With the southeast corner of Doak Campbell Stadium turned into an impromptu Florida Gator fan club celebration Saturday, Florida State receiver Rashad Greene had to take a peek.
What he saw was a huge Gator flag flapping in the wind to the delight of a sea of orange- and blue-clad fans.
“That’s not something you want to see on your field,” Greene said. “But they won the game. They deserved it. I’m not going to take anything away from them.”
This Florida State season will be defined by a 6 ½-minute span that turned around a game in which the Seminoles appeared to have all the momentum. Florida was able to turn a one-touchdown deficit into a 10-point lead early in the fourth quarter before dancing off the field with a 37-26 victory.
And although the loss means nothing to Florida State’s postseason plans — the Seminoles (10-2) play Georgia Tech at 8 p.m. Saturday in the ACC title game and would grab the conference’s BCS spot in the Orange Bowl with a win — losing to Florida taints FSU’s first 10-win regular season in nine years.
“They’re down and sad,” coach Jimbo Fisher said. “A lot of those seniors are saying, ‘We still got a lot to play for.’
“We got to get over it.”
They almost succeeded Saturday night despite five turnovers. After a sloppy first half during which they fell behind 13-0, the Seminoles scored 20 unanswered points to take a 20-13 lead into the fourth quarter.
The second big momentum shift occurred when FSU quarterback EJ Manuel fumbled on the Florida 37-yard line after he was leveled by linebacker Antonio Morrison with 11 minutes remaining.
Florida’s Dominique Easley recovered and Mike Gillislee streaked up the middle for a touchdown on the first play, giving the Gators a lead, 23-20, they would not relinquish.
While Fisher said he wished Manuel “would have gotten rid of it,” Manuel said, “I thought they had the routes out wide covered. I was just trying to find a lane to get up field to get some positive yards.”
Manuel took a hard hit to head and was woozy coming off the field. He then sat out one series in which the Seminoles went three and out with backup Clint Trickett in the game.
Fisher, though, said Manuel had the wind knocked out of him and he sat out because doctors were checking for cracked ribs. Later Manuel said, “I got hit in the head,” and “I was a little disoriented.”
Manuel did return for his team’s last two possessions and scored a meaningless touchdown on a 22-yard run as time expired.
Still, the hit had nothing to do with Manuel equaling his career-high of three interceptions, half of his season’s total entering the game.
Manuel, who was 18-of-33 for 182 yards, took the blame for the loss.
“Interceptions go in my column,” he said. “I will put it on myself.”
Fisher believes the emotion of Senior Day and playing his final game at Doak Campbell may have caught up to Manuel.
“He was very emotional before the game and I think he wanted to play very well, very badly,” Fisher said. “That was not one of his more stellar performances.”
Florida scored 14 points off turnovers, including a touchdown that made it 13-0 three plays after Karlos Williams fumbled a kickoff.
“Great teams like that will capitalize on those mistakes,” FSU running back James Wilder said.
Fisher wasn’t about to blame his quarterback for Fisher’s first loss to either Miami or Florida in his three seasons (he is 5-1 against the Seminoles’ two biggest rivals).
This also falls on a defense that allowed the Gators to control the lines of scrimmage as well as the clock; the Gators had nearly a 13-minute advantage in time of possession.
Florida gashed the No. 1-rated defense for 394 yards, including 244 on the ground. The Seminoles had not allowed more than 136 on the ground all season. The Gators were 8-of-15 on third-down conversions against an FSU defense that led the nation by allowing opponents to convert only 25 percent of third downs.
“I don’t think we were gassed,” defensive tackle Everett Dawkins said. “They caught us out of position.”
Said Fisher: “We lost contain on runs. They had some runs bounce.”
The Seminoles now face the challenge of putting behind an emotional loss to their biggest rival and attempting to win their first ACC title since 2005.
“We still have stuff to look forward to — we can’t dwell on this,” Greene said. “It’s critical for everybody to move on.”
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