Colleges

Not quite all the way back

Retooled FSU improves - but only after its "worst half'' digs a huge hole.

By BRIAN LANDMAN
Published September 4, 2007

James Davis pulls away from a Florida State defender on his way to scoring a touchdown to put Clemson up 14-0 in the first quarter.
	[Times photo: Willie J. Allen, Jr.]

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Scott Keeler] FSU quarterback Drew Weatherford fumbled the ball after being sacked late in the fourth quarter on a drive. He recovered the ball. Weatherford was running from Clemson all game and found himself on the ground many times as well.

CLEMSON, S.C. - At the risk of dampening enthusiasm, Florida State coach Bobby Bowden had tried to temper the sky-high expectations of fans for his team's new-look offense.

The Seminoles, Bowden warned again and again, weren't going to move up and down the field simply with Jimbo Fisher, the new coordinator and quarterbacks coach and the most hyped of five staff changes, in charge.

Boy was he right.

Worse - and FSU fans couldn't have been prepared for this one no matter how intently they listened to their coach -was that for way too long Monday night this offense looked so much like the old one led by Jeff Bowden.

After falling behind 24-3 at halftime, the No. 19-ranked Seminoles rallied, but could only do what last year's team did so often, come tantalizingly close only to lose, 24-18 to Clemson in front of a boisterous, sellout crowd of 83,000 at Memorial Stadium.

"We woke up too late, I don't know why," said Bowden, who has lost three straight and four of the past five to his son Tommy in the "Bowden Bowl," the father-son coaching matchup. "The first half was the worst half I've seen us play."

For the record, the Fisher era as the instant savior, if you listened to the ardent FSU fans and not the man who hired him, began with 256 yards of offense in the opener for both teams. The Seminoles averaged 330.3 yards last year.

FSU mustered just 62 yards in the first half and that's including a 22-yard scramble by quarterback Drew Weatherford on its first play.

"With six first-time starters, we looked a little starry-eyed," Fisher said.

"I thought we were ready to play and obviously we weren't," Weatherford added.

For all their woes, in all phases, the Seminoles drew to within six behind the resurgent play of both tailback Antone Smith, who had all 90 of his yards in the second half, and Weatherford.

Weatherford hit receiver Richard Goodman for a 15-yard touchdown that cut the Clemson lead to 24-18 with 11:40 left and looked poised to take the lead in the waning minutes.

Weatherford (17-of-34 for 142 yards) completed a pair of passes to Smith for 37 yards and then Smith ran 12 yards to the Clemson 31. But from there, the Tigers gave Weatherford little time to do anything. He had one pass batted down, he was leveled as he threw another and, on fourth and 10, he was sacked for the fifth time.

"Florida State is a good football team," Tommy Bowden said. "I knew they wouldn't quit, and they could have easily folded. I give them a lot of credit."

That FSU had the chance for a comeback against the Tigers was stunning considering how it played for so long. The offense's struggles had a lot to do with the revamped and inexperienced line's inability to push the Tigers off the line of scrimmage or give Weatherford time.

"We blew more assignments than we've blown in years," Bobby Bowden lamented.

The Tigers, with a rebuilt offensive line and a first-time starter at quarterback (Cullen Harper) continually started drives near midfield in the opening quarter.

Harper had a pair of touchdown passes (11 yards to tight end Brian Linthicum and 41 yards to receiver Aaron Kelly) and tailback James Davis broke two tackles on a 29-yard touchdown run for a 21-0 lead.

After the teams traded field goals, the Tigers botched a punt and took a safety late in the third quarter. That seemingly sparked the whole team.

"At first we had doubts, being a young offense, but once we started moving the ball, we gained a little confidence," said senior guard Shannon Boatman, who didn't start but played most of the game.

"We came out with a different mindset," Smith said of the second half. "The first game, everyone was kind of like scared; they had butterflies. In the second half, we just came out with a little more enthusiasm."

Brian Landman can be reached at landman@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3347.

[Last modified September 4, 2007, 01:35:06]