Florida State’s Rix Goes From Dazed to Dazzling

A little ice and some pain reliever was all Florida State’s Chris Rix needed Saturday to take care of Maryland’s unbeaten season.

Rix, dazed after a first-quarter hit by Maryland’s E.J. Henderson, was on the bench as his Seminoles fell behind the 10th-ranked Terrapins, 14-0. But he wasn’t going to let a little headache keep him out of an Atlantic Coast Conference slugfest that had three ties and three lead changes.

“They put some ice on my neck and gave me some Advil,” said Rix, who threw five touchdown passes to lead No. 19 Florida State to a 52-31 victory that put the Seminoles right back in the ACC championship hunt. “The pain is gone now, but I know I’ll feel it tomorrow.”

Rix threw two touchdown passes to Talman Gardner late in the second quarter to help the Seminoles claim a 21-17 halftime lead and then threw three more touchdown passes in the fourth quarter.

“Hopefully I gave people some reasons to believe in me,” Rix said.

The Seminoles (5-2, 4-1 in the ACC) are 74-3 in the conference since joining in 1992 and a perfect 39-0 at home. They are 12-0 against Maryland, including 10 victories in ACC play.

The Seminoles can claim at least share of their 10th straight league championship if they win their remaining three conference games. Maryland (7-1, 5-1) and North Carolina, which didn’t play Saturday, also have one conference loss.

“We’re not out of this by any stretch of the imagination,” Maryland Coach Ralph Friedgen said. “We have to beat Clemson and we have to beat N.C. State and there could be a two-way or a three-way tie.”

Maryland tied it at 31 with 1:53 left in the third quarter on quarterback Shaun Hill’s one-yard sneak, but the Terrapins were no match for the younger, explosive Seminoles in the final quarter.

“With 11 minutes to go, I really think it’s anybody’s ballgame,” Friedgen said. “They made plays when they had to make them.”

Rix teamed with Gardner, who finished with six catches for 140 yards and three scores, Javon Walker and Atrews Bell for the decisive fourth-quarter touchdowns.

“You get close to a real good team and you want to win so bad it hurts,” Friedgen said. “When you don’t get it done, it’s really irritating. We played hard, we just didn’t play smart. That’s the story of the game.”

Florida State scored its points in bunches, getting 21 second-quarter points in less than three minutes and putting up 21 more in just over five minutes in the final quarter.

A redshirt freshman who was under scrutiny by Florida State coaches after a rash of interceptions in recent games, Rix completed 15 of 24 passes for 350 yards as he brought the Seminoles back.