Weinke's career night dismantles Blue Devils

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - After then-No. 1 Florida State lost to Miami on a last-second missed field goal a week ago, coach Bobby Bowden said quarterback Chris Weinke would have to do a lot of performing to get back into the Heisman Race.

After Saturday, it shouldn't just be the Heisman he's in line for, they should give him an Oscar too.

The senior quarterback threw for a school-record 536 yards and five touchdowns in three quarters Saturday night as the Florida State Seminoles thumped the Duke Blue Devils 63-14, the ninth FSU win in nine series meetings.

"That was the best performance a Florida State quarterback has ever had under me," said Bowden, now in his 25th year at Florida State. "I've had a lot of great quarterbacks, Charlie [Ward], [Dan] Kendra, but [tonight] was special."

After misfiring on his first pass attempt to Anquan Boldin, Weinke made it clear it was going to be a special night, connecting on his next nine pass attempts and singlehandedly gaining all the yardage in the Seminoles' first two scoring drives.

A five-yard completion to Travis Minor and a dead-on strike to Robert Morgan turned 71 yards upfield gave Florida State the first score of the game three plays and 53 seconds in. Six consecutive completions and a two-yard scoring toss to Boldin gave the Seminoles a two-touchdown advantage that sent the sellout crowd of 83,300 into a frenzy and all but sent the Blue Devils home.

"It's tough to come out that way," said Duke coach Carl Franks. "We weren't in sync early at all and against a team like Florida State... you can't do that, you get pushed around."

And it was Weinke that was doing most of the pushing Saturday.

With backup Marcus Outzen suspended following his Thursday night arrest and with walk-on Stephen De La Motte the only non-redshirt quarterback on the roster, Weinke was forced to play the third quarter. But even in an intentionally conservative period, Weinke still added 90 yards and a touchdown to his already-bloated line and a handful of lines to the record books. His 536 passing yards rank 36th all-time in college football and set a new record for Florida State, while his fifth touchdown of the night and 66th of his career pushed him past former Georgia Tech star Joe Hamilton's ACC career-touchdown record.

"It's an honor to hold a record like that at Florida State with its history of great quarterbacks," Weinke said. "[But] the record belongs to everyone on offense tonight. The passing game is successful because we have so much talent on the offensive side of the ball."

Meanwhile, the Blue Devils were unable to get their offense on track against an attacking Florida State defense. The Seminoles smothered the Blue Devil passing game and left the Duke ground game with little room to move as FSU outgained the Blue Devils by nearly 400 yards in the first half. Only once in the half did the Duke offense move the ball on the Florida State side of the 50, then fumbling the ball away on its first play in Seminole territory.

"I don't have any problem with the way we competed," Franks said. "We just played a team that had too much for us. We had enough problems just trying to contain them. We're just making a lot of mistakes on offense right now and we've got to work on that."

Duke finally got on the scoreboard in the second half when junior punt returner Ronnie Hamilton broke free at the 35-yard line and dashed the remaining 65 yards for the first Duke score of the night and the first special teams score of the season.

The Oxford, N.C. returner fielded Keith Cottrell's second punt of the game at the Duke 16-yard line and streaked forward into a clump of Florida State defenders at the 30. Hamilton then shook a handful of would-be tacklers with a quick spin move that sent a pair of Seminoles grasping at air and sent Hamilton on the way to a highlight-reel touchdown sprint.

"That's something we have been working on," said a beaming Hamilton. "I saw it sit up a couple yards ahead, I hit my spin and then put my head back and just went running."

Redshirt freshman Chris Douglas added the other Blue Devil score, blasting 45 yards from the line of scrimmage late in the third quarter. Although Douglas was able to find little breathing room against Florida State's top defense, second-half substitutions allowed the agile running back to find enough gaps to pick up 83 yards in the second half.

"He just gives us a tremendous amount of speed to hit home runs with," Franks said. "Tonight, he really got one. Hopefully, we'll keep doing that."

But in a game where the outcome was never in doubt, Franks knows that positives come in different forms than wins.

"They put out some great athletes tonight and we just couldn't keep up," Franks said. "The good news is we probably won't have to play another team like that again. We got some experience for our boys against top competition. We just have to learn from our mistakes now and eliminate them and we'll be OK."