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Seminoles roar back to life

After last week's pounding by UNC, Florida State recovers with a spirited 48-24 rout of Wake Forest.

By BRIAN LANDMAN

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 30, 2001

[Times photo: Joseph Garnett Jr.] QB Chris Rix shows poise while throwing for a career-high 345 yards and three touchdowns.

TALLAHASSEE -- Florida State coach Bobby Bowden hoped his youthful team would bounce back from a humbling loss with a vintage performance.

For a half Saturday night, his Seminoles looked remarkably like the Seminoles of old.

Not only did they scrap their conservative offense for their signature wide-open scheme, their defense showed passion and pop in an easy 48-24 win against Atlantic Coast Conference rival Wake Forest before a relieved crowd of 79,162 at Doak Campbell Stadium.

A week ago, the No. 18 Seminoles (3-1, 2-1) looked inept (five turnovers and 14 penalties) and lethargic in a 41-9 loss at North Carolina.

"They responded like the other teams we've had here," Bowden said. "They responded like the other teams that took a licking in the conference early."

FSU had lost two other ACC games, at Virginia in 1995 and at North Carolina State in 1998. Each time, the Seminoles rebounded and won the league title.

Can this one?

"I still see some shortcomings that we have," Bowden said ominously, given that top-ranked Miami comes to town Oct. 13. "Wake got a whole lot of yardage out there, didn't they?"

The Demon Deacons, in fact, amassed 436 yards. FSU also allowed two safeties (both in the fourth quarter, along with a touchdown) and committed 11 penalties for 99 yards. Still, the Seminoles allowed just seven first-half points. They allowed 34 in the second half against UNC.

"We wanted to redeem ourselves," said sophomore linebacker Kendyll Pope, who had two interceptions that set up first-half touchdowns.

"We gave up too many yards, but a lot of guys came up with big plays when we needed them and that's encouraging," senior safety Chris Hope said.

The Seminoles rolled up 387 yards and 42 points in the first 30 minutes. They finished with a season-high 512.

They had 224 yards last week.

It helped that the Seminoles began this game using the shotgun formation and multiple receivers in the pattern. A novel approach if you caught last week's debacle, when the Seminoles ran for all of 13 yards on their first eight plays.

"We opened up and threw the ball more," said redshirt freshman quarterback Chris Rix, who completed 16 of 21 passes for 345 yards and three touchdowns, both career highs. "We've wanted to establish the run in the past, that's what Coach Bowden wanted, but tonight he wanted to establish the pass. It allowed me to get into a rhythm and it helped me out."

Although he threw an interception on the game's third play, he followed with a 10-play, 80-yard drive that he capped with a 4-yard touchdown to junior receiver Talman Gardner.

That was FSU's first first-quarter touchdown of the season. FSU had scored three points total in the first quarter against Duke, Alabama-Birmingham and UNC.

"What was the difference? Everything. Everything you can imagine," junior offensive tackle Brett Williams said. "Focus. Intensity. Not letting up. Everyone knew what to do and did it at 110 percent."

The Demon Deacons (2-2, 0-2) answered on the next play as the FSU defense, which committed its share of gaffes last week, misplayed an option keeper by sophomore quarterback Anthony Young. He turned upfield and raced 71 yards for the tying score.

"We made a lot of little mistakes, but the good thing is they're all correctable," sophomore defensive tackle Darnell Dockett said. "To beat Miami, we've got to cut them out. But we came out with a lot of enthusiasm. We played hard tonight, harder than we've have all year. We wanted to win. We wanted to come together as a team."

It showed. FSU junior tailback Nick Maddox, who struggled mightily in his return to his home state last week, faked out cornerback Quintin Williams and broke a tackle by free safety Obi Chukwumah for a 17-yard scoring run to give FSU a 14-7 lead a few moments after Wake's score.

Maddox scored again a few seconds into the second quarter. Then, after Pope's first interception, Rix found senior receiver Javon Walker running past his defender for a 52-yard touchdown.

On FSU's next play, Rix stood in the pocket in the face of onrushing 275-pound Nate Bolling and threw a perfect pass to redshirt freshman B.J. Ward, a recently converted defensive back, for 31-yard touchdown. Sophomore tailback Greg Jones parlayed Pope's second interception into a 1-yard run for a 42-7 halftime lead.

"They were ready to play and we knew they would be," Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe said. "We just didn't match up very well with them and they took it to us."

Like old times.

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