Seminoles Take Care of Some Unfinished Business : Sugar Bowl: Florida State, after coming back to tie Florida on Nov. 26, finishes off Gators, 23-17.

NEW ORLEANS — No magic. No turnabout. No payback.

Only a decision: Florida State 23, Florida 17, which in the peculiar mindset of West Floridians means that the Seminoles won the 61st Sugar Bowl on Monday and--as a bonus--a tie game played Nov. 26 in Tallahassee.

Folks around Central Florida will find it difficult to argue.

The end came suddenly, quickly, when poetry ceased to be in motion with 1:32 to play. Florida had scored a touchdown, then forced a punt and had the ball on its 19 with 2:27 to play, time enough for romantics to conjure up the kind of ending that the state’s schoolchildren would have to study in history class.

Danny Wuerffel’s quick pass to Fred Taylor got 12 yards, but Todd Rebol’s sack of Wuerffel retrieved eight of them. It worked once, so why not again? Florida State linebacker Rebol set sights on Wuerffel on second down.

With a garnet jersey in his face, Wuerffel threw a wobbly pass that Derrick Brooks intercepted on the Florida 24, returning it to the 19, but that’s just accounting. Seventh-ranked Florida State (10-1-1) had won its 10th bowl in a row, had beaten its archrival for the seventh time in nine games and had done it on Florida’s terms, trading wacko play for wacko play, then winning with defense a game that set Sugar Bowl offensive records.

It was an experience Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden would prefer left for the archives.

“I do not want to play them twice ever again unless I’m coaching at Mississippi State or something,” he said. “It’s no fun to coach against your in-state rivals . . . well, it hasn’t been for six days here. It’s pretty good now.”

Well, it was kind of fun, if not for the coach.

Only the lack of parked cars and fire hydrants kept it from being street ball, with the kind of formations you would draw on asphalt, off-the-wall plays that you’d illustrate with bottle caps and spectacular performances that become legend at day’s end.

Why not? Rebol had called it a “do-over” two days before, adding, “you don’t get to do that much at this level.”

Do-over? Fair enough.

There was Florida (10-2-1), with Wuerffel--who set Sugar Bowl records with 28 completions and 394 passing yards--handing to wideout Reidel Anthony on a reverse, and Anthony stopping to throw a 52-yard pass to Jack Jackson to start a drive to a 22-yard field goal by Judd Davis that tied the game, 3-3.

After the game, Jackson, a junior, said, “There isn’t anything left for me to prove if I was to return to school next year,” and added he was trying his lot with the NFL.

There was Florida State, answering with Warrick Dunn’s 73-yard touchdown pass that ‘OMar Ellison took off the helmet of defensive back Michael Gilmore and gave the Seminoles a 10-3 lead in the second quarter.

Florida tried it all, including the Emory & Henry formation, which involves three-player triangles at the end of each line--one player is a tackle, lonesome from his other interior linemen--and is named for a college in Virginia that used it in the 1950s.

The Gators had used it against Alabama in winning the Southeastern Conference championship, and Florida State can watch videotape. A run by Elijah Williams gleaned 13 yards, then a pass to Anthony at the corner of the left triangle lost 10 of those and Emory went back to Henry for another day.

And Florida tried a pitchout, throwback pass, Wuerffel moving down the line then flipping the ball back to Chris Doering, who threw back toward Williams. Florida State’s Eric Smith was holding Williams, who dropped the ball but was awarded 10 yards on the penalty.

Some roles changed.

Dunn, a tailback from nearby Baton Rouge, was an option quarterback in high school, and days before the game he said he wanted no part of any option passes in college.

“That’s too much pressure,” he said.

Then he threw a pass that set a Sugar Bowl record for longest completed pass.

That was enough.

“I’m happy with what I’m doing right now,” said Dunn, the game’s most valuable player who, besides showing his passing prowess, rushed 14 times for 58 yards and caught nine passes for 51. He said he hadn’t thrown a pass since high school.

“But you’re one for one now,” Bowden said.

“That’s good enough,” responded Dunn, who said he got a little payback from the evening. The last time he had played in the Superdome, Baton Rouge Catholic High lost to Ruston High, 52-10, in the Louisiana playoffs.

His time in the record books, passing section, lasted only eight minutes 18 seconds, and was broken when Ike Hilliard broke two tackles in completing an 82-yard touchdown play after taking a pass from Wuerffel.

Florida State was giving up passing yards over the middle, and Wuerffel--who completed 10 consecutive passes in the second quarter, another Sugar Bowl record--found Hilliard open. Hilliard bounced off Sean Hamlet, shook off Derrick Brooks and outran the rest of the Seminoles to cut their lead to 17-10.

Florida State answered with a power-I that used 288-pound tackle Jesus Hernandez at halfback, then gave the ball to the fullback, Zack Crockett, for a first down on fourth and an inch.

Still, Florida had a chance to win, mostly “because FSU missed a couple of kicks,” Gator Coach Steve Spurrier said.

Dan Mowrey kicked field goals of 21, 24 and 45 yards, but missed from 23 and 36.

“When they got the ball the last time . . . I looked back over the missed opportunities from the missed kicks,” Bowden said. “We get the ball inside the 10-yard line two times and miss dadgum kicks. I’m thinking to myself, ‘We’re going to get beat because we didn’t capitalize.’ ”

Instead, Florida State surrendered the game’s final touchdown by inches, 17 plays covering 80 yards, three plays needed for the last one.

It took four minutes, 50 seconds that Florida didn’t have, and ended strangely, Wuerffel diving on top of a pile, pushing the ball over the goal line, then finding it rolling backward with Corey Fuller picking it up and heading the other way.

Learning it was not a fumble, Fuller took exception, spiked the ball before 76,224 and, more important, before an official who assessed 15 yards on the kickoff for unsportsmanlike conduct.

It gave Florida a chance to kick off from midfield, but an on-sides attempt bounced out of bounds. More time for Florida State to take off the clock, enough time, as it turned out, to thwart any kind of romantic Gator ending.