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Published Apr 20, 2020
The 'Battle of the Warricks' highlights Round 2 of our Bracket Challenge
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Ira Schoffel  •  TheOsceola
Managing Editor
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After finishing up the first round of our Warchant Bracket Challenge with the final two battles on the Defensive Line, it's time now to turn up the heat with some intense second-round matchups.

Before we move on, though, let's recap the final two votes from the first round: No. 2 seed Andre Wadsworth cruised past Odell Haggins with 67.3 percent of the vote, and No. 3 seed Corey Simon advanced past Darnell Dockett with 60.4 percent.

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And now it's time for the initial second-round matchups in our Offensive Playmakers Bracket. We'll start with No. 1 seed Charlie Ward vs. No. 8 seed Amp Lee, and then we'll have one of the most compelling battles of the entire tournament -- No. 4 Peter Warrick vs. No. 5 Warrick Dunn.

No. 1 seed Charlie Ward vs. No. 8 seed Amp Lee

No. 4 Peter Warrick vs. No. 5 Warrick Dunn

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 Charlie Ward vs. No. 8 seed Amp Lee

Charlie Ward left Florida State as the most decorated player in college football history. He won just about every possible individual award in 1993 and also led the Seminoles to the school's first-ever national championship. The dual-threat quarterback won the Heisman Trophy by one of the biggest margins in the history of the award and finished his career 22-2 as a starter. One of those losses came on a missed field goal at Miami, and the other was at Notre Dame in the national championship season. Ward's game-clinching 78-yard TD pass to Warrick Dunn in the 1993 Florida game is one of the biggest plays in program history. He also was the team's punter in 1989 and became a first-round NBA draft pick after starring for the FSU basketball team.

Amp Lee burst onto the college scene as a true freshman in 1989, totaling 562 total yards and six touchdowns as a backup to Dexter Carter. His slippery moves and gliding running style made him a fan favorite immediately, and he filled in for an injured Carter against Auburn and rushed for 110 yards in his first career start. He finished his three-year career with 2,092 yards rushing and 30 touchdowns. Always a threat out of the backfield, Lee also caught 70 passes for 968 yards and eight more TDs. Throughout Florida State history, only three players -- Warrick Dunn, Dalvin Cook and Greg Allen -- have scored more than Lee's 38 career touchdowns. His 16 rushing touchdowns in 1990 were the second-most in program history at the time.

No. 4 Peter Warrick vs. No. 5 Warrick Dunn

Peter Warrick was one of the most electric playmakers in college football history. He was a consensus All-American in 1998 and then helped lead the Seminoles to the national championship in 1999, scoring three touchdowns in the Sugar Bowl against Virginia Tech. He still holds the FSU record for receiving TDs with 32. He also had four rushing touchdowns and two punt return touchdowns. After redshirting his freshman year in 1995, along with then-roommate Randy Moss, Warrick had 22 catches for 467 yards and four TDs as a freshman, 53 catches for 884 yards and eight touchdowns as a sophomore, 61 catches for 1,232 yards and 12 touchdowns as a junior and 71 catches for 934 yards and eight touchdowns as a senior (this does not take into account his six-catch, 163-yard, two-TD performance in the national championship game). And to just top off his remarkable career, the former high school star quarterback also threw two TD passes, including one to Ron Dugans in the 1998 win over Florida.

Warrick Dunn was asked by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' coaching staff during a pre-draft workout what he did best on a football field. His answer was simple: "I score touchdowns." And he wasn't lying. Listed at 5-foot-8, Dunn was one of the smallest running backs in FSU history. He also might've been the best. The Louisiana native came out of nowhere in 1993 -- he started out the preseason fifth on the depth chart -- to lead the eventual national champions in touchdowns with 10. He then proceeded to rush for over 1,000 yards each of the next three seasons, finishing his legendary FSU career with 3,959 yards rushing, 1,314 yards receiving and a school-record 49 total touchdowns. In his final regular-season home game, he rushed for 185 yards in a 24-21 win over No. 1 Florida. In fact, during his four years at FSU. he always seemed to save his best games for the rivals -- he also rushed for 163 yards against Miami in 1996, 121 yards against the Gators in 1995, 184 against the Hurricanes that same year and then helped the Seminoles storm back in the Choke at Doak in 1994 with 10 catches for 96 yards against the Gators (he then added 182 all-purpose yards in the rematch in the Sugar Bowl).



Winner of $25 eCard from Garnet & Gold - Tom81


Click here to make your votes on the Tribal Council. If you're not yet a member of Warchant.com, start your 30-day Free Trial today.

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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