Florida St. hangs on to beat Iowa St.

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Posted 8:00AM on Sunday, August 25, 2002

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI - Kendyll Pope and Jerel Hudson stopped Iowa State quarterback Seneca Wallace at the goal line on the final play as No. 3 Florida State held off the Cyclones 38-31 on Saturday night. The Seminoles stormed to a 24-0 lead, then struggled to hold on to nudge coach Bobby Bowden past Bear Bryant for second place on the Division I-A career victory list with 324. Next up for the 72-year-old Bowden is Penn State's Joe Paterno with 327. The 22-point underdog Cyclones, who have never beaten a team ranked as high as No. 3, were on the Florida State 1 with 4 seconds left in the Eddie Robinson Classic after Wallace scrambled 20 yards. Chris Rix threw two TD passes and engineered two other first-half scoring drives to put his coach ahead of Bryant, who was just beginning to build Alabama into a national power 37 years ago when Bowden began his career at Howard, 45 miles away in Birmingham. The Seminoles, who return 17 starters from an 8-4 campaign that marked Bowden's worst in 15 years, scored on both teams' initial possession and appeared en route to a rout until Wallace began stunning them with big plays. Adam Benike's 33-yard field goal - after Wallace lost 15 yards on third-and-goal from the 1 - drew the Cyclones to 31-17 with 1:23 left in the third. Then Atif Austin returned an interception 39 yards to the Florida State 25 and brought the pro-Iowa State crowd of 55,132 roaring to its feet. Four plays later, Wallace made it 31-24 with 13:01 left when he scored on a 1-yard run as Iowa State coaches tried frantically to call a timeout. Back came the Seminoles, with Rix hitting Anquan Boldin on a 31-yard TD pass for a 38-24 lead with 8:15 left. But Wallace needed only nine plays to drive his team 91 yards, hitting Jamaul Montgomery on a 39-yard TD pass that made it 38-31 with 5:26 left. Wallace finished 22-of-33 for 313 yards and two touchdowns. Rix was 17-of-25 for 210. At first, it looked easy for the Seminoles. On their first possession, Nick Maddux capped an 80-yard march with a 5-yard run. Then three minutes later, pressured by Donnie Carter and Michael Boulware, Wallace hurried a screen pass right into the hands of defensive end Alonzo Jackson. The 250-pounder juggled the ball a moment, then rambled 48 yards into the end zone. Another Cyclones turnover led to Rix's 2-yard TD pass to Anquan Boldin on the first play of the second period. Then Iowa State got a 54-yard kickoff return by Lance Young and two plays later, Hiawatha Rutland broke free over the middle and fled 36 yards into the end zone, making it 24-7. Trailing 31-7 in the final minute of the half, Wallace engineered a 6-play, 70-yard drive capped by a 29-yard scoring pass to tight end Kyle Knock. It was the first career TD by the senior tight end whose father, Don, is director of football operations for the Cyclones. On the Cyclones' second possession, Florida State's B.J. Ward blocked a 50-yard field-goal attempt. The Seminoles, with Robert Morgan getting 18 yards on a pass from Rix, drove 63 yards on 8 plays to set up Xavier Beitia's 35-yard field goal for a 17-0 lead. On the ensuing kickoff, Ward knocked the ball loose from Bob Montgomery and Kameron Wimbley snatched it out of the air and ran 12 yards to the 10, setting up Boldin's 2-yard TD catch. The Seminoles went up 31-7 with 1:05 left in the half when Jones broke three tackles on a 9-yard TD run right through the middle.