Florida State: 21
Georgia Tech: 13

Having won two in a row, Georgia Tech looked to continue its good fortune against the Florida State Seminoles at Bobby Dodd Stadium in early November. The 17th-ranked Seminoles entered the contest at 7-3, having dropped consecutive contests to Miami and Notre Dame a few weeks earlier to fall from the top-10.

Since Florida State joined the ACC in 1992, Georgia Tech had lost all ten meetings between the schools. The Ramblin’ Wreck’s last victory in the series came in the form of a 30-0 shutout in the 1975 season. The ten consecutive wins by the Seminoles accounted for all of their victories over Tech to give them a 10-7-1 lead in the all-time series.

After sparring around in the early going, Georgia Tech gained excellent field position at the Florida State 35 when it forced the ‘Noles to punt from their own 5 yard line. Three runs picked up a first down, and P.J. Daniels made it 2nd-and-5 before A.J. Suggs found Levon Thomas for a 20 yard touchdown pass to put Tech ahead 7-0.

Early in the second quarter, Tech threatened again as it pushed to the Seminole 21 yard line. But on 3rd-and-9 from the 23, A.J. Suggs threw an interception the Stanford Samuels that was returned 82 yards for a touchdown to knot the score at 7-7.

Tech pushed to midfield on the ensuing drive before punting back, and the Seminoles quickly took a 14-7 lead on a 72 yard touchdown pass from Adrian McPherson to Craphonso Thorpe with 6:29 left in the first half.

The Jackets would add field goals from 39 and 28 yards on their next two possessions to cut the Seminole lead to 14-13 at halftime.

Most of the third quarter saw no serious scoring threats from either side before the Seminoles took over at their own 37 with 2:38 to play in the period. Pass interference on the Jackets pushed the drive into Tech territory before McPherson found Nick Maddox for 16 yards to the Yellow Jacket 32. McPherson went back to the air one play later and found Anquan Boldin for a 32 yard touchdown to increase Florida State’s lead to 21-13.

Late in the fourth, Tech pushed to the Seminole 33, but turned the ball over on downs when Suggs found Will Glover one yard short of the first down on 4th-and-13.

The Jackets earned one last chance with less than two minutes to play when they began at their own 43 following a punt with an added facemask penalty on the Seminoles. Suggs found Thomas for 21 yards to the FSU 36 early in the drive, and later found Glover for 16 yards to setup 1st-and-goal from the 9. But the comeback would fall short on the play that followed when the Samuels picked off the junior quarterback in the end zone to seal the Seminole victory.

Florida State won two of their remaining three games to finish the regular season at 9-4 as the ACC Champions. Their performance was enough to earn them a trip to the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, where they would eventually fall to the Georgia Bulldogs 26-13 to finish at 9-5, overall.

Statistics:

First downs:
FSU – 12
GT – 24

Rushing yards:
FSU – 140
GT – 185

Passing (Comp-Att-Yds):
FSU – 8-24-139
GT – 22-45-211

Interceptions thrown:
FSU – 0
GT – 3

Fumbles (Total-Lost):
FSU – 0-0
GT – 1-0

Penalties (Total-Yards):
FSU – 7-69
GT – 7-68

References:
Game Summary: http://www.ramblinwreck.com/sports/m-footbl/stats/110902aaa.html