Florida State continues streak with win against Miami Hurricanes

 

In one of the most classic rivalry games in all of college football, the Florida State Seminoles defeated the University of Miami Hurricanes 45-17. 

The Seminoles look to be ahead of the curve in head coach Jimbo Fisher’s first year, while the Hurricanes suffered their first ACC loss of the season.

The road team was victorious for the fifth-straight time in the series, and the Seminoles have now won four of the last six meetings between the two programs. 

Saturday night’s game was the first time in a decade that the margin of victory was more than 10 points.  Florida State has now won three-straight games in Miami.

After a disappointing defeat at the hands of Oklahoma, the Seminoles have recorded four straight victories.  Chris Thompson has been a large part of Florida State’s recent success with two 100-yard games in four contests, and three touchdowns.

One of those touchdowns came via a 90-yard breakaway run that sealed the victory in the final minutes of the fourth quarter.  The run was the longest the Hurricanes had allowed in its 84-year history.

“It’s a real great feeling,” Thompson said. “It’s great to be in Florida State’s history book. You know, that’s not a real easy thing to do.”

Jermaine Thomas and Lonnie Pryor added a total of three touchdowns as the three-headed rushing attack of the Seminoles put up 298 rushing yards on the Hurricanes defense.  After the game, Miami head coach Randy Shannon had no explanation for the poor performance of his defensive unit.

“I’m not going to sugarcoat it,” Shannon said. “We just got our butts kicked tonight. It’s my fault as a coach at the University of Miami. I don’t blame the kids. I didn’t get them ready for the situation of playing in a game like this.”

Shannon hasn’t given up on the season, but continued to blame himself for the loss after the game.

“It’s not a travesty,” Shannon added. “We just got beat tonight. Florida State beat us tonight. We got beat tonight up front and it’s my fault as a coach.”

Miami had only suffered a road loss to Ohio State before losing at home to the Seminoles Saturday night.  The 45 points scored by the Seminoles is the highest point total allowed by the Hurricanes all season.  Miami linebacker Sean Spence echoed Shannon’s sentiments after the game.

“They just flat outplayed us from the first quarter to the fourth,” Spence said.

Florida State will look ahead to their home meeting with the Boston College Eagles in Doak Campbell Stadium next weekend.  The Eagles are in the midst of a three-game losing streak, including two losses to ACC teams. 

The Hurricanes will go on the road to face a Duke team that has yet to record their first conference victory of the season.  Despite the Blue Devils recent struggles, the team does have one of the top-15 passing attacks in the nation.