CBS SportsLine wire reports
Sept. 19, 1998

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Chris Weinke's short memory was a good thing Saturday for the Florida State Seminoles.

"We wanted to come out and put what happened last week behind us and I think we did that," said the 'Noles quarterback Saturday night after

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throwing three touchdown passes without an interception as the 11th-ranked Seminoles routed Duke 62-13.

Weinke, who was intercepted six times in last week's loss at North Carolina State, completed 11-of-19 passes for 241 yards in just three quarters.

"You hear things throughout the week and I tried not to listen, but sometimes it's hard not to," Weinke said. "I wanted to come out and show these people I could still play this game.

"I forgot about the past," he said. "What's done is done.''

Florida State (2-1, 1-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) is 48-2 in its first 50 conference games, losing 24-7 to North Carolina State last week and at Virginia three years ago.

Laveranues Coles scored on a 97-yard kickoff return while Jeff Chaney, Travis Minor, and Peter Warrick all scored a pair of touchdowns for the Seminoles, who had scored only 30 points in their first two games of the season.

"WE DID ABOUT WHAT WE NEEDED to do," Florida State coach Bobby Bowden said. "We needed to score points and we needed to stop people."

The Seminoles rolled up 427 yards and held Duke, which came into the game with the ACC's top offense, to 165 yards. The Blue Devils lost their 19th consecutive league game, an ACC record.

Jeff Chaney and the Seminoles have no problem powering through the Blue Devils. (AP)

"After they made a few big plays it just kind of steamrolled and we couldn't get anything going," Duke quarterback Spencer Romine said. "It's like any game. A few things go a different way and it's a different ballgame."

Duke (2-1, 1-1 ACC) was coming off a 44-10 victory at Northwestern while Florida State suffered its worst loss to an unranked team in 21 years at North Carolina State.

A sophomore making his third collegiate start, Weinke connected with Warrick on touchdown passes covering 30 and 24 yards and with Minor on a 17-yard scoring throw.

"HE DIDN'T LOOK LIKE THE SAME guy," Bowden said. "He was making the throws we had to have. That was very encouraging."

After going scoreless for more than five quarters, the Seminoles scored 52 points in the second and third quarters.

"Duke really caught us at a bad time," Bowden said. "You never know how you'll respond. We responded the way I wanted."

Minor's 8-yard touchdown run ignited a four-touchdown outburst in the third period that gave the Seminoles a 52-10 lead.

"We were just spent," said Duke coach Fred Goldsmith, noting several players became ill during the game with food poisoning. "Our guys did the best they could for a long time."

COLES, WHO BENEFITED FROM KEY blocks by Chaney and Patrick Hughes, started upfield to about his own 25 before breaking to the outside and heading down the right sideline to give the Seminoles a 17-10 lead with 6:26 left in the half. It was the fourth longest kickoff return in school history.

Duke's Richmond Flowers fumbled the ensuing kickoff and the Seminoles were in the end zone three plays later on a 17-yard pass from Weinke to Minor, giving Florida State a 24-10 halftime lead.

"I thought we were competing quite well, but it all caved in," Goldsmith said.

When Duke scored first to take a 7-0 lead midway through the first period it meant the Seminoles had given up 31 consecutive points going back to last week's 24-7 defeat.

WITH FLORIDA STATE'S KEITH COTTRELL PUNTING on the goal line, Duke's Darius Clark broke through to block the kick and the Blue Devils recovered the ball at the Florida State 7.

Letavious Wilks scored the Duke touchdown on a 1-yard dive.

Florida State's defense set up the Seminoles first score, a 35-yard field goal by Janikowski that snapped a scoring drought of more than 77 minutes.

And they didn't waste time scoring again, reaching the end zone 28 seconds later on a 30-yard TD pass from Weinke to Warrick following Sean Key's interception.

Duke tied the game on Sims Lenhardt's career-best 51-yard field goal, one play after Florida State declined a holding penalty that would have put the Blue Devils well out of field-goal distance.