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Left speechless

Seminoles coach Bobby Bowden is at a loss to explain his team's third loss in ACC play.

By BRIAN LANDMAN

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 23, 2001

[Times photo: Carrie Pratt] QB Chris Rix drops the ball while being dragged down by UNC's Quincy Monk in the first half.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- The Tar Heels cavorted at their midfield emblem Saturday afternoon like they hadn't in years, but only their raised helmets were readily visible.

The players were swallowed up in a throng of giddy, surprised fans who couldn't have imagined their winless Heels would finally beat the perennial Atlantic Coast Conference standard-bearer, No. 6-ranked Florida State.

They didn't just beat FSU for the first time in 13 meetings.

They embarrassed the Seminoles 41-9 before 53,000 at Kenan Stadium.

"I ain't even got a speech for this," FSU coach Bobby Bowden said. "I ain't used to making these kind of speeches."

Not after an ACC game. The Seminoles (2-1, 1-1) came here with a gaudy 71-2 record against league brethren since joining the ACC in 1992 and had won outright or shared the league title all nine seasons. They had never allowed more than 35 points in an ACC game.

Not after many games, period. The 32-point loss was the worst since a 52-20 defeat in the national championship showdown against Florida in the 1997 Sugar Bowl.

"They got what they deserved, a win; we got what we deserved, a loss," Bowden said, adding that he didn't see much passion from his team and, even more telling, that "I didn't see anything that resembled poise."

The team looked rattled, and mistakes came from every facet.

Constantly harassed by a stellar front four led by All-America candidates Julius Peppers and Ryan Sims, redshirt freshman quarterback Chris Rix had two fumbles and threw an interception, the first turnovers of his career.

"The last thing I expected was to come in here and have North Carolina get the best of us; I didn't expect us to get shown up like we did," he said.

Junior tailback Nick Maddox, a North Carolina native who eschewed UNC for FSU, also lost a fumble, and sophomore cornerback Stanford Samuels fumbled away an interception return to give FSU five turnovers. It hadn't committed a turnover against Duke or Alabama-Birmingham. The five turnovers were the most by the Seminoles since Chris Weinke threw six interceptions in a 24-7 loss at North Carolina State on Sept. 12, 1998.

Seminoles receivers dropped several passes, which helped explain why Rix finished 8-for-21 for 112 yards and why the offense never seemed to find a rhythm.

The Seminoles committed 14 penalties, including an offensive holding on Brett Williams that nullified an 85-yard touchdown pass to Javon Walker when they trailed just 17-9.

Even the defense had its share of blunders. FSU had two costly roughing the passer calls that kept UNC drives alive and two rare gaffes in the secondary. Cornerback Malcolm Tatum slipped, fell and failed to grab receiver Chesley Borders, who caught a 52-yard touchdown from freshman quarterback Darian Durant for the go-ahead score early in the second half. Almost the entire secondary got fooled badly on a play-action fake, leaving UNC senior receiver Kory Bailey alone for a 53-yard touchdown from senior Ronald Curry.

"We did a lot of things that weren't Florida State-like," Maddox lamented.

But then, Carolina had something to do with that. For a change.

"This is one of the biggest wins in the history of the program," Peppers said.

The Tar Heels had never beaten a higher-ranked opponent (they beat No. 6 Duke in 1960 and No. 6 Navy in 1957) and desperately needed a win, any win. UNC (1-3, 1-1) had suffered from overambitious scheduling of No. 3 Oklahoma and No. 4 Texas, both on the road, and seemed headed for a long, long season.

Instead, it took advantage of opportunity.

Following Rix's first fumble, UNC took a 7-0 lead on a 20-yard touchdown from Durant to junior receiver Sam Aiken. Rix, limited initially by a conservative game plan, answered late in the second quarter.

Working out of the shotgun formation with five receivers, he evaded blitzing cornerback Derrick Johnson and hit junior receiver Talman Gardner with a perfect 29-yard touchdown. The Seminoles took a 9-7 halftime lead when UNC long-snapper Greg Warren sailed one over the head of punter John Lafferty and out of the end zone.

"I said at halftime, 'We've been in the place before; we were in this place at Maryland three weeks ago,' " UNC first-year coach John Bunting said. "I said to our players, 'Now let's make a difference.' "

After Samuels' fumble on the second play of the second half, which could have given FSU the ball at the UNC 30, Durant hit Borders for a touchdown that seemed to inspire the team.

"Once we got the momentum going and they had those turnovers, I knew the game was pretty much over," said Sims, watching the UNC fans celebrating and trying to tear down the goal post in the west end.

Now, FSU must start over. Much like it had to do after the N.C. State loss in 1998.

"This team has to decide what it wants to do; do they want to fight like that one did or what," Bowden said. The '98 team won 10 straight and reached the national championship game.

"We have to get back to Tallahassee and get back to work," senior safety Abdual Howard said. "We have to look at what we did wrong and get it corrected. This isn't my first time going through this. We've been through this before. I know we can overcome that. We did it before and I know we can do it again. ... We've got to do some soul-searching right now."

Rough spots

Florida State's worst losses under Bobby Bowden, coach since 1976:

(Date,Foe,Score)

9/18/76, Miami, 47-0

11/20/82, LSU, 55-21

12/3/83, UF, 53-14

10/12/85, Auburn, 59-27

9/3/88, Miami, 31-0

1/2/97*,UF, 52-20

9/22/01, UNC,41-9

* Sugar Bowl

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