The fireworks started early in the second round of our FSU football Bracket Challenge, and they don't appear to be slowing down any time soon.
In another heavily anticipated battle, No. 3 seed Dalvin Cook knocked off Heisman Trophy winner and No. 6 seed Chris Weinke with just 50.5 percent of the vote in the Offensive Playmakers bracket. The voting went back and forth all day, and with a total of 731 votes cast, Cook advanced by a margin of seven votes.
In the other second-round battle Tuesday, No. 2 seed Jameis Winston cruised to a lopsided victory against one of his star receivers, No. 7 seed Rashad Greene. Winston recorded 92.3 percent of the vote to advance to the Sweet 16 of our tournament, which will determine the fans' choice for the No. 1 player in FSU football history.
That means the four players still alive in the Offensive Playmakers bracket are Winston, Cook, Charlie Ward and Warrick Dunn.
The action continues today with two matchups in the Defensive Playmakers regional.
No. 1 seed Deion Sanders vs. No. 8 seed Jalen Ramsey
No. 4 seed Terrell Buckley vs. No. 5 seed LeRoy Butler
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 Deion Sanders vs. No. 8 seed Jalen Ramsey
Deion Sanders is arguably the best cornerback in the history of the sport. He's an NFL Hall of Famer and was a two-time consensus All-American for the Seminoles in 1987 and 1988. He won the 1988 Thorpe Award as the nation's best defensive back and also led the country in punt-return average that season as well. As a freshman, he set a Florida State record with a 100-yard interception return for a touchdown against Tulsa, and then finished off the regular season with a 58-yard punt return TD against Florida in Gainesville. From there, the highlights just kept coming for the three-sport star. He was considered the best cornerback in the nation in 1987 and then was so good in 1988 that he finished eighth in the Heisman Trophy voting. He finished off his remarkable FSU career with a game-clinching interception in the end zone against Auburn in the 1989 Sugar Bowl. For his career, he had 14 career interceptions, three of which were returned for touchdowns. He also had three punt-return TDs as well. His No. 2 jersey has been retired by Florida State.
Jalen Ramsey was so good, so quickly, that he started every game as a true freshman in 2013 -- on a team that returned a boatload of NFL talent in the secondary and went on to win a national championship. The five-star recruit out of Tennessee then became one of the best players in the nation his final two years in college. He started at a hybrid DB/LB position as a sophomore, racking up 80 tackles, three sacks, two interceptions and three forced fumbles, and then followed that up with an All-America junior season at cornerback. The two-sport star (he was a track standout in the long jump as well) was a consensus All-American in 2015 and scored his lone career touchdown on a fumble return at Boston College. He was the 5th overall pick by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the 2016 NFL Draft.
No. 4 seed Terrell Buckley vs. No. 5 seed LeRoy Butler
Terrell Buckley played only three seasons at FSU before bolting early for the NFL -- a move that was fairly rare at the time -- but he still had enough time to etch his name all over the Seminole record books. The Mississippi native burst onto the national scene as a sophomore in 1990 by recording six interceptions and returning two of them for touchdowns. But his final season in garnet and gold is one that might never be duplicated. Buckley intercepted a school-record 12 passes that season and again returned two for scores, and he also proved to be one of the game's top return specialists. He earned consensus All-America honors that season and won the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation's top defensive back. More than 25 years after his career ended, Buckley still holds FSU records for interceptions in a season (12), in a career (21), in consecutive games (5), and several other marks.
LeRoy Butler will go down as one of the most versatile and productive defensive backs in Florida State history. The Jacksonville product emerged as a standout free safety for the Seminoles as a sophomore and junior before moving to cornerback as a senior in 1989 following Deion Sanders' departure. Butler intercepted seven passes that season and was named a Consensus All-American. His 87-yard interception return against Syracuse in 1989 remains one of the longest in school history, and he was a key figure in arguably the most famous play of the Bobby Bowden era -- the puntrooskie. Butler ran for 78 yards on that fake punt at Clemson and helped the Seminoles pull off a 24-21 victory. He went on to make several Pro Bowl appearances with the Green Bay Packers and was tabbed for the NFL's All-Decade Team.
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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 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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