51-17 Doesn’t Mean Much to Bowden

Maybe the Florida State offense is getting spoiled.

The third-ranked Seminoles spent an off week reinstituting their no-huddle attack, but Coach Bobby Bowden was still unhappy with his offense despite rolling up 527 yards and 27 first downs in a 51-17 rout of North Carolina State on Thursday night.

“I’m not satisfied with our offense at all,” Bowden said. “Everything we did offensively was scored off of something that wasn’t structured, it wasn’t the way it was set up--a guy scrambled around and some receiver cut loose and got a touchdown out of it.

“It just seems like we are trying to do this, and let’s go try some of this and how about some of this,” Bowden added. “We are just not good enough at something. We are going to try to answer it.”

Up next is No. 11 North Carolina at Tallahassee, Fla.

“We haven’t got no more play time. The next time we play we better know what we’re doing,” Bowden said.

Thad Busby showed some of the improvement Bowden was hoping for Thursday night, throwing two 29-yard scoring passes. Warrick Dunn rushed for 108 yards to complement Busby and the Florida State defense shut down its second consecutive opponent.

The Seminoles (2-0, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) blew out the Wolfpack for the fourth consecutive time, outscoring them 224-40 during that span.

N.C. State (0-2, 0-2) hadn’t lost its first two games since 1987, when it finished 4-7.

Busby threw for only 75 yards in a season-opening 44-7 victory over Duke 12 days ago after suffering from a sore arm. The junior was sharp against the Wolfpack most of the night as he got plenty of time to throw. He completed 17 of 26 for 251 yards.

His 29-yard scoring pass to diving E.G. Green on the last play of the first quarter gave the Seminoles a 10-0 lead. Busby also found Andre Cooper wide open for an over-the-shoulder touchdown pass midway through the third quarter.

Shevin Smith’s 61-yard interception return five minutes later increased the lead to 37-3 as the Seminoles improved to 14-1 in ACC road games.

Busby was replaced in the fourth quarter by Dan Kendra, who also threw two scoring passes and had 94 yards through the air.

“I wanted to get our second quarterback some work so I didn’t pull him off at the end, you saw him throwing it,” Bowden said. “I’m sure somebody will complain but I had to get him the work.”