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Seminoles pound Western CarolinaLargest margin of victory in history of FSUBy LYNSIE BREAUX TALLAHASSEE, FL - Bobby Bowden entered his 33rd season Saturday as coach of the Seminoles technically one game behind Penn State coach Joe Paterno as the winningest coach in Bowl Championship Series (BCS) football. And after starting the game nearly 90 minutes late due to rain, Bowden once again tied Paterno with a convincing 69-0 trouncing of the Western Carolina Catamounts.
This is the largest margin of victory in the history of the school. Bowden, however, was not concerned with his role in history. "I don't pay much attention to it (being tied as the coach with the most wins in BCS history)," Bowden said. "And I don't really think Joe does either. It's not like there's anyone behind us so it's going to be one of us that gets the record." While the Seminoles performance on the scoreboard was impressive dominating every statistic except time of possession, the outlook for the rest of the season may prove a tough row to hoe. FSU only started eight seniors while more than 30 true freshman played in their first ever college game. Overall, however, Bowden and defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews were pleased with the team's performance. "Our kids did better than I thought we would," Bowden said. "That's the kind of game we needed." After forcing West Carolina to go three and out on the opening possession senior cornerback Tony Carter took the punt at his own 32-yard-line and ran it back for the first score of the season. That score held through the first quarter. Florida State earned two first downs while giving up four. However, two of the first downs FSU relinquished were on pass interference penalties. After missing a relatively short field goal to open the second quarter, Quarterback Christian
The Seminoles executed a five-play drive that took slightly more than two minutes off the clock. Ponder completed all three passes in the drive with senior running back Antone Smith capping the drive with a five-yard touchdown run. After forcing the Catamounts to once again go three and out, FSU responded with a 41-yard pass to freshman wide receiver Bert Reed. The defense responded by allowing Western Caroline negative yardage on the ensuing drive. And the FSU offense once again mounted a scoring drive to take a 28-0 lead on a six-play, 61-yard drive culminating with a touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Corey Surrency. After giving up 84-yards of total offense in the first 22 minutes of the game and struggling to maintain a 7-0 lead, the Seminoles gave up only four yards in the final eight minutes of the half en route to a 28-0 halftime lead. "Sometimes, the offense has to jump start the defense," Andrews said. Ponder was pulled after racking up three touchdowns and nearly 200 yards passing early in the third quarter. When fellow sophomore D'Vontrey Richardson took over the Seminoles were already up 35-0. Richardson added another 17 points before being pulled for senior Drew Weatherford late in the game. Weatherford added a final touchdown to make the score 69-0 and the defense held on for the shutout. "That's the first shutout we've had in a long while," Andrews said. "We just had more good players than they did tonight." The Seminoles are hoping that tonight's performance will turn around what has been described as lackluster ticket sales. The reported attendance for the game Saturday was 73,024, the lowest reported attendance since a 2005 game against Virginia Tech and the lowest opening day attendance since 1999. However, the rain apparently held many of fans away with many of the seats open after the final rain delay.
Scoring Summary: 1st 13:11 FS - Carter, T 68 yd punt return (Imeokparia, E. kick), , WCU 0 - FS 72nd 06:54 FS - Smith, A 5 yd run (Imeokparia, E. kick), 5-56 2:01, WCU 0 - FS 14 03:48 FS - Reed, B 41 yd pass from Ponder, C (Imeokparia, E. kick), 2-50 1:17, WCU 0 - FS 21 01:28 FS - Surrency, C. 7 yd pass from Ponder, C (Imeokparia, E. kick), 6-61 1:30, WCU 0 - FS 28 3rd 13:32 FS - Carr, G 54 yd pass from Ponder, C (Imeokparia, E. kick), 3-66 1:24, WCU 0 - FS 35 10:51 FS - Richardson, D 52 yd run (Imeokparia, E. kick), 2-59 0:53, WCU 0 - FS 42 09:46 FS - Richardson, D 7 yd run (Imeokparia, E. kick failed), 2-4 0:46, WCU 0 - FS 48 03:29 FS - Fortson, J. 3 yd pass from Richardson, D (Imeokparia, E. kick), 7-80 3:11, WCU 0 - FS 55 4th 09:17 FS - Thomas, J. 12 yd run (Imeokparia, E. kick), 7-71 3:52, WCU 0 - FS 62 01:01 FS - Thomas, J. 5 yd run (Imeokparia, E. kick), 9-55 5:29, WCU 0 - FS 69
RUSHING:Western Carolina-Quan Warley 14-38; Josh Wright 5-23; Evan Williams 2-9; Jayson Williams 4-7; Andy Horn 1-minus 5; TEAM 1-minus 6; Adam Hearns 6-minus 9. Florida State-Thomas, J. 13-91; Richardson, D 4-68; Smith, A 7-46; Ponder, C 3-39; Jones, C. 2-24; Reed, B 1-13; Surratt, J 1-6; Easterling, T 1-3. PASSING:Western Carolina-Andy Horn 6-17-0-53; Adam Hearns 4-7-0-66; Zack Jaynes 0-1-0-0. Florida State-Ponder, C 11-17-0-196; Richardson, D 5-6-0-57; Weatherford, D 1-2-0-18. RECEIVING:Western Carolina-Marquel Pittman 5-89; Donald James 2-15; Adam Hearns 1-8; Dion Wilson 1-7; Kyle Garland 1-0. Florida State-Owens, R 4-61; Reed, B 3-77; Carr, G 3-67; Fortson, J. 2-20; Surrency, C. 2-14; Wade, C 1-18; Reliford, B. 1-8; Easterling, T 1-6. INTERCEPTIONS:Western Carolina-None. Florida State-None. FUMBLES:Western Carolina-Adam Hearns 1-0; TEAM 1-0; Andy Horn 1-1. Florida State-Jones, C. 1-0; Richardson, D 1-0. Stadium: Doak Campbell Attendance: 73024 Officials: Referee: Jack Childress; Umpire: Mark Pellis; Linesman: Tyrone Davis; Temperature: 79 Wind: SSE 8mph Weather: Rain with Thunder |
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