Florida State football: 5 most underrated players in Seminoles history

Casey Weldon almost won a Heisman at Florida State.

Florida State has had three different quarterbacks bring the Heisman Trophy back to Tallahassee. Charlie Ward did it first, then came Chris Weinke and Jameis Winston did it most recently. But before all of them played of the Seminoles, Casey Weldon nearly did it himself, as he finished as runner-up to Desmond Howard of the Michigan Wolverines in 1991.

Weldon played for years for Bobby Bowden at Florida State, in what was their final year as a national independent before joining the ACC. He started as an upperclassmen in 1990 and 1991 after playing sparingly his first two years with the program. In 1990, Weldon completed 61.5 percent of his passes for 1,600 yards, 12 touchdowns and only four interceptions.

Then in 1991, Weldon really upped the ante, as he completed 60.4 percent of his throws for 2,527 yards, 22 touchdowns and eight interceptions. Florida State had asserted itself as a top-four program in the country, but had Weldon struck a pose like Howard did, maybe he would have brought the first Heisman Trophy to Tallahassee? Okay, maybe not, but he was so close.

Weldon would be a fourth-round pick by the Philadelphia Eagles in 1992 NFL Draft. He spent eight years in the NFL, primarily as a backup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Washington Redskins before retiring in 2001 as a member of the original XFL’s Birmingham Thunderbolts.

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