Last week’s performance against Boston College won’t go down in Florida State lore, but a visit that took place on this day 10 years ago has.
It was Nov. 3, 2007 when the Seminoles invaded Chestnut Hill and took down previously undefeated and No. 2 Boston College, 27-17. The Eagles were 8-0 and coming off a dramatic Thursday night victory at No. 8 Virginia Tech. The Seminoles limped in at 5-3 and were virtually already out the ACC Atlantic division race.
Boston College star quarterback and future NFL MVP, Matt Ryan, threw for 415 yards for the Eagles on the night, but was intercepted three times. His counterpart however, FSU’s Drew Weatherford, was better, finishing with 354 yards passing and a pair of touchdowns.
It was Weatherford who got the scoring started with a 23-yard touchdown pass to Preston Parker with less than five minutes remaining in the second quarter. It would be the only score of the half as the Seminoles took a 7-0 lead into the locker room.
After a Gary Cismesia field goal extended the lead to 10-0 with less than six minutes to play in the third quarter, it took the Eagles just over a minute to march 70 yards and find paydirt as Ryan hit Brandon Robinson for a 30-yard score to make it 10-7. Robinson finished with a game-high 163 yards receiving.
Cismesia and Boston College kicker Steve Aponavicius exchanged field goals over the first 6:08 of the fourth quarter before Weatherford found De’Cody Fagg, who finished with a team-high 111 yards receiving, for a 42-yard touchdown that appeared to be the dagger with 8:11 left to play.
Trailing 20-10, BC again had a quick answer as Ryan hit tight end Ryan Purvis to make it 20-17 with 6:42 remaining. With 3:30 to play, the Eagles got the ball back at their own 7-yard-line to try to mount a potential game-tying or game-winning drive.
Ryan was able to march Boston College 26 yards before FSU linebacker Geno Hayes intercepted the BC quarterback and raced 38 yards for a touchdown and the exclamation point in the upset victory. Tony Carter also came down with an interception for the Seminoles while fellow cornerback Patrick Robinson recorded a pick and a forced fumble as Boston College committed four turnovers to FSU’s none.
Florida State’s upset of the Eagles ended Boston College’s national championship hopes. BC would go on to play for the ACC Championship, but fall to Virginia Tech in a rematch of a Thursday night thriller earlier in the year. The Seminoles would lose three of their final four games to finish the year at 7-6.
It would be almost six years later the next time that Florida State notched a road win over a top 5 team as it defeated No. 3 Clemson 51-14 in a 2013 match-up of top 5 teams during a national championship season for FSU. The win over Boston College is also the only time that Florida State defeated a team that went on to win the ACC Atlantic division and it happened on this day 10 years ago.
Mike Ferguson is the editor of The Daily Nole. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson
Mike Ferguson is the editor of The Daily Nole and former editor of Noled Out. Mike has more than seven years experience as a sports writer including the last four in print and online media. Mike graduated from Florida State University in 2009 with a Bachelors in Religion and a minor in Communications. Mike provided press coverage of Florida State's run to the 2013 BCS National Championship. Mike is also a news reporter at Polk County's newspaper, The Ledger in Lakeland, Florida. and contributes to Athlon Sports and ACCSports.com. Mike has been featured on sites as prominent as Yahoo Sports, FoxSports.com, Associated Press and the front page of SI.com while interviewing athletes as high profile as 2013 National League MVP, Andrew McCutchen. Email Mike at Mike@TheDailyNole.com. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson.
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