Four Florida State players earned weekly ACC honors on Tuesday after excelling in the Seminoles’ 45-34 comeback victory over Ole Miss in Orlando on Monday night. FSU erased a 22-point deficit for the largest comeback win in school-history and the largest overall comeback since the Seminoles erased a 28-point fourth quarter deficit to force a 31-31 tie against Florida in 1994.
Freshman kicker Roberto Aguayo was named ACC Special Teams Player of the Week while senior defensive end DeMarcus Walker was named the conference’s top defensive lineman for Week 1. Quarterback Deondre Francois was named the conference’s Offensive Back of the Week in first start while safety Derwin James was named the conference’s top back.
Walker was honored as the conference’s Defensive Lineman of the Week after recording a career-high 4.5 sacks and a forced fumble on Monday night. Walker’s strip of Ole Miss quarterback Chad Kelly in the third quarter set up the go-ahead score for FSU and the Seminoles never looked back. Walker’s 4.5-sack performance was a half sack shy of tying the school-record for sacks in a game, held by Willie Jones, who recorded five against Florida in 1978.
In his career start, redshirt freshman quarterback Deondre Francois accounted for 478 total yards, including 419 through the air with two touchdowns. Francois led seven straight scoring drives to start the second half and nine in a row going back to the second quarter.
Sophomore safety Derwin James recorded a team-high eight total tackles for the Seminoles on Monday night, along with his first career interception. Six of James’ eight tackles were solo stops.
In his first collegiate game, Ricky Aguayo, the younger brother of FSU great Roberto Aguayo, was 6-for-6 on field goal attempts with a long of 44 yards. The six makes in one game is a school-record and FSU needed all six to collect the victory.
Francois, James, Aguayo, Walker and Florida State will hope that no historic comeback is necessary this week as the Seminoles play their home opener against Charleston Southern.
Mike Ferguson is the editor of The Daily Nole. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson
Ross Obley/FSU athletics
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