Florida State was looking for anything to turn around the 2009 season as it began the second half of the year in Chapel Hill for a Thursday night showdown with North Carolina.
After a 54-28 win over a top-10 BYU team to improve to 2-1, the Seminoles had lost three straight games to fall to 2-4. For most of the night, 2-5 looked inevitable, but Florida State would turn things around when it had to, rallying from 18 points down in a 30-27 thriller.
Greg Little scored on a 5-yard touchdown run on the opening drive for North Carolina, which accounted for more points than FSU would score the entire first half. All the Seminoles could manage over the first 30 minutes was a pair of Dustin Hopkins field goals. At the break, the Tar Heels held a 17-6 lead.
After FSU went 3-and-out to open the second half, North Carolina marched 45 yards for a touchdown. North Carolina quarterback T.J. Yates, who passed for a score in the first half, scored from 10 yards out to give the Tar Heels a 24-6 lead.
The Seminoles had done very little offensively to that point, but quarterback Christian Ponder and company would score on their next four drives. Ponder’s 6-yard pass to Taiwan Easterling midway through the third quarter served as the first touchdown of the night for FSU and capped a 76-yard drive.
FSU would start its next possession in the shadow of its own goal post, but being complacent wasn’t an option. After a delay of game called moved the Seminoles back from their 3 to their 2-yard-line, Ponder went deep, finding Rod Owens down the sideline for a 98-yard touchdown.
The connection tied Chris Weinke’s strike to Marvin “Snoop” Minnis in 2000 as the longest in program history. It looked as though FSU had pulled to within three on a Ponder run for the 2-point conversion, but it was negated by a holding call and the Seminoles trailed 24-20 heading into the final quarter.
After a Kendall Smith sack led to a 3-and-out, Hopkins and North Carolina kicker Casey Barth traded field goals. A nice kickoff return by Louis Givens gave the Seminoles the ball at their own 37-yard-line and Ponder went back to work.
Following a pair of completions to Jarmon Fortson and a scramble by Ponder to move the ball into the North Carolina red zone, the Seminoles took their first lead of the night. Ponder fired his third touchdown pass of the evening — an 18-yard connection to a streaking Beau Reliford — to put FSU up 30-27 with 6:20 remaining.
The suspect Florida State defense stood tall on the next possession, but when the FSU offense finally stalled short of midfield, it was forced to do so one more time. With less than a minute to go, the Tar Heels started at their own 21-yard-line.
North Carolina would move the ball to just shy of midfield, but on the game’s final play, Yates was sacked by FSU Markus White. It was the first sack all season by a Florida State defensive lineman.
Ponder finished with 395 yards passing in the victory while Owens led all receivers with 199 yards on nine receptions. Shaun Draughn rushed for 123 yards for the Tar Heels in the loss while Little accounted for 108 yards of total offense. Defensively, Smith finished with 11 tackles, 3.5 for loss and two sacks in the win. FSU safety Jamie Robinson had the game’s only interception.
After a 2-4 start, the come-from-behind victory would spur a 5-2 finish to the year. Despite a late-season injury to Ponder, the Seminoles would run their streak of consecutive bowl appearances to 28 and beat West Virginia in the Gator Bowl to send legendary Bobby Bowden off a winner and cement their 33rd straight winning season.
North Carolina fell to 4-3 with the loss, but would bounce back with four straight wins before finishing the season 8-5. All wins were later vacated.
FSU’s streak of winning seasons and bowl appearances would last until 2018 when the Seminoles finished just 5-7. That streak most likely would have come to an end much sooner if not for a Thursday night comeback in Chapel Hill that happened on this day one decade ago.
Mike Ferguson is the editor of The Daily Nole. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson. Like The Daily Nole on Facebook. To pitch an idea, author a post or to learn more about The Daily Nole, email Mike Ferguson at Mike@TheDailyNole.com.
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