Colleges

Handing over a win

A late Miami drive then Xavier Lee's fumble stun the Seminoles.

By BRIAN LANDMAN, Times Staff Writer
Published October 21, 2007

Miami quarterback Kirby Freeman, top, throws a fourth-quarter pass during a college football game against Florida State, Saturday, Oct. 20, 2007, in Tallahassee, Fla. Freeman, taking over for injured quarterback Kyle Wright, led Miami to a 37-29 win over Florida State.
	[AP ]

TALLAHASSEE - While many of the Florida State Seminoles were dejectedly walking to their locker room Saturday, offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher and quarterback Xavier Lee lingered near the bench to chat.

Teacher and student had a lot to discuss.

Each recognizes there are shortcomings and each recognizes that time's getting short, not only for the Seminoles' season but perhaps for Lee remaining the starter.

Lee struggled with his poise when it mattered most and committed too many turnovers, which helped the Miami Hurricanes rally in the waning moments and pull off a stunning 37-29 win in front of an announced crowd of 82,728 at Doak Campbell Stadium.

"About the same as last week," FSU coach Bobby Bowden said of Lee.

The heralded redshirt junior, the solid No. 1 before this game, had the same M.O. in a loss at Wake Forest. He started well, 6 of 9 for 101 yards in the first quarter, but was just 8 of 23 for 107 yards, two interceptions and two lost fumbles the rest of the way.

"That's the one thing that is scary about Xavier," Miami coach Randy Shannon said. "When he's on, he's on. When he's off, he's off."

Both Bowden and Fisher said they will consider long and hard about whether to make yet another change at that critical position and perhaps return to Drew Weatherford.

"We've got to look at it," Fisher said.

The Seminoles 4-3, 1-3 ACC play host to Duke on Saturday before entering a daunting November schedule with games at No. 3 Boston College, at No. 11 Virginia Tech, against improving Maryland then at No. 14 Florida.

"It hurts," Bowden said of the loss. "We needed this ballgame. The toughest games are ahead."

Okay. Okay. Neither team was ranked entering the game for the first time since 1977, but this game was vital to rebuild some confidence, not just for the Seminoles, but also the Hurricanes (5-3, 2-2), who had lost five straight road games.

And there was plenty of excitement, with FSU scoring on linebacker Toddrick Verdell's interception return and Miami perfectly executing a fake field goal with kicker Francesco Zampogna hitting a wide-open DajLeon Farr for a touchdown.

Still, the Seminoles looked to have this one safely behind them, up 29-24 and moving. That's when safety Randy Phillips delivered a big play for the Hurricanes, his second interception that he returned 36 yards to the FSU 11.

But on fourth-and-1 from the 2, FSU linebackers Geno Hayes and Derek Nicholson stopped quarterback Kirby Freeman, in for Kyle Wright (he injured his left ankle and knee midway through the second quarter), short of the first down with 5:29 left.

"We were feeling good," Nicholson said. "We knew we were going to go back out on the field and we knew we had confidence. ... But it just snowballed."

The Seminoles got just one first down and had to punt and Freeman, the ineffective starter for Miami's first two games, looked like one of those stellar UM quarterbacks of yore. He hit all three of his passes, after going 1 for 8, including a 13-yard touchdown to tight end Dedrick Epps in the right corner of the end zone with 1:15 left.

"He's a quarterback," Shannon said. "Remember early in the season when I said we have to make sure that we have both of these quarterbacks, and most of the time ya'll might have looked at me and said, 'I can't believe Coach is saying that.' Well, you know what? Kyle went down and Kirby had to be ready to play."

When the Seminoles got the ball back, Lee was hit by tackle Teraz McCray and fumbled on the next play and linebacker Colin McCarthy, a former Clearwater Central Catholic standout, picked up the ball and returned it for a touchdown nine seconds later.

Lee didn't bounce back.

He did, however, bounce three straight passes to open receivers to all but end the game, thus the two gathered to chat.

"We just need to learn how to finish games. It's just that simple," Lee lamented.

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

[Last modified October 20, 2007, 23:54:55]