000 with 4,167 yards. He virtually swept the major awards that year by adding the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm, Davey O’Brien and a host of Player of the Year honors to his Heisman. Weinke was the first three-year starter for Bobby Bowden and had a 32-3 record as the starter. His passing efficiency as a senior (163.1) was the highest ever for an FSU quarterback and ranked second nationally. Weinke threw 79 career touchdown passes for the Seminoles and at the time of his graduation ranked 12 in NCAA history in TD passes and 18th in career passing yardage. In addition to his remarkable on-field accomplishments, Weinke was awarded a national NACDA post-graduate scholarship for academic excellence and was an all-district Academic All-American. His jersey #16 has been retired by Florida State.

via nolefan.org

Jameis Winston: 83.3%

The youngest player ever to win the Heisman Trophy completed his 27-game career as one of the greatest quarterbacks in Florida State, ACC and college football history…won his first 26 starts – a feat unmatched by major NCAA Division I quarterbacks all-time…led Florida State to a national championship in 2013 and the first-ever College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Rose Bowl in 2014, capturing countless honors along the way, including the Heisman Trophy, Davey O’Brien, Manning Award and consensus All-America honors in 2013…his career pass efficiency mark (163.28) ranks 10th in college football history (since 1956) and is an ACC and FSU record…his 2013 pass efficiency mark of 184.84 is the fourth-best in college football history and is an ACC and FSU record…holds the ACC career record for passing yards per game (295.0) and touchdown passes per game (2.41)…holds the Florida State career records for consecutive touchdown passes (27) and yards per attempt (9.4), and is tied with Chris Weinke for most 300-yard games (14) despite playing only two seasons…ranks second in FSU history in touchdown passes (65) and completion percentage (66.0)…ranks third in FSU history in passing yards (7,964) and sixth in career completions (562)…holds FSU single-season records for completions (305; 2014), touchdown passes (40; 2013), yards per attempt (10.6; 2013) and 300-yard games (7, twice; 2013-14 [tied with Weinke and Danny Kanell])…led the nation with four fourth-quarter comebacks in 2014 and had five for his career, including the 2013 BCS National Championship when he engineered a seven-play, 80-yard drive that culminated with the game-winning touchdown pass to Kelvin Benjamin with 13 seconds left in the game…earned two letters on the Florida State baseball team, helping the Seminoles grab the No. 5 national seed as the closer in 2014 and the No. 7 national seed as a reliever, outfielder and designated hitter in 2013…finished his collegiate career on the diamond with a 1.94 ERA, nine saves and a 2-2 record over 60.1 innings and 41 appearances.

via Seminoles.com

Jordan Travis: 28.2%

Has played 35 games at FSU and is 426-for-689 passing for 5,888 yards and 45 touchdowns while also compiling 1,734 yards and 24 touchdowns on 336 carries and adding one touchdown reception…enters 2023 as one of four active players nationally with at least 5,500 passing yards and 1,700 rushing yards…one of six players in FSU history and only active player nationally to rush for at least seven touchdowns in three straight seasons entering 2023 season…holds FSU career records for quarterback rushing yards and quarterback rushing touchdowns…only player in program history ranked in top-10 on FSU’s career passing touchdowns and rushing touchdowns lists…accounted for 70 total touchdowns, which ranks 4th on FSU’s all-time list…7,622 yards of total offense ranks 6th in program history…tied for 9th on program’s all-time career touchdown passes list…ranks 11th on FSU’s all-time career passing yards list and 12th on program’s career completions list…tied for 15th in program history with three 300-yard passing games…only FSU quarterback to reach 1,000 career rushing yards…responsible for top-two single-season rushing yards by an FSU quarterback and three of top-eight seasons…rushing touchdowns total is tied for 9th on program’s all-time list and rushing yards are 20th-most in program history…only player in program history with three passing and two rushing touchdowns in single game…seven straight games played with rushing touchdown was longest stretch by quarterback in program history…produced program-record streak of six consecutive games accounting for at least three touchdowns…only quarterback in FSU history to have four straight games with at least one rushing and one passing touchdown…first quarterback in program history with back-to-back 100-yard rushing games…owns two longest runs by quarterback in program history.

The three top choices were no surprise — Florida State’s trio of Heisman-and-national-title-winning gunslingers were found on just about every ballot submitted, with Charlie Ward (FSU’s first Heisman/natty winner) earning the highest percentage.

Where things got interesting, though, was that fourth slot. While Casey Weldon held steady with 23.8% of the vote, current Seminoles’ quarterback Jordan Travis earned the fourth-highest margin, earning his spot on the mountain.

Is it too early to crown Travis as one of the best to ever do it under center in Tallahassee? Perhaps, especially with a season full of big expectations on deck, but it’s hard to argue with the numbers that the West Palm Beach quarterback has thrown up — with 11 more touchdowns, Travis (70) will move into first all-time at Florida State for touchdowns responsible for, passing Winston (72), Rix (75) and Weinke (81).

The rest of the top ten:

Casey Weldon: 23.8%

Danny Kanell: 14.8%

Steve Tensi: 10.5%

Peter Tom Willis: 6.8%

Gary Huff: 6.6%

Danny McManus: 6.1%

So there you have it, folks. What do you think about these choices? Did your four get selected?

Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to vote to keep an eye out each week to vote for your top four choices in each position group.