Thirteen Heisman Trophy winners have played in the Fiesta Bowl. Nine were quarterbacks.

But the one who still holds the record for most touchdown passes in a Fiesta Bowl game (five), Peter Tom Willis, is not among them.



Now an executive in water damage mitigation, the former Florida State University quarterback and 1990 Fiesta Bowl Offensive MVP also set the Bowl record for yards thrown with 422. Thirty years later, that still ranks third in the Fiesta Bowl record book.

The Seminoles played in the first-ever Fiesta Bowl game in 1971, and in 1990 it was the second time in three years that FSU faced Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl.

"I don't know if everybody at the Fiesta Bowl knew how excited we were when we knew we were coming back, because it was everybody's favorite bowl," Willis recalled. "The weather was absolutely perfect. People are awesome out there. We all were cheering when we found out that that's where we were going to be going again. It was such a great atmosphere."

FSU did not like the atmosphere early in the game, trailing 7-0 in the first half of the Fiesta Bowl.

"And then finally, I think, Coach [Bobby] Bowden pulled the chains off us and let us go. We started hitting on all cylinders there in the second quarter," Willis said.

The Seminoles outscored Nebraska 41-3 in the second and third quarters, eventually winning 41-17.

"Every time we had the most success during that season was when we just decided we were going to attack and not worry about what the defense was going to do. We were going to play our game. That's when you're going to be successful," he said.

Success eluded Willis and the Seminoles early in the season. They started 0-2, losing to Southern Mississippi and a largely unknown quarterback named Brett Favre, the other at Clemson. FSU overcame a late deficit in the third game at LSU to begin a 10-game winning streak against what many called the toughest schedule in the nation.  

That season culminated a long journey for Willis, who played sparingly before landing the starting job in his fifth year.

A skinny, 170-pound kid from Alabama who once sold programs at Alabama football games, he arrived in Tallahassee in 1985 as part of the nation's top recruiting class. He found himself playing behind Chip Ferguson and Danny McManus for the next three years.

"When I was the second-string quarterback, I went against the first-team defense. When you're throwing against Deion Sanders every day, and you're going against all these guys who are future NFL stars every day in practice, it makes you into a better player."

As a senior, Willis set 15 school records and still shares the record for throwing six TDs in a game with Chris Weinke. He set a single-game record with 482 yards passing against Memphis, which now ranks fifth in the school record book. His 3,124 yards during the 1989 season is eighth all time, and was inducted into the Florida State Hall of Fame.

"I knew if I did my job and got them the ball, we were going to be successful. I put a lot of work into it, not just my senior year, but the first four years coming up to it, and I think it made me ready for that season."

The Seminoles finished the year ranked third in the polls, despite handing national champion Miami its only loss of the year. Many considered FSU the best team after the resounding win over Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl.

Drafted by the Chicago Bears in 1990, Willis was with the team for four years and still hadn't got all the football out of his system when he played for the Tampa Bay Storm, where he made second team All-Arena Football League in 1998.
"I started getting banged up a little bit and after my third year I realized it was time to hang 'em up," Willis said.

The first stop in his post-playing career was to run an irrigation company and serve as color commentator for FSU football radio broadcasts for 10 years. He worked sales for a commercial metals company and along the way, and played seven years on the Celebrity Players Tour.

"I still play a lot of golf. That's my one athletic thing I can still do and would play every day if I could."

Nowadays, Willis is a business partner with fellow FSU quarterback Casey Weldon, who Willis beat out for the starting role in the 1989-90 season. They run a water mitigation company near Tampa.

Living outside Tampa, they are infested with Gators. Willis, his wife and older son are Seminoles, but his younger son attends archrival Florida.

Always a football fan, Willis follows Florida State football and closely watches college football in his adopted state.

"It's better when all three schools are good. It's a lot more fun. We used to say that the national championship went through the state of Florida," he said. "I think everybody in Florida wants to get back to that situation again."

And he wouldn't mind seeing his Seminoles back in Arizona for another Fiesta Bowl.

"I had such a great time at the Fiesta Bowl, not just my senior year but two years prior to that," he said. "We had a great time, and the hospitality was unbelievable. It's always one of my very favorite bowls to watch every year."