Florida State Receiving Touchdown Records: Warrick’s Extended Stay Led to All-Time TD Mark

The era of graduate transfers and post-COVID "super seniors" introduced many five and six-year FBS athletes to primetime college football viewers in the early 2020s. But the idea of a pigskin star performing five-plus years on campus isn't that new. Florida State's wide receiver Peter Warrick surpassed receiving stats produced by legendary names like Fred Biletnikoff and Anquan Boldin, setting the Tallahassee program's all-time career record for touchdown receptions in the Seminoles' national championship year of 1999. 

Two other FSU receivers have come close to breaking Warrick's mark of 32 career TD catches since the Y2K phenom moved on to the NFL. They all had to jump over a high bar set by a wide receiver from the 1970s. 

Larry Jones is not thought to have been a successful head coach at Florida State, collapsing to 0-11 in his third season and getting fired in 1973. It's no coincidence that Jones' team lost more games that season than in Jones' previous two years combined, given that WR Barry Smith was out in the flat catching passes from 1970-1972, in which the Seminoles went 22-12 overall under Jones and previous coach Bill Peterson. 

Long, fast, and durable, Smith caught 69 passes for 1,243 yards and 13 TDs in his senior year, setting a prodigious TD reception record within his era of FSU football with 27 career touchdowns through the air. Smith went on to play four seasons in the National Football League with Green Bay and Tampa Bay. 

FSU receiver E.G. Green was one of Bobby Bowden's best weapons on the boundary. Green also set the precedent for Warrick's extended run as the Seminoles' top receiver, staying five seasons as a redshirt athlete. Green's breakout season of 1995 included over 1,007 receiving yards and 10 TD receptions. 

Green surpassed his sophomore year with 11 touchdown catches in a 1000-plus yard senior campaign. Following the Florida State Seminoles' Sugar Bowl victory of 1997, Green's teams had amassed an eye-popping total record of 56-6-1. Green went on to play for Tampa and Indianapolis in the NFL. The Fort Walton Beach native broke Smith's record with 29 TDs, but the new mark didn't last long. 

Not all of FSU's best receivers have had a knack for getting to the pylon. Boldin only caught 21 touchdown passes in his time in Tallahassee, while Biletnikoff only caught 16. Peter Warrick's career yardage total was surpassed by Rashad Greene in 2014, but his record of 32 TD catches still stands today. 

Warrick did more than redshirt as a new recruit. The 5-foot-11 Bradenton product actually played all five years he was in Tallahassee, though he was only used a token amount as a teenager. Warrick was turning into a star by the time his sophomore semester began, posting an amazing 21.7 yards per catch on just 11 receptions in 1996, and leading Florida State's WR corps to more New Year's bowl game victories. 

Warrick's best year was his junior campaign of 1998, in which the speedster caught 12 TD passes and netted 1232 receiving yards. While he didn't break the 1000-yard mark again in 1999, FSU's target of opposing triple-coverage still found room to catch a career-high 71 balls, catching eight more TDs. 

Did we say Peter Warrick's senior year didn't stack up? That's not true in light of the Sugar Bowl. Warrick stayed on in the postseason to enjoy his finest shining hour as a Seminole, catching two electrifying TD passes and returning a punt 59 yards for a TD to vanquish QB Michael Vick and the Virginia Tech Hokies, bringing national championship glory to Tallahassee for a third time. With the game occurring on January 4, the "2000 Sugar Bowl" committee needed no debate before voting Warrick the MVP of Y2K's title tilt. 

Warrick would play in six NFL seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals and Seattle Seahawks. Greene, who set FSU's receiving yardage record with 3830 yards, played for the Jacksonville Jaguars until 2018. 

It may be a matter of time before all of Warrick's receiving records are broken at FSU. College offenses are increasingly wide open in the 2020s. If FSU's future play-callers go with the modern trend of calling "fade" passes on first down at the goal line, catching 30-plus TD passes could someday be a matter of routine.

Then again, college football's WRs are being asked to play more versatile roles than ever. A fast, talented wide receiving star will be carrying the ball on reverses, throwing back on trick plays, and sealing tricky downfield blocks like Cooper Kupp as often as he's catching and running. It's possible that the next legendary wideout at FSU will surpass Warrick's stats in combined TDs, but not in TD receptions.