Bo Jackson Makes a Difference as Auburn Routs Florida State

The final score wasn’t close Saturday as 12th-ranked Auburn pounded No. 4 Florida State, 59-27, but Seminole Coach Bobby Bowden figured his team might have won with one extra player.

That player: Auburn senior tailback Bo Jackson.

“Bo Jackson was the difference in the game,” Bowden said. “He’s one of the greats of all time.

“I think if we would have had him, we probably would have won the game. The teams were fairly even. He’s the difference.”

Jackson, the nation’s leading rusher, reeled off touchdown runs of 53 and 35 yards, helping the Tigers ease ahead in the third quarter, and the Tigers’ defense turned the game into a rout in the final period, running back two interceptions for touchdowns.

“In the fourth quarter, we made them make their own mistakes and then we took advantage of them,” said Jackson, who gained 176 yards in 30 carries.

“This was a typical Auburn-FSU game for three quarters,” Tiger Coach Pat Dye said, “but the mistakes and turnovers caused it to break open.

“This is one of the biggest wins since I’ve been here,” he said. “I don’t know when I’ve had this much fun.”

Both teams are 4-1.

Jackson put Auburn ahead, 7-0, with his 53-yard run less than two minutes into the game, then gave the Tigers a 31-17 advantage in the third quarter with his 35-yard touchdown.

Florida State quarterback Eric Thomas, who came off the bench in the second quarter when starter Danny McManus suffered dizzy spells, rallied the Seminoles with a fourth-down, 48-yard pass play to Hassan Jones, setting up a score that closed the gap to 31-24 late in the third quarter.

Florida State then stopped Auburn on a fourth-down play in the fourth quarter and cut Auburn’s lead to 31-27 on a 46-yard field goal by Derek Schmidt.

But Auburn piled up four touchdowns to turn the game into a runaway. The scores came on Freddy Weygand’s 13-yard run on a reverse, Kevin Porter’s 33-yard run with his second interception of the game, 250-pound lineman Ron Stallworth’s 22-yard interception return and Demetrius Threatt’s 8-yard run.

Thomas completed 6 of 16 passes for 165 yards but was intercepted three times.