The smile on Jimbo Fisher’s face said it all.
Standing on the sidelines soaking-wet after being doused with water by his players, the first-year head coach watched the closing seconds of Florida State’s annual rivalry game with Miami tick down in jubilation, probably thinking about how his Seminoles couldn’t have delivered him a better present on his 45th birthday.
Chris Thompson ran for 158 yards and a touchdown, and Jermaine Thomas scored three times in the first half, as Florida State (5-1, 3-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) cruised past Miami 45-17 Saturday night at Sun Life Stadium.
The win by the ’Noles continued a trend of recent success by the road team in the rivalry, as the visitors have now won each of the last five games.
“This is great,” an ecstatic Fisher told ABC reporter Heather Cox after the game. “We wanted to stay aggressive on offense and defense and that’s the mentality that we maintained all game long.”
Aggressive they sure were, as the Seminoles continued their relentless play at the line of scrimmage, accounting for a season-high 298 rushing yards and frustrating Hurricane quarterback Jacory Harris throughout the night.
Harris completed just 19-of-47 passes for 225 yards, a touchdown and an interception. The erratic play of Harris was sweet redemption for a Florida State defense that watched Harris throw for 386 yards in last season’s game—the most yards ever by a Miami quarterback against Florida State.
While Harris struggled, FSU’s ground game rolled, eclipsing 200 yards for the fourth straight game.
It was all Thomas for Florida State on the ground in the first half, as the Jacksonville native had 60 yards on nine carries and two rushing touchdowns—the first one coming a play after safety Nick Moody picked up Miami running back Damien Berry’s fumble and returned it to the 1-yardline.
“I’m not going to sugarcoat it,” Miami head coach Randy 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.”
Thompson picked up the slack in the second half, as the speedy sophomore gained the majority of his career-best rushing total on one play when he scampered 90 yards down the Florida State sideline into the end zone for a touch down for the Seminoles’ final score of the game.
Thompson’s run also put him in the record books, marking the longest run from scrimmage Miami has allowed in its rich football 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.”
In a rivalry that has provided some of the most exciting finishes in college football history, Florida State made sure there would be no such fantastic finish, as the only excited fans in the fourth quarter on Saturday night were those clad in Garnet and Gold.
The Seminoles raced out to a 24-7 halftime lead and went up 31-7 after Lonnie Pryor’s 16-yard touchdown run less than three minutes into the third quarter.
The Hurricanes (3-2, 1-1) would make things a little interesting when Berry scored on a 26-yard run and Nate Bosher converted a field goal to make it 31-17 heading into the fourth.
Senior quarterback Christian Ponder stepped up in the final stanza, however, and effectively put the game away when he found sophomore wide receiver Rodney Smith in the corner of the end zone on a third down play to make it 38-17 with 7:39 to play.
Hurricane linebacker Sean Spence put the game in very lament terms and gave the Seminoles their due props.
“They just flat outplayed us from the first quarter to the fourth,” Spence said.