Florida State Routs Florida 30-7
T A L L A H A S S E E, Fla., Nov. 19, 2000 -- Florida State made a strong case for a
chance to defend its national championship, beating Florida in the
game that usually gives the winner a title shot.
Chris Weinke fought off the flu and threw for 353 yards andthree touchdowns—two to Marvin Minnis—as No. 3 Florida Statehad a surprisingly easy time beating its bitter state rival 30-7 onSaturday night.
The Seminoles (10-1) completed their regular season by beatingthe No. 4 Gators (9-2) for the third year in a row, but now have towait two weeks to find out if they’ll play for the BowlChampionship Series’ title in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 3.
Florida, the SEC East champion, still has a chance to play inthe Sugar Bowl if it beats Auburn in the league title game Dec. 2.
The Seminoles can feel good about their chances because thewinner of the Florida-Florida State game has gone on to play forthe title five of the last seven years.
In the 45th meeting between these powers, a Doak CampbellStadium-record crowd of 83,042 witnessed the Seminoles mostimpressive performance of the season.
Over 83,000 in the Stands
Weinke completed 23 of 44 passes, and his second TD pass of thegame—a 34-yarder to Minnis in the first quarter—made him theAtlantic Coast Conference’s career passing leader, moving him aheadof Duke’s Ben Bennett. Weinke, who also enhanced his Heisman Trophychances, has thrown for 9,789 yards in his career.
Minnis, who caught three TD passes in last week’s win over WakeForest, had eight catches for 187 yards. For Florida, Jesse Palmerwas 17-of-30 for 180 yards and two interceptions. Rex Grossman, whotook the first snap and didn’t return until the game was decided inthe fourth quarter, also threw an interception. He finished10-of-16 for 98 yards.
With the win, Florida State extended its unbeaten streak at hometo 52 games, dating to 1991, and its home winning streak to 35games, dating to 1994.
Holding a 14-7 lead at the half, the Seminoles took control inthe third period thanks to Weinke’s passing and Florida’spenalties.
William McCray capped an 80-yard drive with a 1-yard TD run, butthe Gators hurt themselves with two pass interference calls—oneagainst Lito Sheppard trying to stick with Minnis, the other onTodd Johnson, who was flagged for holding Minnis on the goal line.Florida was penalized 14 times for 116 yards.
Fans Rushed the Field
The Seminoles extended the lead to 27-7 on Weinke’s final TDpass—a 51-yarder to Minnis with 1:08 left in the quarter.
When Palmer tried to bring back the Gators, the Seminoles’defense came up with big plays. First, free safety Chris Hopeintercepted a pass intended for Reche Caldwell to stop one drive.Then, Tay Cody made his second interception of the game, this oneoff Grossman, and returned it 58 yards to set up Brett Cimorelli’s33-yard field goal with 10:42 left in the game.
When the game ended, fans rushed the field to congratulate theplayers, and oranges were tossed onto the field.
Now comes the wait.
Florida State, third in the current BCS standings behindOklahoma and Miami, is expected to move ahead of Miami when the newpoint totals are released Monday. Miami (9-1) beat Syracuse 26-0 onSaturday night and closes its season next week against BostonCollege.
The BCS standings are based on four components—the AP mediapoll and the coaches’ poll, eight computer rankings, strength ofschedule and number of losses. Florida State is expected to gainground in the strength of schedule and computer rankings.
“Again, I’ll leave it up to the computer,” Florida State coachBobby Bowden said. “And it better not betray me.”
Key State Election Officials at Game
With the presidential race taking a backseat for the night,Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, his secretary of state Katherine Harris andabout 60 state legislators were part of the crowd that saw acontest that was decided in 3 hours, 20 minutes.
Florida State didn’t wait long to seize a 7-0 advantage. Afterforcing Florida to punt on the first series, the Seminoles tookover and Weinke went to work, completing 6 of 8 passes for 70yards, the final one a 17-yard TD toss to Atrews Bell just 5:49into the game.
The Gators came right back on their next possession to make it7-all. Palmer completed passes of 21 yards to tight end AaronWalker and 29 yards to Jabar Gaffney before finishing off the82-yard drive with a 5-yard TD pass to Walker.
The tie was broken 56 seconds later when Weinke found Bell for42 yards and, on the next play, hit Minnis for a 34-yard touchdownpass.
While Weinke was accurate in the first quarter, he wasintercepted twice in the second. Palmer didn’t fare much better.
First, Cody intercepted a pass by Palmer, but Weinke gave theball back to the Gators on the next play when his pass was pickedoff by end Alex Brown, who returned the ball 22 yards to theFlorida State 48.
The next time the Seminoles got the ball, Weinke moved them tothe Gators 25 with completions of 19 yards to Anquan Boldin and 30yards to Minnis. But Johnson intercepted Weinke’s next pass at the11, was hit and fumbled but recovered the ball to stop the scoringthreat.
Weinke came down with flu symptoms Friday and spent eight hoursin the hospital taking intravenous liquids. He slept at teamphysician Kris Stowers’ house, and made it to the stadium healthyenough to lead the Seminoles to their biggest win of the season.
And perhaps a chance to defend their national championship.