College football: Rix leaves Gators sick

The much-maligned junior quarterback capped the best performance of his tumultuous three-year tenure by throwing a 52-yard touchdown pass to P.K. Sam with 55 seconds left in the ninth-ranked Seminoles' thrilling 38-34 victory over No. 11 Florida at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

"Words can't describe how myself and my teammates feel right now," Rix said.

Rix went 14-of-19 for 256 yards with three touchdown passes and one touchdown run. The Seminoles needed every one of those scores to win perhaps the most exciting game in this rivalry's 46-year history.

"This is my 28th year playing Florida and I don't think I've ever seen one better than that," Florida State coach Bobby Bowden said. "When we rallied back from 31-3 (in a 1994 31-31 tie), I thought that was the high point of my life. I think this one outdid that one."

Florida State (10-2) won because Rix managed to deliver the final blow in his personal duel with Florida freshman quarterback Chris Leak, who went 22-of-36 for 273 yards with two touchdown passes.

Leak's brilliance allowed Florida (8-4) to overcome bad breaks and a 17-6 halftime deficit. His second 25-yard touchdown pass to Ben Troupe gave the Gators a 34-31 lead with 2:50 remaining and delighted the record 90,407 fans who filled The Swamp.

"We always tell Chris, 'Just go out there and be you. You've got 10 guys that believe in you when you're out there,' " said Troupe, who finished with four catches for a career-high 121 yards. "I really think he's going to be a great quarterback down the road."

Leak's only mistake was leaving Rix with too much time. Not that anyone thought it would matter when Florida State was staring at fourth-and-14 from its own 24-yard line with 1:23 remaining.

Rix kept the Seminoles' hopes alive with a 24-yard slant across the middle to Dominic Robinson, who had five catches for 102 yards and a touchdown while replacing the injured Craphonso Thorpe.

Florida State then repeated a play in which split end P.K. Sam lines up where a tight end normally would position himself, then runs a deep pattern toward the right corner. The play had worked perfectly on third-and-14 until Rix overthrew Sam.

This time, Sam got open again and Rix didn't miss. Florida strong safety Guss Scott had his back turned to the play and never saw the ball coming until it was about to fall into Sam's arms.

"I just kept thinking, 'Don't drop it. Don't drop it,' " Sam said.

He didn't.

Sam's touchdown put Florida State ahead for good, though the Seminoles' victory wasn't secure until Pat Watkins finally brought down Leak on the Florida State 18 after a 32-yard run on the game's final play.

"It hurts," Florida coach Ron Zook said. "It hurts bad. It was a heck of a game and it came right down to the wire. They made the plays they needed to make, and there were plays that we needed to make and didn't."

The day was doubly disappointing for Florida.

Earlier in the afternoon, Tennessee beat Kentucky 20-7 to throw a wrench into the Gators' hopes of playing in the Southeastern Conference championship game. Those fading dreams vanished for good once Florida lost to Florida State.

Frustrations and emotions on both sides boiled over during a brief postgame scuffle.

Players on each team weren't sure exactly how the fight started, though it took place as the Seminoles were celebrating at midfield. Florida State center David Castillo was holding aloft a large alligator head that the Seminoles traditionally bring on their trips to Gainesville.

"I saw an alligator head out there and that's probably what stimulated it," Bowden said. "I thought the sportsmanship was pretty darned good during the game. I don't know what happened. Something ignited it and I'm sorry about that."

At halftime, nobody could have predicted such an emotional finish. Florida State was running the ball down the Gators' throats and Florida was directing most of its anger toward the officials instead of the Seminoles.

Florida fans believed the Seminoles got away with four first-quarter fumbles, including three in the drive that ended with Rix's 35-yard touchdown pass to Robinson. Florida State capitalized on its good fortune and dominance at the line of scrimmage to take command of the game.

Florida then shored up its run defense and turned up its offensive firepower to score 18 unanswered points in the third quarter. The second half ended up featuring two ties and four lead changes -- including three in the last 5:01.

"It was kind of like a PlayStation game," Sam said. "Everything was going back and forth."

The eventful second half featured the type of classic blunders Rix tends to make in big games.

Florida State was facing third-and-13 from the Florida 22 with the score tied 17-17 in the third quarter when Rix ran toward the right sideline. Scott sacked Rix and forced a fumble that cornerback Keiwan Ratliff scooped up before racing 77 yards for a go-ahead touchdown.

The turnover appeared to swing the momentum in Florida's direction for good, at least until Watkins returned a Ciatrick Fason fumble 25 yards for a game-tying touchdown less than four minutes later.

"I don't know why in the world (Rix) lays the ball down so much," Bowden said. "We're driving for a field goal and he lays the ball down. It was a 10-point error right there. But he made up for it and I still love him."

Now maybe the rest of Seminole Nation will finally love him as well.