NEW ORLEANS, LA - No. 1 at the start, No. 1 at the finish. Florida State is the perfect national champion.
Led by the sizzling Peter Warrick and the steady Chris Weinke, the Seminoles held off Virginia Tech for a 46-29 victory in the national championship game Tuesday night.
The Hokies' thrilling freshman quarterback, Michael Vick, did all he could to run his team to victory in the Sugar Bowl, but it wasn't enough.
Warrick electrified a Superdome crowd with a record 20 point game - he caught touchdown passes of 64 and 43 yards, returned a punt 59 yards for a score and snagged a 2-point conversion pass from Weinke.
The 27 year old Weinke completed 20 of 34 passes for 329 yards and four TDs - two to Warrick and two to Ron Dugans. Warrick finished with six catches for 163 yards in the highest scoring Sugar Bowl in history.
Vick threw for 225 yards and one TD and ran for 97 yards and a score.
Florida State (12-0) was certain to become the first team to go wire to wire in The Associated Press' poll since the preseason ratings began in 1950. The final AP poll will be released early Wednesday to confirm the obvious.
The Seminoles were automatically crowned national champs in the USA Today-ESPN coaches' poll under the Bowl Championship Series format.
All week, Warrick and his senior pals promised each other they would do everything possible to avoid losing three title games. They did - in a big way - and Bobby Bowden completed a remarkable year. He won his 300th game in the first father vs. son coaching matchup, celebrated his 70th birthday and 50th wedding anniversary and finally attained his first perfect season in 40 years as a coach.
Warrick came up with his best performance in the final game of his college career. In the first half, he caught three passes for 100 yards and his punt return helped the Seminoles build a 28-14 lead after 30 minutes of big plays. Last season, he was held to one catch for seven yards in a Fiesta Bowl loss to Tennessee in the national title game. In fact, in three previous bowl games, Warrick totaled five catches and no TDs.
He opened the scoring with his 64 yard grab, then took a punt and blazed past Tech defenders for a 59 yard score and a 28-7 lead.
Late in the game, with half the crowd of 79,280 chanting "Peter Warrick, Peter Warrick," Weinke reared back and threw a 43 yard TD pass to the wide receiver, who caught the ball while diving into the end zone with a Virginia Tech defender draped over him. The chants rang out again and Warrick ran to the sideline to celebrate with his teammates.
The win over the upstart Hokies (11-1) stamped the Seminoles as the Team of the Decade and ended a run of national title misses under Bowden. Since winning its first national crown in 1993, Florida State had lost two of the past three title games 23-16 to Tennessee last season, and 52-20 to Florida in '97 in what until Tuesday night was the highest scoring Sugar Bowl.
The loss ended Virginia Tech's dream season and a bid for its first national title in 107 years of playing football. Vick was valiant in defeat. The 19 year old lefthander overcame a lost fumble near the Seminoles goal line on the game's opening drive and led the Hokies back from a 21 point deficit to a 29-28 lead with 2:13 left in the third quarter.
