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Smith Finishes With A Flourish In Music City

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 1, 2008

Updated: 01/01/2008 12:12 am

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Junior Antone Smith's first season as FSU's featured back didn't exactly go as planned, but that didn't stop Smith from finishing with a bang.

Smith rushed for a career-high 156 yards in FSU's 35-28 loss to Kentucky on Monday in the Music City Bowl, capping a roller-coaster season with the best game of his career.

After playing behind Leon Washington and Lorenzo Booker his first two seasons, Smith envisioned becoming the first FSU back since Warrick Dunn in 1996 to rush for 1,000. Instead, he finished with 819 yards in a season in which he battled turf toe, a concussion and a shoulder injury that forced him to miss the Maryland game and play sparingly in FSU's loss at Florida.

Smith returned to the starting lineup on Monday and didn't disappoint.

"When you have been away from something so long, and you can't really go out there and help your team, you kind of doubt yourself at times," Smith said. "At the same time, I knew I could do a lot more if I got a chance to do that.

"This game here gave me a chance to do that. I had lanes like I probably haven't seen in a long time."

BOBBY GETS HOT: A Big East Conference officiating crew made three calls against FSU in the first half that TV replays showed were questionable at best.

The first was an offensive pass interference call against WR Greg Carr that nullified an apparent 33-yard TD catch. The second call was an intentional grounding penalty on QB Drew Weatherford when Smith was clearly the intended receiver, and the third strange call was an illegal jumping infraction against Kenny Ingram on a field-goal attempt. Finally, when FSU CB Tony Carter returned an interception 24 yards for a TD to tie the game 14-all late in the second quarter, he flipped into the end zone, drawing a 15-yard flag.

As Bowden left the field at halftime, he shared his displeasure with ESPN sideline reporter Jack Arute, especially the call against Carter.

"That irritates the crap out of me," Bowden said.

GENO LEAVING? Junior LB Geno Hayes is considered the most likely FSU player to leave school early and declare for the NFL draft. He didn't commit either way following Monday's game.

"Right now, I will just sit back and evaluate all my options," Hayes said when asked about his immediate plans. "That's all I'm going to do."

NO PICKS ALLOWED: Weatherford broke Chris Weinke's school and ACC record for most consecutive passes without throwing an interception. Weatherford ran his streak to 270 until throwing a pick in the fourth quarter, easily eclipsing Weinke's record of 237.

BOWL BITS: FSU senior WR De'Cody Fagg caught five passes, closing his career with a 26-game reception streak ... The crowd of 68,611 set a Music City Bowl record ... Kentucky QB Andre Woodson's two first-half TD passes gave him 38 for the season, breaking former Wildcats star Tim Couch's single-season record (37 in 1998) ... FSU dropped to 2-4-1 all-time in bowl games against SEC schools.

Scott Carter

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