We had Florida State ranked 7th in our pre-season poll and many thought this would be the year that the Seminoles once again challenged for a National Championship. The Seminoles came into this game at 5-0 and was ranked #3 in the country. They had also just beaten a top ten Clemson team two weeks prior to this game. NC State came into the game at 3-2 having lost to Tennessee and Miami (FL). FSU was a two touchdown favorite and had beaten the Wolfpack in 2011 by 34 points.
FSU controlled the first half. The Wolfpack had seven drives in the first half. All of them resulted in a total of zero points. They punted four times, had a pass intercepted, fumbled once and had the half end on their last possession. The Wolfpack had 68 yards of offense at half-time. On the flip side, the Seminoles put 16 points on the board and looked to be cruising to victory.
NC State held serve on their first defensive possession of the second half and then drove the ball 78 yards on 15 plays as they took up over six minutes of game time and put their first points on the board with a field goal. After exchanging punts, FSU drove the ball into Wolfpack territory but instead of getting a killshot, the Wolfpack got a big interception. The Wolfpack then drove the ball 59 yards on 7 plays as Mike Glennon capped the drive with a 24 yard TD pass to Shadrach Thornton.
The Wolfpack had pulled to within six points and more importantly they had the momentum and the belief that they could pull off the upset. The Seminoles twice missed opportunities to run time off the clock in the fourth quarter as they had two straight three and outs down the stretch. The Wolfpack got the ball back with 2:27 left and Mike Glennon led them down the field completing two fourth down passes including the game winning pass to Bryan Underwood with just sixteen ticks left on the clock.
Biggest Upsets of 2012
#11 Oregon State 10 Wisconsin 7
#10 San Diego State 21 Boise State 19
#8 Pittsburgh 35 Virginia Tech 17
#6 NC State 17 FSU 16
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