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A closer look Walker's fourth-quarter sack put away FSU for good
Posted: Tuesday January 05, 1999 02:58 AM
By John Donovan, CNN/SI TEMPE, Ariz. (CNN/SI) -- Darwin Walker had to think for a second. But it was only a second. Amid the craziness surrounding Tennessee's convincing upset of Florida State for college football's national championship, somewhere behind all the talk of Peerless Price and Tee Martin and the Volunteers' first title in 47 years, it was Walker who may have made the biggest difference in the game. Yet even the quick-smiling junior defensive tackle from South Carolina didn't realize how big he came up -- until he thought about it. "Muy grande. It was very big," he said. "Yeah, it was probably one of the better plays I've made. No, as a matter of fact, this being for the national championship, for the right to be No. 1 ... in fact, it is the No. 1 play for me this year. I guess it was a good play. It kind of turned things around, I guess." In fact, Walker's sack of Florida State quarterback Marcus Outzen early in the fourth quarter was to the Tennessee defense what Price's 79-yard touchdown catch was to the offense. In fact, the two will always be connected in Volunteers lore. The sack knocked Florida State out of field-goal range, forced the Seminoles to punt and, three plays later, Price pulled in the game-breaker from Martin as the Volunteers won, 23-16. The play that changed the game came on third down at the Tennessee 31. Florida State, down 14-9 at the time, had put together one of its better drives of the day. The Seminoles had moved from their own 26 and were well within the range of big-legged kicker Sebastian Janikowski, with more than 10 minutes left in the game. But, when Outzen dropped back to pass, Darwin came roaring around the left side of the offensive line and dumped Outzen for a 10-yard loss. Out of downs, out of field goal range -- out of luck -- the Seminoles had to punt. Three plays later, the game was essentially over. "We were running games on the d-line," said Walker, a consensus all-Southeastern Conference tackle who led the team in sacks, with six. "What I mean by that was we were doing some twists and stunts with the linemen, trying to catch the offensive linemen off guard." It worked. Florida State left tackle Tarlos Thomas, a 310-pounder, found himself moving to the inside, while Walker looped around then burst straight at Outzen from his spot at right end. Game, set ... national championship. "That was a big play," All-America linebacker Al Wilson said. "He [Walker] is one of the guys we look to, to make plays. And he came through for us." Even Florida State coach Bobby Bowden, looking every bit of 69 years old after losing yet another chance at a national title, saw that play as the game-stuffer for his struggling offense. "We had what we call a switch call, where two adjacent linemen are trying to block the two [on the outside]," he said. "They twist, and one of our guys picks it up and he's supposed to switch. The other guy didn't switch. It was a free shot. "That was a killer. That was a killer."
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