Florida-Florida State: Winner May Take All : College football: Unbeaten Gators or once-beaten Seminoles figure to play Nebraska in Fiesta Bowl.

Had Florida State not “stubbed its toe” against Virginia, as Coach Bobby Bowden put it, today’s game against Florida in Gainesville might have been too much for Floridians to take.

As it is, the shootout at “the Swamp” has been downgraded to simply huge.

Third-ranked Florida, 10-0 for the first time, puts its national title hopes on the line against No. 6 Florida State (9-1), literally inches from coming in undefeated itself.

As it turns out, the Seminoles’ 33-28 loss to the Cavaliers on Nov. 2, a heart-stopper in which the Cavaliers stopped tailback Warrick Dunn at the goal line as time expired, was not the end of the world.

Although Florida’s path to the national title is more linear--beat Florida State, beat Arkansas, beat Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl--the Seminoles have almost as much at stake.

And Florida Coach Steve Spurrier knows it.

“If they beat us, they go to the Fiesta Bowl,” Spurrier said.

True enough. Should the Seminoles defeat the Gators, then knock off an undefeated Nebraska, Florida State could claim the national title, provided Ohio State goes to the Rose Bowl undefeated and loses to USC.

Florida State players refer to the Virginia loss as “a wake-up call” after sleepwalking through so many games they admittedly became . . . bored?

“To be honest, yes,” Dunn said. “When you’re beating people 77-10, that gets outrageous. You hope the game will hurry up and end so we can go home.”

No one should be bored today. The Seminoles would say this game is bigger than Spurrier’s ego.

Spurrier is 1-4-1 against Bowden in this series and isn’t happy about it.

Last year at Tallahassee, Florida State rallied from 31-3 down in the fourth quarter to pull out a tie, then defeated the Gators in the Sugar Bowl.

“They were a little bit better than us,” Spurrier admits. “Heck, they just beat us. But a lot of people haven’t beaten FSU. We’re not the only ones.”

No concessions this year.

Florida has the nation’s No. 1 pass offense, led by quarterback Danny Wuerffel. Florida State is the nation’s leader in total offense, led by its Danny, Kanell.

Wuerffel and Kanell are virtual clones. In fact, Wuerffel admits that had he not chosen Florida State, he might have ended up at Florida and Kanell at FSU.

How big can a game get?

“It’s a little bigger than most years,” Spurrier said. “Mainly because we don’t have a loss.”