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Bowden celebrates birthday with win as Florida State tops Clemson

Nov 9, 2008 - 5:31 AM TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Ticker) -- Antone Smith rushed for a pair of touchdowns in the fourth quarter to lead No. 24 Florida State to a 41-27 victory over Clemson on Saturday.

The win gave Florida State coach Bobby Bowden a nice present for his 79th birthday and ended Clemson's recent dominance in the series, as the Tigers had won three straight meetings.

Clemson pulled within 34-27 on a 1-yard TD run by C.J. Spiller with two minutes to play. The Tigers went for an onside kick but were unsuccessful and Smith iced the game with a 41-yard TD scamper on the next play.

"Anytime you come from behind and win, it's a good sign," Bowden said. "And if you never get behind, you never find out what you're made out of. So that part of it has been, I think, our kids have proved that over and over that they're gonna fight you, they gonna fight you until the end of the ball game."

Smith finished with 58 yards on eight carries for the Seminoles (7-2, 4-2 ACC Atlantic).

Cullen Harper threw a pair of TD passes for Clemson (4-5, 2-4 Atlantic).

Florida State quarterback Christian Ponder threw for a touchdown and ran for another to help Bowden improve to 5-1 in games coached on his birthday. It was also win No. 380 for Bowden, who is second in victories among major college coaches., a game behind Penn State coach Joe Paterno.

Clemson jumped to a 10-0 lead but Florida State tied the game before the end of the first quarter and had the lead, 20-17 at the half.

Defensive end Neefy Moffett picked off Harper and returned it 18 yards for a TD to tie the game 10-10. Ponder then ran for a 1-yard score to give the Seminoles the lead at the half. He later hooked up with Corey Surrency for a 14-yard TD in the third quarter to extend the lead to 27-17.

"It was a screen to him and he got his big body in there where he gets some momentum and starts going and it's hard for him to stop," Ponder said of the pass to Surrency. "Our offensive line did a great job and I don't even know if he got touched. He did a good job getting in there."

Harper hit Spiller for a 44-yard TD to open the scoring and gave Clemson a 17-13 lead in the second quarter with a 9-yard scoring strike to Michael Palmer.

"Very disappointed, obviously. The objective is to find a way to win," Clemson interim coach Dabo Swinney said. "You've got to give them credit. They were definitely the better team today; simple as that. Just outplayed us. We had several opportunities to re-tale the lead or get back in the game but we just couldn't seem to get over the hump."