Half of the Elite Eight is set. One day after Charlie Ward and Jameis Winston claimed the first two spots, the next two went to all-time defensive greats Deion Sanders and Marvin Jones.
Sanders, the No. 1 seed in the Defensive Playmakers bracket, cruised past No. 4 seed Terrell Buckley with more than 91 percent of the vote. Jones, the No. 2 seed, had a tougher time with No. 3 seed Derrick Brooks, but he advanced by claiming 59.4 percent of the vote.
The action continues today with two battles in the Offensive/Defensive Line bracket.
No. 1 seed Walter Jones vs. No. 3 seed Rodney Hudson
No. 1 seed Peter Boulware vs. No. 2 seed Andre Wadsworth
If you need more information and insight, we present bios on each player below:
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All voting will be done on our Tribal Council message board, and the voting window is 24 hours. Each round offers an opportunity for Warchant subscribers to win a $25 e-card to Garnet & Gold. That prize will go to the person who makes the most compelling and/or original argument for their vote.
If you already know who gets your vote, click here to make your picks on the Tribal Council:
The Matchups
No. 1 seed Walter Jones vs. No. 3 seed Rodney Hudson
Walter Jones is considered one of the best offensive tackles in the history of football. The Alabama native played just one season at Florida State, but it was a memorable one. Jones, who played at Holmes Community College for two seasons before transferring to Florida State, started all 12 games for the Seminoels in 1996. He helped lead FSU to an undefeated regular season and then was selected with the sixth pick in the first round of the 1997 NFL Draft. He went on to a career that saw him make the Pro Bowl nine times, and he was a first-team All-Pro four times. He also was a member of the NFL all-decade team for the 2000s and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2014 in his first year of eligibility.
Rodney Hudson was fairly unheralded when he arrived at Florida State as a three-star prospect in 2007, but he impressed coaches and teammates from day one with his work ethic, toughness and attention to detail, and he took over a starting job early in his freshman year. Hudson went on to anchor FSU's offensive line for the entirety of his college career and earned first-team All-ACC honors following his sophomore, junior and senior years. The Alabama product was a unanimous first-team All-American as a senior and received the Jacobs Blocking Trophy as the top lineman in the ACC. He went on to be drafted in the second round of the NFL Draft and has earned multiple trips to the Pro Bowl.
No. 1 seed Peter Boulware vs. No. 2 seed Andre Wadsworth
Peter Boulware holds the Florida State record for sacks in a season with 19 in 1996. He ranks second all time with 34 career sacks (Reinard Wilson has the record with 35.5), and he would have shattered the mark if he had stayed for his senior year. During that 1996 season, the lightning-fast Boulware was the ACC Defensive Player of the Year, a unanimous first-team All-American and the Football News National Defensive Player of the Year. The South Carolina native, who burst onto the scene with 10 sacks as a sophomore in 1995 (despite only starting two games), was one of the key cogs in a 1996 defense that allowed just 11.1 points per game in the regular season and finished with an astounding 67 sacks. Boulware was the No. 4 overall pick of the 1997 NFL Draft and went on to a stellar pro career.
Andre Wadsworth still remains the highest-drafted defensive player in Florida State history. The former walk-on worked his way into the defensive line rotation early in his career and then became one of the greatest to ever wear the garnet and gold. Wadsworth's 1997 season was one of the most dominant by any college player. The consensus All-American finished with 16 sacks and 19 tackles for loss in leading Florida State to an 11-1 record. The 16 sacks are the second most in a season in school history, only trailing former teammate Peter Boulware's 19 in the year before. Wadsworth ended up being the No. 3 overall pick of the Arizona Cardinals in the 1998 NFL Draft. He was the highest selection ever for Florida State until Jameis Winston was taken with the No. 1 pick in 2015.
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About the tournament
We've broken down the field of 64 into four 16-team brackets:
* Offensive Playmakers
* Defensive Playmakers
* Linemen (offensive and defensive)
* Legends/Special Teams
The first three "regions" are pretty self-explanatory. The final one is a combination of eight Seminole "legends," which we've defined as players who graduated by 1985 (just before the Dynasty era really began), and eight special-teams players.
The special-teams players were broken down further into two four-team brackets -- kickers/punters and "specialists" (return men or players who specialized in blocking kicks).
* CLICK HERE for a printable bracket -- updated with Round 1 & 2 results
(Note: Players who already held a spot in one of the other categories were not eligible to also be selected as specialists. That is why Deion Sanders, Peter Warrick and Terrell Buckley are not listed there.)
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