Dec. 4, 2005

By David Droschak
Theacc.com

Complete Statistics

Florida State started the season with a defensive shutdown of arch-rival Miami. The Seminoles turned in another virtuoso effort on that side of the ball in the inaugural ACC Championship game on Saturday night.

The 14-point underdog Seminoles (8-4) hemmed in all-ACC quarterback Marcus Vick for three quarters and stoned the league's best rushing attack to claim the program's most unlikely of their 12 conference titles since joining the ACC in 1992, beating heavy favorite Virginia Tech 27-22 in front of 72,749.

Virginia Tech rushed for 333 and 277 yards the last two weeks, but was held to 41 yards on 31 carries as the Seminoles erased a month of poor play with some great D.

"Because of the circumstances this win is more meaningful," coach Bobby Bowden said. "I knew we would come out of this eventually, I just didn't think it would be this week."

Atlantic Division champion Florida State, which headed into the first-ever ACC title contest on a rare three-game losing streak, will now play in a BCS game for the sixth time in the last eight seasons.

Meanwhile, the Hokies (10-2) saw their hopes of an Orange Bowl matchup with Penn State die after allowing 24 points in a disastrous third quarter. The loss was similar to a 27-7 defeat to Miami a month ago in Blacksburg, Va., when the Coastal Division champion Hokies failed to execute on offense and shot themselves in the foot with a whopping 17 penalties.

A 3-3 halftime tie was broken up by two Florida State scores in a span of three minutes. The first touchdown was a thing of beauty with Willie Reid returning a punt 83 yards.

An interception by Vick led to a second quick score as Leon Washington burst up the middle from 14 yards out. A 15-yard face mask penalty against the Hokies aided that drive.

A leaping 41-yard catch by Reid later in the quarter helped set up a 41-yard field goal by Gary Cismesia - an important kick that put the run-oriented Hokies three scores down and all but out of it.

"The key was we had to win the third quarter because that's usually Virginia Tech's quarter, that's when they beat people," Bowden said. Virginia Tech's night was summed up late in the third quarter when David Clowney dropped what would have been a 65-yard TD pass. But there was illegal procedure on the play -- the Hokies' 11th penalty of the night. Josh Morgan also dropped that would have been a 76-yard score with 11:39 left and the Hokies trailing 27-9.

Vick did lead a fourth-quarter comeback, but it wasn't enough as the Seminoles now head to the Orange Bowl.

"Give Florida State credit," Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer said. "They reacted to the criticism and they've got some great athletes. They put us in too much of a hole."

The first half was played close to the vest, filled with tons of defense, costly penalties and a bit of luck for Virginia Tech to keep the score tied 3-3.

Twice the Hokies fumbled in Florida State territory, but were saved by recoveries from tight end Jeff King. Florida State took the opening kickoff and drove to the Virginia Tech 14 as Drew Weatherford surprised the Holies by completing passes of 11, 17 and 38 yards before the march stalled.

Meanwhile, Vick was bottled up for most of the first half, but managed to come up with a 35-yard completion on a third-and-10 scramble that helped tie the score late in the first quarter. The Hokies appeared to be their way to a touchdown on the drive that was kept alive by a FSU illegal participation penalty, but a block in the back on a nice Vick run deep in Florida State territory stymied the drive.

Virginia Tech got three straight completions from Vick late in the second quarter, but an intentional grounding penalty by the all-ACC quarterback helped give the ball back to the Seminoles near midfield with 12 seconds left in the half.

But instead of attempting a few passes with three timeouts left, the Seminoles elected to take a knee and head to the locker room to regroup after rushing for just 17 yards.

Once there, injury-riddled Florida State found out that another one of its players had gone down, this time linebacker Marcello Church, who suffered a broken ankle early in the second quarter.

"Our coaches did a great job of piecing this team together," Bowden said.