Florida State Answers the Critics

The constant questions. The stinging criticism. The growing cries for change. They’re all history.

At least for now.

The Florida State Seminoles are conference champions -- again.

Willie Reid returned a punt 83 yards for a touchdown, the defense continually harassed Marcus Vick and Florida State upset No. 5 Virginia Tech, 27-22, Saturday night in the inaugural Atlantic Coast Conference title game at Jacksonville, Fla.

The Seminoles (8-4) ended a three-game losing streak -- the program’s first since 1983 -- and won the league title for the 12th time in 14 years.

“We’re back to normal now,” said Reid, who finished with 210 all-purpose yards and was the game’s most valuable player. “We’re back to Florida State football.”

Florida State turned around a disappointing season and earned a bowl championship series berth in the Orange Bowl, where it is expected to face No. 4 Penn State.

Bobby Bowden vs. Joe Paterno -- the two winningest coaches in major college football history.

“Does it look like that? I might not show up,” Bowden joked.

Few could have envisioned that matchup. Not after Florida State was outscored, 89-36, in losses to North Carolina State, Clemson and Florida.

Boosters and fans were calling for Bowden to fire his son and offensive coordinator, Jeff Bowden. Some were even talking about the elder Bowden stepping down after 19 losses in the last five seasons. Others were already looking ahead and guessing how many in a row the team would lose; Florida State hasn’t lost four in a row since 1975, the year before Bowden arrived.

The Seminoles may have silenced those groans -- starting with Reid’s return, which sparked a 24-point third quarter that broke a 3-3 tie.

“We had to shut up all our critics,” Reid said.

Of course, they might have returned in the fourth quarter as the Seminoles conservatively worked the clock and Virginia Tech made a comeback.

Vick led the Hokies (10-2) to consecutive touchdowns in the fourth quarter -- a 29-yard pass to Josh Morgan and then a four-yard run -- that cut the lead to 27-15. He capped a 93-yard drive with a one-yard touchdown run with 1:45 to play that made it 27-22.

But Tech, without any timeouts, failed to recover the onside kick. The Seminoles ran out the clock from there -- and celebrated another ACC title.

No. 12 West Virginia 28, South Florida 13 -- Pat White ran for 177 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Mountaineers (10-1, 7-0) over the Bulls (6-5, 4-3) at Tampa, Fla., in a final tuneup for a BCS appearance.

Nine days after running for 220 yards against Pittsburgh to break the Big East rushing record for a quarterback, White was just as impressive in helping the conference champions finish unbeaten in league play for the first time since 1993.

The redshirt freshman scored on second-half runs of 65 and 76 yards and finished with his fourth game with at least 100 yards rushing.

Steve Slaton rushed for 89 yards and one touchdown for the Mountaineers, and West Virginia’s defense limited Big East rushing leader Andre Hall to 75 yards in 20 carries for South Florida.

The victory was the sixth straight for West Virginia and gave the Mountaineers at least 10 wins in a season for the first time since 1993 and only the fifth time in school history.

No. 16 Louisville 30, Connecticut 20 -- Michael Bush rushed for three touchdowns in his first appearance since sitting out two games because of a sprained foot and Hunter Cantwell threw for another score to lead the Cardinals (9-2, 5-2) over the Huskies (5-6, 2-5) at East Hartford, Conn.

Bush finished with 121 yards to go over the 1,000-yard mark for the season. It was his sixth 100-yard rushing game of the season and his 23 touchdowns rushing this year set a single-season school record.

Louisville was without Big East passing leader Brian Brohm, who went down for the season because of a knee injury last week.

Cantwell, making his first start, threw for 271 yards, completing 16 of 25 attempts.

Tulsa 44, Central Florida 27 -- Tarrion Adams had three touchdowns, two of them rushing, and the Golden Hurricane (8-4) shut out the Golden Knights (8-4) in the second half at Orlando, Fla., to win its first league title in 20 years in the inaugural Conference USA championship game.

The win sends Tulsa to the Liberty Bowl against Fresno State. Central Florida is expected to play in the Hawaii Bowl on Dec. 24.

The Golden Hurricane’s last league crown came in 1985, when Tulsa won the Missouri Valley Conference.

Tulsa’s Garrett Mills had eight catches for 152 yards -- giving him 1,183 for the year, an NCAA record for most receiving yards by a tight end in a season.