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Seminoles On Cloud 9 After Routing Badgers

The Associated Press

FSU head coach Bobby Bowden and defensive end Benjamin Lampkin hold the championship trophy.

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By COREY CLARK

The Tallahassee Democrat

Published: December 28, 2008

ORLANDO - It's amazing what one win can do.

After his team buried Wisconsin 42-13 on Saturday in the Champs Sports Bowl, Florida State quarterback Christian Ponder was asked if he viewed the season as a success.

"We could've done better," said Ponder, who was 18-for-31 for 199 yards and two touchdowns in the victory. "But if you would have told me at the beginning of the year that we'd have nine wins, I would take it. But the good thing is that the ceiling is so high."

It is the first time in four years the Seminoles have ended the season with nine wins, and Saturday's victory was one of their most impressive in recent memory.

The Florida State linebacking corps scored more touchdowns than the Wisconsin offense, and Ponder led the Seminoles on four consecutive touchdown drives spanning the second and third quarters.

"It looked like the old Florida State football team," Coach Bobby Bowden said. "It's not like we're there, but we looked like we used to look."

Early in the second quarter, Neefy Moffett tipped a backward pass by Wisconsin quarterback Dustin Sherer, and senior linebacker Derek Nicholson returned the fumble 75 yards for the game's first touchdown. He was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct for strutting into the end zone.

"It's my last game, you've got to have fun," Nicholson said. "We had fun today. I don't think that hurt us. ... We wanted to come out here and have fun today."

They did. Especially after senior receiver Greg Carr made one of the best plays of his career later in the quarter.

With seven seconds left in the first half, the 6-foot-6 senior made a one-handed catch of a Ponder pass in the corner of the end zone to give FSU a 14-3 lead. It was the 29th touchdown of his career.

"That was all him," Ponder said. "That was a heck of a catch."

Ponder led three more scoring drives in the second half - one capped by a touchdown run by senior Antone Smith, one on a run by freshman Ty Jones (Middleton) and another on a 10-yard catch by tight end Caz Piurowski (Land O' Lakes).

"We started to relax a little bit and play our game," FSU offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher said.

Those three offensive touchdowns were wrapped around a 51-yard fumble return for a score by junior linebacker Dekoda Watson, who picked up the ball after defensive end Everette Brown sacked Sherer and knocked it loose.

For the first time in what seems like a decade, FSU has real momentum heading into the offseason.

"It's like that last golf shot," Fisher said. "You can play 17 bad holes and you hit that good one on 18 and you want to keep coming back. That's what a bowl game can do for you."

Senior quarterback Drew Weatherford (Land O' Lakes) played the final two drives and completed five of six passes for 77 yards. He thinks the senior class left the program in better shape than it found it.

"I think it's definitely on the upswing," Weatherford said. "I think we definitely got the talent, and the coaches have worked us extremely hard and I'm really looking forward to watching them the next several years."

For Ponder and the underclassmen who will return to Tallahassee, the program's goals have been elevated.

"We got nine wins this year and we could've done better," Ponder said. "so we're going to do what we can to be better next year. And nine wins isn't going to be acceptable."

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