Florida State vs. Miami: Wide Right, the Block at the Rock, and the Rivalry That Defined Florida Football.
The Florida State vs. Miami rivalry does not have a universally accepted nickname. It does not need one. It has Wide Right. The phrase covers three separate field goal attempts, three separate Florida State seasons, and three separate moments when the length of a football separated one outcome from another. FSU fans hear those two words and feel them. Miami fans hear them and smile. That gap in reaction is the rivalry.
Florida State and Miami first played on October 5, 1951. Miami won 35-13. The two programs met most years through 1969, when they agreed to play annually. Both teams joined the ACC, and have met as conference rivals every year since 2004. Miami leads the all-time series. Florida State holds the edge in the ACC era. Each decade has produced a different version of the rivalry, but the core tension has remained constant: two programs from the same state, competing for the same recruits, playing for the same fans who chose one over the other.
This article is part of Sideline’s College Rivalries series. The full series kickoff ranks the 12 greatest rivalries in college football. For more on Florida football culture, The Miami Hurricane’s oral history of the rivalry covers the full emotional history from the Miami side.
— THE ORIGIN —
Florida State vs. Miami: How the Rivalry Started and Why It Became Personal
Florida State and Miami share a state, a recruiting base, and an academic calendar. They do not share a fan base. In Florida, you pick one. The choice tends to be geographic, familial, or pure personal preference, but it is rarely neutral. FSU draws heavily from North Florida and the Panhandle. Miami draws from South Florida, particularly the Miami-Dade corridor that produces some of the most concentrated football talent in the country. Both programs claim that corridor. The recruiting battles between them have been personal for decades.
The rise of both programs
Through the 1970s, neither Florida State nor Miami was a national powerhouse. That changed in the 1980s. Miami hired Howard Schnellenberger and won a national championship in 1983 with a roster built almost entirely on South Florida talent. Florida State hired Bobby Bowden and built a program that would win at least ten games for 14 consecutive seasons. By the late 1980s, Florida State vs. Miami was not just a rivalry between neighboring schools. It was a matchup between two of the best programs in the country, often with direct implications for the national championship.
Annual stakes
From the late 1980s through the mid-2000s, the Florida State vs. Miami game frequently featured top-ten matchups, national championship implications, and Heisman Trophy candidates on both sidelines. The game produced future NFL stars at a rate that few rivalries could match. For recruits growing up in Florida, this game was the measuring stick. Winning it validated a program’s status as the dominant force in the state. Losing it, in the wrong year, could set a recruiting class back significantly.
— WIDE RIGHT —
Wide Right: The Kicks That Defined the Florida State vs. Miami Rivalry
No single phrase carries more weight in this rivalry than Wide Right. FSU fans carry it as a wound. Miami fans carry it as a trophy. The phrase covers three separate missed field goals across three separate seasons, each one deciding the game, each one in favor of Miami. Together, they form the defining sequence of the rivalry’s modern history.
Wide Right I: 1991
The first Wide Right happened on November 16, 1991, with No. 1 Florida State hosting No. 2 Miami. FSU led 16-7 heading into the fourth quarter. Miami rallied to take a 17-16 lead with just over three minutes remaining. Florida State drove down the field and set up a 34-yard field goal attempt for kicker Gerry Thomas with less than 30 seconds remaining. The kick sailed wide right by the length of a football. Miami won 17-16 and went on to win the national championship that season. FSU finished second.
Wide Right II: 1992
The following season brought a rematch with the same stakes. No. 3 Florida State faced No. 2 Miami. The game came down to another late FSU field goal attempt, this time from 39 yards. Kicker Dan Mowrey’s kick sailed wide right again. Miami won 19-16. Miami went to the national championship game in consecutive years and both times an FSU missed field goal helped deliver the win.
Wide Right III: 2000 and Wide Left: 2002
The third Wide Right came in 2000, when No. 1 FSU faced No. 7 Miami. Miami led 27-24 and FSU attempted a 49-yard field goal as time expired. The kick sailed wide right. Miami won 27-24. Two years later, in 2002, FSU attempted a 43-yard field goal against No. 1 Miami that drifted past the left upright. That miss became known as Wide Left, and it extended the pattern of FSU special teams failing at the decisive moment of this rivalry. Four game-deciding kicks in fifteen years. All of them missed.
“Four missed game-deciding field goal chances in 15 years. Miami fans saw it as destiny, FSU fans saw it as a curse. The series has not always tilted in Miami’s favor, though. From 2009 to 2016, the Hurricanes couldn’t beat the Noles a single time.”
— THE SERIES —
Florida State vs. Miami All-Time Record: Eras, Streaks, and Where the Rivalry Stands
FSU’s era of dominance: 2009-2016
Florida State took control of the series through the 2009 to 2016 stretch. The Seminoles won eight consecutive games against Miami during this period, a run that included the 2013 national championship season when FSU finished undefeated. During those eight years, Miami never beat Florida State once. The Block at the Rock in 2016 extended that streak in memorable fashion: FSU blocked Miami’s extra point attempt late in the game to win 20-19, with DeMarcus Walker getting the block. It was Florida State’s seventh consecutive win in the series.
Miami’s recent resurgence
Miami’s streak ended eventually, and the Hurricanes have been more competitive in recent years. Miami won the last two meetings: 36-14 in 2024, with quarterback Cam Ward throwing for 208 yards and Damien Martinez running for 148 yards and two touchdowns, and 28-22 in 2025. Miami entered 2025 as a national title contender and finished the year 13-3, playing in the national championship game before losing to Indiana. The back-to-back wins over FSU confirmed the Hurricanes’ resurgence under coach Mario Cristobal. Miami leads the all-time series 37-33. Florida State leads the ACC era since 2004 at 13-9.
The 2026 game
Florida State and Miami meet again in 2026 as ACC rivals with both programs in different stages of rebuilding. The game carries the same weight it always has in Florida recruiting circles. The Wide Rights never fully fade. Each October when these teams meet, the memory of those missed kicks returns, and the question becomes which program has built enough to dictate the rivalry’s next era.
— WHAT THE RIVALRY MEANS —
State Pride, Recruiting, and Why Florida State vs. Miami Matters Beyond the Score
The Florida State vs. Miami rivalry matters to people who never played a down of college football because of what Florida football represents at the state level. Florida sends more players to the NFL than almost any other state. Two programs compete directly for the best of those players year after year. The family that splits between Miami fans and FSU fans does not argue about football in the abstract. It argues about players both sides watched grow up in the same high schools, the same youth leagues, the same neighborhoods.
The recruiting war
South Florida recruiting is the heart of what makes this rivalry feel different from most. Miami was built on South Florida talent in the 1980s. Florida State recruited heavily from the same area throughout the Bowden era. When a top recruit from Miami-Dade commits to FSU over Miami, or vice versa, it does not just change a roster. It changes what both programs can tell the next recruit from that area. The rivalry’s intensity at the fan level reflects the intensity of that competition for players at the high school level.
The current state of the rivalry
The two programs arrive at the 2026 meeting in very different places. Miami comes off a 13-3 season in 2025 that ended with a national championship game appearance, a genuine return to national relevance after years of rebuilding. Florida State is working to recover from a 2024 season in which the Seminoles went 1-7 in conference play. For rivalry games, records rarely predict outcomes. In this case, though, the gap between where both programs stand is wider than it has been in years. The Wide Rights are history. The 2026 game is October 17 in Miami Gardens. The next chapter is not written yet.
First played in 1951. Wide Right in 1991, 1992, and 2000. Wide Left in 2002. Eight straight FSU wins from 2009 to 2016. The Block at the Rock in 2016. Miami 36-14 in 2024. Two programs from the same state, competing for the same players, playing the same game every October.
The length of a football in 1991 still echoes across this rivalry. That is what Wide Right means.
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