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DURHAM, North Carolina (Ticker) -- With or without a Heisman Trophy winner, Florida State has too many weapons for Duke. Freshman Chris Rix tossed two touchdown passes in his first collegiate start and received helped from the defense as the fifth-ranked Seminoles cruised to a 55-13 Atlantic Coast Conference victory over Duke in the season opener for both teams. "It feels good to get the first game under my belt and for us to get the win," Rix said. "It took a little while for us to get the tempo going. Obviously, we still have a lot of things to improve on." Rix, taking over for Heisman Trophy winner Chris Weinke, tossed touchdown passes of 26 yards to Nick Maddox in the second quarter and 33 yards to Craphonso Thorpe in the third period. The Seminoles (1-0, 1-0 ACC) also returned two blocked punts for touchdowns. Jerome Carter had an eight-yard return for a touchdown in the second quarter and Gennaro Jackson recovered a blocked punt in the end zone in the third period. "I'm just doing what I can to help the team win," Carter said. "You never know when you'll have the chance to make a good play." Rix completed only 9-of-18 passes for 135 yards, while Adrian McPherson also played for the Seminoles and completed 7-of-12 for 54 yards. "I was happy with Rix," Florida State coach Bobby Bowden said. "They forced us to throw a lot. I was hoping we could run over them. We wanted to run the ball and beat them with the run, but they wouldn"t let us." Florida State rushed for 200 yards, led by Maddox, who gained 86 yards on eight carries. The Seminoles were hit hard by injuries in the preseason, losing receivers Anquan Boldin and Robert Morgan for the season. True freshman Willie Reid, another receiver, who was expected to see early action, fractured his fibula and will miss the first half of the season. It took a while for Florida State to get untracked in the post-Weinke era as the Blue Devils (0-1, 0-1) took a 6-0 lead on D Bryant's 78-yard touchdown pass to Chris Douglas with 4:46 left in the first quarter. But the Seminoles responded by scoring 31 unanswered points in the second period. After true freshman Xavier Beitia got Florida State on the board with a 40-yard field goal 1:15 into the second period, linebacker Michael Boulware recovered a fumble by Duke punter Trey McDonald at the 2. Two plays later, William McCray scored on a two-yard run to give the Seminoles the lead for good with 12:01 left in the half. After Carter's touchdown, Maddox scored twice in the final 5:14. He rushed for a 51-yard TD before Rix completed the second-quarter blitz with his TD strike to Maddox with 65 seconds left in the half. "The key to the game, and I think will be the key to the season, was the special teams," Maddox said. "We blocked two kicks, which were huge, and they fumbled another snap to put the offense in scoring position. That really gave us momentum." Duke got its final touchdown on Ronnie Hamilton's 68-yard punt return late in the third quarter. Bryant completed just 9-of-26 passes for 167 yards for the Blue Devils, who were limited to only 32 yards on the ground. "I think offensively and defensively we came out and played well," Duke coach Carl Franks said. "I don't think we played well on special teams. What momentum we had early we gave up, and with a team like Florida State, you can't give up easy chances to score. The guys were excited and ready to play." Florida State has won all 10 meetings with Duke since joining the ACC, scoring as many as 70 points (1995) and collecting no fewer than 44 (1996). The Seminoles have won 12 straight season openers since a 30-26 loss to Southern Misssippi in 1989. Duke has lost 13 straight games, the longest current slide in Division IA.
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