Second half surge leads Florida State over Notre Dame in Champs Sports Bowl

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The second half offensive effort of freshman wide receiver Rashad Greene and quarterback EJ Manuel propelled Florida State over Notre Dame 18-14 in the Champs Sports Bowl on Friday at the Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium in Orlando.

Notre Dame took a 14-0 lead at the beginning of the third quarter despite any decent showing from its offense.

One touchdown was off a fumble recovery by Zeke Motta taken to the house, while the second was a shaky five-yard pass thrown from Tommy Rees that was bobbled multiple times by Michael Floyd.

The Seminoles then scored 18 unanswered points.

Immediately after the Floyd touchdown, Lamarcus Joyner responded with a 77-yard kickoff return, which eventually set up his team for a 42-yard field goal.

On its next offensive drive, Florida State was sparked by an acrobatic 42-yard grab by Greene into Irish territory, which was the Seminoles’ biggest offensive play up to that point, and a game-changer.

“It was huge,” Manuel told USA Today. “That was the spark for our whole team. Our defense was kind of waiting for us to make plays, make plays. So when he made that catch it ignited the whole team. That’s why he won MVP.”

Wide receiver Bert Reed caught the ball the in the corner of the endzone for the touchdown to end the drive.

After the failed two-point conversion attempt, the score was 14-9 Notre Dame with fewer than 15 minutes remaining in the game.

Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly had platooned quarterbacks Tommy Rees and Andrew Hendrix all game.

On Hendrix’s return to the game on the next drive, he fired a pass straight into the chest of Florida State senior linebacker Nigel Bradham.

On their second play after the interception, Greene caught the Seminoles’ second touchdown of the game. After another failed two-point conversion, Florida State grabbed its first lead of the game 15-14.

Greene made another outstanding catch to set up Florida State to add one more field goal.

The game proved to be very defensive with Florida State having four sacks and Notre Dame having five and both teams totaling less than 200 offensive yards in the first half.

One of the keys was the lack of consistency in the quarterback position allowing Florida State to continue to stay in the game and eventually win it.

Two interceptions in the endzone by Rees and another interception on a forced pass by Hendrix took away Notre Dame’s chances to seal their victory.

‘‘We turn the ball over. We cannot win games at the highest level if we continue to turn the ball over like we do,” Kelly told the Chicago Sun-Times. “The coaches have to get better and the players have to get better if we are going to solve this issue.”

The Irish had another disappointing season, finishing at 8-5. No. 25 Florida State ended the year 9-4.

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