Chick-Fil-A Bowl, South Carolina Vs. Florida State: ‘Noles Survive Gamecocks Rally, Win 26-17

But the Seminoles forced five turnovers by the Gamecocks and ran for 218 yards, all while surviving a furious South Carolina rally in the third quarter to give Jimbo Fisher a bowl win in his first season as head coach in Tallahassee. The victory also gave the Seminoles their 10th of the year, a landmark the storied program hasn’t seen in seven years.

The game started out sloppy, with neither team scoring a touchdown until the second quarter was almost over. At that time, Florida State had what seemed to be an insurmountable 13-0 lead. The Gamecocks did manage to kick a last-second field goal, but even the 10-point halftime margin seemed too much to overcome.

On what might prove to be the game-winning drive, Florida State finds an answer to its third-down woes. After starting the game 1-of-9 on third downs, the Seminoles convert four on the way to a touchdown giving them a two-score lead.

For South Carolina, the late rally might have started just a bit too late. They didn’t go too far down, but the offense couldn’t really be bothered to show up in a meaningful way until the third quarter. Once Florida State got its own offensive issues figured out, it was always going to be hard for South Carolina to come back.

After five turnovers and 41 minutes of game time, the South Carolina offense has decided to show a few promising glimpses of competence. And all of a sudden, we appear to have a football game on our hands.

Florida State opens the second half with a drive that ends with — what else? — a field goal. The Gamecocks respond by putting together the beginnings of a drive, before Greg Reid jars the ball away from Alshon Jeffery. That continues a great night for Reid, who’s the best possible candidate for player of the game at this point.

So those expecting for the sloppy first half to be followed by more points in the second half are likely to be disappointed. At this point, both teams are going to be doing well to field an offense. With 13 points on the board at halftime, Florida State might have already won.

Florida State appears to have discovered that points can be scored more than three at a time. Near the end of a largely forgettable second quarter, the Seminoles launch the most successful drive of the day.

South Carolina has already turned the ball over three times; not to be outdone, Florida State has almost turned the ball over twice. A South Carolina fumble on the first drive led to a field goal by the Seminoles.

Then, on 3rd-and-4 from the Seminoles’ 20-yard line, Marcus Lattimore takes the ball and runs for what appears to be a first down — before Greg Reid levels him and knocks the ball loose. Kendall Smith picks the ball up and runs down to the South Carolina 29, as Lattimore lies on the ground with what we are later told is a mouth injury making him questionable for the rest of the game.

To help prime you for Friday’s college football quadrupleheader, we’ve compiled this handy list of fun factoids concerning the 2011 Chick-fil-A Bowl.

Proper name: A deliciously named bowl. The proper name is, as it says, the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Formerly the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, the bowl name changed to just include its title sponsor in 2006.

The Chick-fil-A Bowl, formerly known as the deadly combination that is the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, features a matchup of two teams that narrowly missed winning their conferences. No. 20 South Carolina, losers of the SEC Championship, battles No. 23, losers of the ACC Championship, duke it out at the Georgia Dome on Dec. 31. Two 9-4 teams enter, one will emerge with the prestigious Chick-fil-A trophy.

Florida State took a similar route to its bowl game, winning its last three regular season games before falling to Virginia Tech in the ACC Championship Game. The Seminoles dropped an early non-conference game to Oklahoma before stringing together five straight wins. North Carolina and North Carolina State put up a road block for Florida State to break the streak, with each team tripping-up the Seminoles on back-to-back weeks. The Seminoles hung on to win the ACC’s Atlantic Division, but, like South Carolina, fell just short of a BCS game.