Florida State: 34
Georgia Tech: 7

Having defeated the 7th ranked Virginia Cavaliers one week earlier for sole possession of first place in the ACC standings, Georgia Tech would vie for its second consecutive victory over a top 10 team when the 6th ranked Florida State Seminoles arrived in Atlanta on October 24th. A victory over the ‘Noles would cement the Yellow Jackets in first place with just three league games remaining and highly improve their chances at a BCS bowl berth.

Tech took the game’s opening possession 80 yards in 18 plays to take a 7-0 lead with 5:33 remaining in the first quarter. Phillip Rogers accounted for the Yellow Jacket touchdown with a two yard run for the score.

The Seminoles answered on the last play of the first quarter when Chris Weinke threw a 44 yard touchdown pass to Peter Warrick.

A scoreless second quarter left the teams tied 7-7 at halftime.

Florida State scored the third quarter’s only points on a 44 yard field goal by Sebastian Janikowski roughly five minutes into the period for a 10-7 lead.

Late in the third, the Jackets suffered a heavy blow when their star quarterback Joe Hamilton left the game with a hip pointer. With freshman quarterback George Godsey at the helm, the Yellow Jacket offense failed to produce for the remainder of the contest.

The Seminoles, meanwhile, took complete control of the game, scoring 24 fourth quarter points to blow out the Jackets in the final fifteen minutes. Warrick scored on an eight yard pass from Weinke about one minute into the period. Janikowski then added a 32 yard field goal about six minutes later, and Warrick scored again on a 16 yard end around to make it 27-7.

Florida State’s final score came on a 60 yard run by Laveranues Coles with 2:38 to play to wrap up the 34-7 contest.

All-in-all, the high powered Tech offense was completely stifled by the Seminole defense. A team that had scored 40 points or more in five straight games was held to 7 points with four turnovers. Nonetheless, one can only imagine how the result may have differed if Hamilton had not gotten injured.

Florida State went on to win its final four regular season games to finish at 11-1, holding the #2 spot in the newly created Bowl Championship Series (BCS) standings. The Seminoles would face the Tennessee Volunteers in the Fiesta Bowl, in which the victor would be crowned National Champions. Bobby Bowden’s squad came up short, however, dropping a 23-16 contest to the Volunteers to finish at 11-2 overall.

Statistics:

First Downs:
FSU – 19
GT – 15

Rushing Yards:
FSU – 189
GT – 80

Passing (Comp-Att-Yds):
FSU – 208
GT – 119

Fumbles (Total-Lost):
FSU – 4-0
GT – 6-3

Interceptions thrown:
FSU – 0
GT – 1

Penalties (Total-Yards):
FSU – 11-100
GT – 5-45

References:
USA Today Recap: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/scores98/98297/98297399.htm