Florida State Takes Offense to Syracuse

You can say this about the Syracuse Orangemen: They came. They saw. They mocked.

But like everyone else who plays No. 1-ranked Florida State these days, they lost--and big, too, 46-14, before 61,231 rain-soaked, tomahawk-chop-crazy fans at Doak Campbell Stadium.

The Seminoles didn’t merely beat the 10th-ranked Orangemen, they humbled them. They spotted Syracuse leads of 7-0 and 14-7--the first time Florida State has trailed since last Oct. 20--and then unleashed an offensive attack that caused even Seminole defensive teammates to shake their heads in amazement.

“If we used it all, I don’t know what the score would be,” linebacker Howard Dinkins said of Florida State’s many offensive weapons.

Quarterback Casey Weldon threw three touchdown passes--one to running back Edgar Bennett, one to split end Matt Frier and one to flanker Shannon Baker. Weldon’s backup, Brad Johnson, added a scoring pass of his own, this one to tight end Lonnie Johnson. Bennett also ran for a touchdown, as did second-team tailback Sean Jackson.

In all, eight Seminoles caught passes. Amp Lee, one of the few players in the Florida State backfield who didn’t score, rushed for 106 yards. So what else is new?

By game’s end, the Seminoles had gained 642 yards, the most ever given up by a Syracuse team. And for the second consecutive week, they had disposed of another top 10 contender. Last Saturday it was No. 3 Michigan. This time it was the Orangemen, who spent most of the second half trying to catch their breaths in the tropical humidity--to say nothing of catching the Seminoles.

“There’s no way they can prepare for humidity,” Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden said. “You can’t coach humidity. You can put the oven up to 120, but if ain’t humid, that’s not going to help. You’ll just get a sunburn. But the humidity was there--the good Lord answered my prayers.”

Actually, divine intervention didn’t have a whole lot to do with Florida State’s victory. If anything, Dinkins said, the Orangemen could have had it worse.

“Hey, they were lucky the sun wasn’t out,” he said.

Aside from that 7-0 lead and the performance of wide receiver Qadry (Missile) Ismail--209 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns--Syracuse’s day featured few highlights. For starters, the Orangemen (4-1) made the mistake of taunting and mocking Florida State’s revered pregame ceremony, always a no-no.

As always, Chief Osceola rode Renegade onto the Florida State field and then hurled a flamingspear into the ground. The ritual is meant to claim the turf as Florida State’s own.

Syracuse players weren’t impressed. They charged near midfield and began waving their arms, as if to say, “Show us what you’ve got.”

“And that’s what we did,” Seminole linebacker Marvin Jones said. “That’s what they wanted, right?”

If it was, the Orangemen will think twice about asking again. So dominant was Florida State, Syracuse was outgained, 609-64, after the Orangemen’s second possession. That works out to a little more than a yard a minute for the Syracuse offense during the remaining 52:21 of the game.

“Ain’t too many out there that can touch (us),” Dinkins said. “Once we got warmed up, we’re like a runaway freight train with a full tank of gas.”

It took a little while for the Seminoles to reach the appropriate warming point. On the second play of the game, quarterback Marvin Graves handed the ball to halfback David Walker, who promptly turned around and tossed it back to Graves, who then found Ismail wide open for a 44-yard touchdown pass.

The Seminoles responded with a touchdown of their own, but then watched Ismail return the kickoff 95 yards for his second--and Syracuse’s final--score of the game.

“We took a licking and came back ticking,” said Florida State cornerback Terrell Buckley, whose interception late in the second quarter was later called the key play in the game by Bowden. At the time, the Orangemen, trailing by only 17-14, were at the Florida State 37-yard line and driving. That’s when Buckley reached over Ismail’s shoulder pads and grabbed Graves’ pass at the Seminole 23.

For Buckley, who has now been assigned to Michigan wide receiver Desmond Howard and Syracuse’s Ismail in successive weeks, the interception was a payback of sorts. Earlier in the game, Buckley was beaten by Ismail on the scoring pass and also missed him on the 95-yard kickoff return.

Now then, who’s more dangerous--Howard or Ismail?

“Desmond is better,” Buckley said.

Florida State (5-0) has won 11 consecutive games and 14 in a row at Doak Campbell Stadium. In fact, Bowden said the weather and the crowd might have been the two most underrated factors of the day. So it was no surprise that when Bowden neared the tunnel leading to the Seminole locker room, he tossed his baseball cap to the fans.

And maybe it shouldn’t be much of a shocker that Bowden and his players also declared the Seminoles untouchable--at least for now.

“If we can stay healthy, you’d probably have to say it’s all mental now . . . until we get to Miami (and) Florida (their last two games),” he said.