Florida States’ 45-34 victory over Ole Miss on Monday in Orlando was the largest comeback in school history. A Francois touchdown pass to Ryan Izzo on the next Seminole drive following a lightning quick three and out by the Rebels made the hole even deeper at 36-28.
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This was a well-executed play by the Florida State offense.
Determined not to go into the break trailing by a wide margin, Francois delivered the key moment of the game when he completed a nine play 75-yard series with a 16-yard pass to Travis Rudolph for a touchdown with 0:28 left in the first half.
“(FSU head coach) Jimbo (Fisher) and I were talking before the game (that) there was going to be a good football team that walked out of here tonight not feeling well, and it’s us”, Freeze said. Francois struggled a bit early on before finishing with 419 yards passing and two scoring strikes as the Seminoles rallied from 22 points down to defeat Ole Miss 45-34 in the season opener on Monday.”I just had a lot of first-time jitters, but once I got settled in, got banged up a few times, I felt better”, Francois told reporters.
“His teammates believe in him and he’s a fighter”, Fisher said of his quarterback’s startling debut. The first 21 points that Ole Miss scored are easily explained away by (in order) blown coverage, a Derwin James personal foul, a tipped ball and blown coverage.
Jameis Winston can’t pull off any more second-half comebacks for Florida State, but that doesn’t mean he can’t inspire them. Kelly ended three of his first five drives with touchdown passes-one each to Damore’ea Stringfellow, freshman D.K. Metcalf and Evan Engram-with an interception on his second possession serving as the only negative.
Things weren’t going the way Florida State’s redshirt freshman quarterback had hoped.
Tennessee is focused on the long-anticipated matchup that is being billed as the “Battle at Bristol”, a game first discussed in 1997 and that is expected to draw a crowd of 155,000 or more to Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. I’ve gotta give credit to Ole Miss.
It wasn’t coincidental that Ole Miss totaled negative-7 yards in the third quarter; Chad Kelly and company only held the ball or 2:44 in total. “In the first half, you know, I think our tempo was really good, and we were winning some first downs to let us stay in it”. It took its toll on a defense that was on the field for 42 minutes and 39 seconds. There’s no official word on the status of cornerback Kendarius Webster and running back Eric Swinney now.
Werner said, “That’s what we said when Jordan (Wilkins) was out”. On defense, Ole Miss limited FSU to 14 yards in the opening half. “Now we’re doing the same thing there”. But he bounced back and managed the game and made plays.
“Our September is very brutal”.
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Texas relishes win • Texas coach Charlie Strong went home and sat around for a couple of hours after the Longhorns opened their season with a double-overtime victory at home over No. 10 Notre Dame.
