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GAINESVILLE, Florida (Ticker) -- The national championship is once again Florida State's to lose. The top-ranked Seminoles completed a perfect 11-0 regular season with a dramatic 30-23 victory at archrival and third-ranked Florida in a game that went down to the final play. Florida State will play in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on January 4. That is the national title game this season. Its opponent in that contest is yet to be determined, although it appears that No. 2 Virginia Tech could secure the other slot with a win next weekend against Boston College. "No national championship game or any other regular-season game is bigger than this one," Florida State linebacker Brian Allen said. Jeff Chaney's two-yard touchdown run with 34 seconds left in the third quarter broke a tie and Chris Weinke hit Marvin Minnis with a 27-yard scoring pass with 8:57 left in the game to give Florida State a 30-16 lead. But the Gators stormed back. Doug Johnson drove Florida (9-2) to within seven points, hitting Brian Hauganbrook for a three-yard TD pass with 3:33 left. Florida got back the ball with just over a minute left and moved past midfield. With one second remaining, Jesse Palmer lofted a "Hail Mary" pass into a large group in the left side of the end zone. The ball got tipped into the air, but fell a couple of feet from the unattended Hauganbrook. "You just sit there and wait for it to end, because you know that anybody can get it. It ain't over until it's over with those 'Hail Marys,'" Florida State coach Bobby Bowden said. Florida had won 30 straight games at "The Swamp" but lost there twice this season. The Seminoles went 7-4-1 against Florida in the 1990s to pull within 26-16-2 in the all-time series. "That's pretty darn special," Bowden said. "I've come down here a lot of times and lost. Two years ago, I was really hurt. All losses hurt, but some hurt worse than others. The one the last time we were here, it was awful. I thought that we had it won, so it feels good to walk away from here with a win." Florida coach Steve Spurrier was dismayed by his team's lack of discipline. On one series in the third quarter, a false start penalty moved the ball from the FSU 1 to the 6 and a pass interference penalty in the end zone on the Seminoles was offset by an ineligible man downfield infraction. Instead of getting into the end zone, the Gators had to settle for Jeff Chandler's 22-yard field goal. "We can take losing, but we hate to beat ourselves," Spurrier said. "We hate to play so stupid that we don't give ourselves a chance to win the game. Can't line up onsides, can't line up behind the line of scrimmage. We had our chances, it just didn't work out." Spurrier normally saves his comments for his own team. But the miffed coach did not exactly give the winners a ringing endorsement. "FSU is not as good as they used to be," Spurrier said. "The '97 team was a lot better than the team they have now, in my opinion, but they still may win them all and they still may be No. 1. They are pretty good, but they are not the teams they have had in the past. That's just an opinion. We are not quite the team we have been in the past, either." Chris Weinke completed 24-of-36 passes for 263 yards and one touchdown with one interception, which was returned for a touchdown by cornerback Bennie Alexander midway through the third quarter to give Florida a 16-13 lead. But Weinke responded to lead Florida State to 17 straight points, enough room for the defense to keep the lead and the pressure on the Gators' quarterback rotation of Palmer and Johnson. "I don't know if it was a bad decision or a bad pass that gave them six points, but he did what he's done all year," Bowden said of his 27-year-old quarterback. "He followed it up with a couple of touchdowns and a field goal." "If I didn't rebound then, I knew we were going to be in for a long night," Weinke explained. "At no time did I let it bother me and not think we couldn't come back. That was big. Our defense kept us in the game. If I don't throw the pick for a touchdown we have a commanding lead going into the final quarter. ... This is what it's all about." On their first possession of the game, the Seminoles marched 80 yards in 18 plays, lopping 7:02 off the clock. Wide receiver Peter Warrick capped the drive with a four-yard run, taking a shotgun snap from center and running left before reversing field and scoring on the right side. "That was big," Bowden said of the drive. "Anytime you play away from home with a crowd like this, it's big. That tears down everything that they can do." Warrick caught nine passes for 90 yards, carried five times for 26 and was nearly intercepted on a pass attempt into the end zone. Had he not been suspended two games for his involvement in a theft incident, Warrick would have been the front-runner for the Heisman Trophy. Instead, he is a longshot. Linebacker Bradley Jennings intercepted Johnson on the Florida 48 to end the next drive, leading to Sebastian Janikowski's 22-yard field goal that finished a 12-play drive. Florida responded with a 12-play drive of its own, capped by Chandler's 50-yard field goal that closed the Gators within 10-3 with 10:48 left in the second quarter. Johnson was 20-of-36 for 214 yards and two interceptions, while Palmer went 8-of-19 for 166 yards as Florida held a 442-346 advantage in total yards. Darrell Jackson had seven catches for 104 yards. Janikowski and Chandler traded field goals and Florida State took a 13-6 lead into the half. The close score left high anticipation of the second half for the Florida-record crowd of 85,747. Unfortunately for the Gators, their top two crowds both have seen losses, since the mark had been set against Alabama earlier this season. Chandler converted from 22 yards to make it 13-9 with 8:52 left in the third quarter and Alxender gave the Gators the lead four plays later. After Janikowski hammered a 54-yarder, Florida State linebacker Tommy Polley blocked a punt by Alan Rhine, giving the Seminoles the ball at the Florida 21. Chaney made the Gators pay with a two-yard scoring run that gave FSU a 23-16 lead with 34 seconds left in the third. Chris Hope intercepted Johnson at the FSU 2 on 3rd-and-goal from the 18, snuffing the potential tying score. After each team held, Weinke keyed a drive with a 38-yard pass to Warrick, setting up a 27-yard scoring strike to Marvin Minnis that pushed the lead to 30-16 with 6:03 left.
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