TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – No one was more anxious for Monday’s practice to roll around than Florida State quarterback Christian Ponder.
It was finally a chance to put Thursday’s agonizing 28-24 loss at North Carolina State behind him after having a few extra days to think about it.
“Friday was not fun. You kind of stayed in the house all day,” Ponder said. “I was kind of waiting for Monday to get here, not excited, but wanting to get it over and get back on the practice field and regroup.”
No. 24 Florida State (6-2, 4-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) will try to rebound Saturday when North Carolina (5-3, 2-2) comes calling as the Seminoles’ Homecoming opponent.
Before heading to the practice field, though, Ponder calmly answered questions about fumbling away what could have been a game-winning touchdown at N.C. State.
The Seminoles were only three yards from the goal line with little more than two minutes left in the game. Ponder was eyeing an open receiver in the end zone when running back Ty Jones bumped him on a play action fake. The ball fell to the turf. The Wolfpack recovered and ran out the clock.
“It was a fluke thing,” Ponder said. “We ran the play a thousand times in practice and it’s never been like that before.”
Ponder, though, took the blame.
The loss dropped Florida State eight places in the national rankings. The Seminoles also lost control of their own destiny in the ACC.
To keep their title chances alive they must win their remaining three league games and hope N.C. State stumbles somewhere along the way. Both teams have one loss in the ACC’s Atlantic Division, but the head-to-head victory gives the Wolfpack the tie breaker.
Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher said Thursday’s loss is probably something Ponder and the rest of his players will never forget. He said the games he still remembers most from his playing days are those he lost.
“Hopefully, if they’re the competitors I think they are and have the character which I think they do, that we’ll refocus and bounce back,” Fisher said.
He defended his quarterback, saying Ponder was not guilty of extending the ball too much on the fatal fake.
“It was tight to the body,” Fisher said. “It got deflected out and that’s just what happens. It’s unfortunate we didn’t execute the play.”
Ponder sometimes takes too much blame when things go wrong, but that’s earned him the respect of his teammates, Fisher said.
“When you’re part of a team, somebody’s got to take the bullets and he’s willing to take them,” Fisher said. “He’s an ultimate competitor and he never wants to point at anybody else.”
Fisher said Ponder is the reason the Seminoles have gotten as far as they have this season.
Ponder also left an impression on North Carolina coach Butch Davis after throwing for three touchdowns and a career-high 395 yards in leading the Seminoles to a come-from-behind 30-27 victory against the Tar Heels last year.
“The thing that probably makes him the most dangerous … is his ability to keep plays alive, his ability to move around the pocket and turn what might’ve potentially been an incompletion or a sack into a 3-, 4-, 5- and sometimes a 10- or 15-yard run,” Davis said.
Given Ponder’s big night a year ago and North Carolina’s struggle to barely defeat lower division William & Mary 21-17 last week, the Tar Heels may be just what the Seminoles need to forget about what happened at N.C. State.
Not so, because North Carolina will field one of the best defenses the Seminoles will see this season, Ponder said.
“For some reason it happened to go our way that night last year,” he said.
Maybe just like things didn’t go Florida State’s way last week.
“It’s not going to be an easy game for us by any means,” Ponder said. “That’s a positive because we’re going to have to refocus quick.”
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AP Sports Writer Aaron Beard in Chapel Hill, N.C., contributed to this report.
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