North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State
#14 Florida State
Wolfpack Gets Win No. 10! Topples FSU Again
11/23/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov 23, 2002
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C.--For three straight frustrating weeks, NC State didn't take advantage of its opportunities to become the first team in school history to notch 10 victories in a season. On Saturday, the Wolfpack got No. 10, and did it the hard way: By beating the best team in the ACC. For the second consecutive year and third time in five seasons, the Pack stunned storied Florida State, this time by a final score of 17-7.
And this one probably wasn't as close as the score might indicate.
NC State (10-3, 5-3) used a dominating defensive effort, big plays in the kicking game and a ball-hogging offense to hand FSU its first and only ACC loss of the year. Ironically, the Seminoles (8-4, 7-1) still captured outright possession of the league title for the 10th time in 11 years by virtue of Virginia's triumph over Maryland in Charlottesville.
On Saturday, however, it was NC State that looked like a championship team, especially a defensive unit that certainly put together one of the most memorable performances in the annals of Wolfpack football.
"It's a tremendous effort," Amato said of a defense that held Florida State's league leading offense to zero points and 177 yards. "It's a shame that it won't go down as a shutout, but we'll take it. Time of possession was huge. We had the ball over 40 minutes and they had it just over 19 minutes. When the other team's offense is sitting on the sideline, that's the best offense you can have."
Florida State's only points came after holder Chris Young fumbled on a fake field goal attempt midway through the third quarter. Linebacker Michael Boulware scooped up the loose ball and raced 84 yards untouched down the right sideline to give the Seminoles a brief 7-3 lead. FSU, which was averaging 204 yards on the ground coming in, only picked up 34 yards rushing on Saturday. Feeling pressure from a variety of Wolfpack blitzes, red-hot quarterback Adrian McPherson was held in check, hitting just 8-of-20 throws for 80 yards to go along with four sacks.
"We simply couldn't get anything going on offense," said Florida State coach Bobby Bowden. "Our quarterback struggled. I felt like we had people open but just missed them. I'll have to look at the film real good."
When he watches the film, he'll see blitzes from linebackers, corners and safeties. He'll also see an NC State defense that went full throttle from the first snap of the game until back-up quarterback Chris Rix's final pass that was picked off by senior linebacker Dantonio Burnette in the end zone with just eight seconds left. And there were no prevent defenses on this night, not after NC State had come up short in the fourth quarter three straight weeks.
"I told the kids that we're going to let it all hang out," Amato said. "I told the coaches, `don't you hold anything back; play the third and fourth quarter just like we do the first and second quarter.' That's the way you have to play football when you believe you're a winner."
McPherson, a young quarterback who had put together three outstanding performances after taking over for Rix as FSU's starter, saw a little bit of everything from NC State's defensive playbook. And even when he was able to get what he wanted, senior Talman Gardner dropped what would have been a lengthy touchdown pass in the third period. But for the most part, the Pack defense made McPherson look like a player that was making only his fourth start on the Division one level.
"I think we had him rattled," said Burnette, who along with 15 other NC State seniors, played his final home game at Carter-Finley. "After that first sack by Shawn Price, it really just started snowballing. We were bringing pressure from every which way, showing him all kinds of different things. I think we had their offensive line confused a little bit. In the third quarter, I told coach to keep bringing it. I said let's just keep going after `em because they really don't know where we're coming from."
And though it produced just one touchdown, the NC State offense did a good job of keeping the Wolfpack defense fresh by hanging on to the football for long periods of time. In the second quarter, Florida State had the ball for only 3:11 as the Pack did a good job of mixing in runs by T.A. McLendon and short pass completions from quarterback Philip Rivers.
McLendon, who became only the fifth freshman in ACC history and just the seventh back in school history to surpass the 1,000-yard rushing plateau, powered his way to 114 yards on 27 carries. The "Baby Bull's" 15th touchdown of the year, a six-yard run with 1:25 left in the opening half, competed a five-play, 78-yard drive that gave the Wolfpack a lead it would not relinquish.
Following a scoreless third period, NC State managed to scratch out some rather unusual points in the final quarter. With 9:53 left in the game, Florida State was called for holding in its own end zone, which by rule is a safety. Leading 12-7, the Pack got a big field goal from Adam Kiker with 7:36 remaining to make it 15-7. Then NC State's special teams got into the act when Manny Lawson blocked a punt deep in FSU territory with 5:43 left. The ball rolled through the end zone for another safety to give the Wolfpack a fairly comfortable 17-7 advantage. Lawson's block was his third of the season. Seniors Julius Patterson and Jerrick Hall also got their hands on Florida State punts earlier in the game, giving the Pack 10 blocked kicks on the season (8 punts, 1 FG, 1 PAT) and 27 in Amato's three seasons.
Taking what Florida State's soft zones would give him, Rivers connected on 18-of-27 passes for 171 yards as the NC State offense produced 362 yards of total offense. The junior also became just the third player in ACC history to pass for more than 3,000 yards twice in his career.
The Wolfpack's possession time of 40:26 was the most since the 1987 team possessed the ball for 40:52 against Clemson.
When it was over, thousands of students and fans swarmed the field and overwhelmed security efforts to keep the goalposts upright. At that moment, the three painful losses to Georgia Tech, Maryland and Virginia seemed like a distant memory.
"It doesn't get any better than this," said Burnette. "It's a storybook ending and you can't put it any other way. We really wanted to get this win and it meant a whole for the seniors to go out there on senior night and get a win over Florida State. That's huge."
Huge indeed.
