Freshmen help the Seminoles top 500 yards for the fourth time this season.
By BRIAN LANDMAN, Times Staff Writer
Published October 23, 2005
[AP photo]
Florida State running back Lorenzo Booker leaps over Willie Reid while being taken down by Duke's Chris Davis, left, and DeAndre White in the first half.
DURHAM, N.C. - Florida State receiver Greg Carr and his fellow offensive freshmen dared to talk among themselves about the possibilities before the season even began.
"Once we came in and saw our whole class, we felt that the next couple of years, this could be a very explosive team," he said.
The future sure seems to be now.
Carr and freshman tailback Antone Smith combined for five touchdowns and, with freshmen receivers Rod Owens and Richard Goodman, 224 of FSU's 539 yards in Saturday afternoon's 55-24 win against the predictably overmatched Duke Blue Devils.
That's the fourth time this season the Seminoles have racked up more than 500 yards. They didn't hit that mark at all last season and did it just nine times in 51 games from 2001-04.
Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Chris Weinke led FSU to 10 consecutive games of 500-plus yards in 2000, the last time FSU reached the Bowl Championship Series finale.
"It makes you think your future looks pretty doggone decent," coach Bobby Bowden said. "I may make it to 77."
For Bowden, who turns 76 on Nov. 8, and his No. 11-ranked Seminoles (6-1, 4-1 Atlantic Coast Conference), the present doesn't seem so bad, either.
Particularly on offense, where, oh by the way, he has been relying on redshirt freshmen quarterbacks, former Land O'Lakes star Drew Weatherford primarily and Xavier Lee.
Weatherford bounced back from his first error-plagued game (three interceptions in a loss at Virginia last weekend) by completing 24 of 32 passes for 276 yards, two touchdowns and one interception, which came on a desperation pass in the waning seconds of the first half.
Good thing, too.
The usually stout FSU defense continued its alarming recent trend of allowing too many big plays and too many points. The Blue Devils (1-7, 0-5) hadn't scored 24 or more against FSU since 1997, when they lost 51-27.
But whenever the Blue Devils scored, giving the sparse crowd of 21,731 at Wallace Wade Stadium something to cheer about, the Seminoles had an answer offensively.
"We haven't been able to do that in a long time," Bowden said. "We haven't been able to do that in five years. ... When the other team gets momentum, then you've got to get it back. And we did get it back."
Credit those precocious freshmen.
After the Blue Devils cut FSU's lead to 24-14 midway through the third quarter, Weatherford, Smith, Owens and Carr got it going to all but seal the win. Weatherford was 3-for-3, hitting each of those players once, for 55 yards, and Smith carried five times for 18 yards, including a 1-yard touchdown.
"It just shows you how good our young guys are," Weatherford said. "It's nice to have guys like that, that are young and aren't necessarily expected to produce that much but come out and produce."
"I was just doing what I had to do," said Owens, who had a 26-yard reception on that drive. "If I have the ball, I try to do something special with it."
Carr followed with the second of his three touchdowns, the last two from Lee, and Smith provided one of the most dazzling moments of the game with a 45-yard touchdown run on which he broke five tackles to get past the line of scrimmage.
Smith, whom coaches plan to use more with senior Leon Washington (hip pointer) and junior Lorenzo Booker (bruised collarbone) nursing minor injuries, said he didn't know how many players had a shot at him until "I looked up at the big TV."
"That was amazing," Lee said. "They (the freshmen) make a lot of plays for us, and they're making us look real good."
They're also helping the defense, which hadn't been the norm the past four seasons.
"I'm ecstatic," senior linebacker A.J. Nicholson said. "Oh man, it's been a while. ... When you have a scoring offense like we do now, it just helps tremendously and it takes pressure off. Lately, we've been needing it."
"I think we have one of the best freshmen class ever to come through here," Smith said. "One of these years, we're going to win the national championship, I really believe that."
