No. 11 Florida State Outclasses Clemson

Bobby Bowden defeated his son one more time Thursday night and said this time it hurt.

“I had to win the stinking game and I had to whip him to do it,” Bowden said after No. 11 Florida State defeated son Tommy’s Clemson Tigers, 48-31, in an Atlantic Coast Conference game at Tallahassee, Fla.

“It’s not fun when you whip your son. [But] I didn’t tell him to get into coaching.”

Bowden, 72, has won 328 games, including four in a row over his 48-year-old son. The 328 victories are two fewer than all time-leader Joe Paterno of Penn State.

The Seminoles (5-1, 4-0) showed little confidence in their passing game and benched sophomore quarterback Chris Rix for most of the second quarter, but capitalized on four Clemson turnovers.

Now Florida State’s schedule gets significantly more difficult with a game at No. 1 Miami on Oct. 12.

“From what I see, it’s Miami and the rest of the world,” Bowden said. “We’re not at that level yet.”

But he was glad to bounce back from last week’s 26-20 defeat at Louisville.

“Clemson is playing with a lot of confidence and enthusiasm,” Bowden said. “They scared us.”

Greg Jones ran for three touchdowns, breaking eight tackles on the final scoring run, and set up a fourth with a long run that helped the Seminoles take a 28-24 halftime lead.

The Seminoles took advantage of poor special teams play by Clemson (3-2, 1-1) to take the lead.

Jones, who gained 160 yards last year at Clemson, finished with 165 yards in 22 carries to give the Seminoles their 11th consecutive victory over Clemson since they joined the ACC in 1992.

Clemson guard Nick Black was taken out on a stretcher after he broke his right leg in the first half.

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Minnesota 31, Illinois 10--Terry Jackson II rushed for a career-high 159 yards and Thomas Tapeh added 113 yards and a touchdown to lead the Golden Gophers past the defending Big Ten champions at Minneapolis.

Minnesota quarterback Asad Abdul-Khaliq completed 15 of 27 passes for 144 yards, throwing one scoring pass and an interception for Minnesota (5-1, 1-1), which rebounded from last week’s 28-15 loss to Purdue.

Brandon Lloyd caught five passes for 139 yards for the Fighting Illini (1-5, 0-2), who replaced quarterback Jon Beutjer late in the third quarter with Dustin Ward.

Only 32,663 fans showed up for the game, moved up two days because the Minnesota Twins are using the Metrodome on Saturday for Game 4 of their American League division series against Oakland. It was Minnesota’s smallest crowd for a Big Ten game since 31,293 watched the Purdue game on Oct. 9, 1993.