Seminoles Play Like the Best Team in the Nation : Fiesta Bowl: Florida State’s Bowden not pushing for playoff after Willis leads 41-17 rout of Nebraska.

His team might benefit as much from it as any other, but Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden remains opposed to a playoff system that would determine a true major college football champion.

Arguing that it wouldn’t be fair to the players, Bowden said: “If I wanted to get hung and shot and killed, I’d go in there and say, ‘Hey, men, don’t pack those bags, don’t pack those pads. We’re gonna get them back out and go for two more weeks.’ I’d get shot. They’d shoot me.”

Only then would Bowden know how sixth-ranked Nebraska must have felt Monday in Sun Devil Stadium, where quarterback Peter Tom Willis and No. 5 Florida State shucked the Cornhuskers, 41-17, in the Fiesta Bowl.

Willis threw for Fiesta Bowl records of 422 yards and five touchdowns, completing 25 of 40 passes. The Seminoles, unbeaten in their last eight bowl games, overcame a slow start to ravage the Cornhuskers by scoring on six of eight possessions in the second and third quarters.

It was an overwhelming victory, the 10th in a row for the Seminoles after losses against Southern Mississippi and Clemson to open the season, but it’s not expected to to give them their first national championship.

No team with two losses has ever won a national title, but Florida State has made a strong claim to be the first.

The Seminoles, though, don’t believe they have a chance.

“I really believe that if you asked anybody who’s voting, they’d say that today, Florida State is probably the best team in the country. But over a 12-game haul, it ain’t gonna hold up.”

Some voters, though, are sure to support the Seminoles.

Said Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne, whose team had lost only to Colorado, 27-21, in 11 previous games: “We felt like, with Colorado, we played them very well and could have won the game. This game here, turnovers aside, they seemed to be a dominant football team.

“Some people have said that after they beat Miami, they might be the best team. Who am I to argue after they best us this badly?”

Nebraska, ranked sixth, had given up more points in a game only once in 17 seasons under Osborne, yielding 42 last season in a 21-point victory over Oklahoma State, and the Seminoles scored all of them in a span of less than 30 minutes.

After the Seminoles had staggered through the first quarter with an uncharacteristically conservative attack, Bowden unleashed Willis in the second 15 minutes, when the quarterback completed 12 of 14 passes for 210 yards and three touchdowns.

In the third quarter, Willis was nine of 16 for 167 yards and two touchdowns and the Seminoles, who overcame early deficits of 7-0 and 10-7, increased their lead from 21-10 at halftime to 41-10 entering the fourth quarter.

“Every game, we usually waste a few downs and see if we can establish a running game,” Bowden said. “Everybody says you’ve got to establish the run, so we try to establish the run. As soon as we get through wasting our time doing that, we start throwing the ball around and start moving. We just said, ‘Hey, let’s start throwing the stinking ball.’ ”

With a quarterback as talented as Willis, a senior who broke several school records in his only season as a starter, and probably the nation’s finest group of wide receivers, throwing the ball seemed only logical.

Eight receivers caught passes, including wideout Terry Anthony, whose six receptions accounted for 88 yards and two touchdowns, and tight end Reggie Johnson, whose three receptions included two for touchdowns.

Wideout Ronald Lewis caught five passes for 105 yards, and tailback Dexter Carter, who ran for 72 yards in 13 carries, caught three passes for 47 yards and a second-quarter touchdown.

“We just put so much pressure on teams because we have so many people,” Willis said. “It’s not just the wide receivers. We have great backs and tight ends. They can’t cover everybody. Somebody’s going to be open.

“It’s just my job to find them.”

He usually did, but Willis found fault with his performance.

“I know you all are going to laugh when I say this, but I didn’t feel like I threw the ball that well,” he said. “I don’t think this was my best game. My receivers just made some great catches. I feel fortunate to have those guys on my team.”

Had Bowden ever wondered what Willis might have accomplished if he had started for more than just one season?

“Yes,” he said with a laugh, “but I like my job. I don’t like people to know how dumb I am, so I don’t bring that up too much. He’d have broken every kind of record, made All-American and been in the running for the Heisman Trophy.”

He’ll have to settle, instead, for being the offensive most valuable player in the Fiesta Bowl and engineering an uncommon rout of Nebraska, which hadn’t lost this badly since 1977, when it was beaten by Oklahoma, 38-7.

“We knew he could throw the ball really well,” said Osborne, whose bowl record of 8-9 includes an 0-4 mark in the Fiesta Bowl. “We just thought we’d cover it a little better than we did.

“We knew he was going to complete some passes, but we were hopeful that we wouldn’t give up the deep ball. It was the deep balls that hurt us.”

Seven of Willis’ completions were for 20 or more yards.

“Willis really played very well,” Osborne said, “but when you talk about Willis, you’ve got to include his receivers. They’re really good, and they did a great job catching the ball.

“A couple of times, they had people open. And a couple of times, they made great catches--it was a jump ball and they came up with it.”

Meanwhile, the Seminole defense forced five Cornhusker fumbles, recovering three of them, and also intercepted a pass by quarterback Gerry Gdowski, who had only two passes picked off in the regular season.

Florida State also blocked a punt, setting up a third-quarter touchdown that made it 34-10.

It couldn’t have been much more one-sided.

Asked if the Cornhuskers seemed out of sync, Bowden laughed and said: “They either were out of sync or we sure are good. I ain’t sure which. I’ve got a feeling we’re pretty good.”

But not good enough to win a vote for the national championship.

“We’re probably as good as any team in the country,” Bowden said, “but we’re not going to win it.”

At least, not in a vote.

And, since there is no playoff, there’s no other way.