FSU Seminoles

Sooo ... now what?

Florida State beat Clemson in what is likely to amount to the Atlantic Division championship game. Georgia Tech has all but played its way out of the Coastal Division race with two losses to division opponents.

Will the next nine Saturdays in the ACC really be as anticlimactic as they look right now?

Not in the ACC. Not possibly. Not in a league where a struggling, young Miami defense goes on the road and beats Georgia Tech. Not in a conference where a ranked Virginia Tech team loses to a pedestrian Pitt team. The ACC has developed a reputation for its unpredictability, and with a Coastal Division race that’s slowly unfolding and three teams that have yet to start conference play, there are still plenty of reasons to tune in.

The No. 1 reason is that Florida State’s season hasn’t ended yet and NC State’s is just beginning.

The Seminoles are hands-down the best team in the ACC this season. They’re also one of the best teams in the country. It’s a more mature, more focused group that is a legitimate national title contender with a Heisman-caliber quarterback in EJ Manuel. But FSU still travels to NC State, which is riding a three-game winning streak heading into its first conference game of the season. FSU still travels to rival Miami, which is 2-0 in conference play. And the Noles still travel to Blacksburg on a Thursday night. The rest of the Atlantic Division won't roll over for FSU. Expect the exact opposite: FSU will get everyone’s best shot.

Three ACC teams -- NC State, Maryland and Duke -- have yet to play a conference game. Three teams -- Florida State, Miami and Virginia Tech -- have yet to lose a conference game. With only one league loss, Virginia is just as much in the mix as anyone else. And Duke is already halfway to a bowl game. (Yes, Duke.)

Another very real possibility at this point: the long-awaited matchup between Florida State and Miami in the ACC championship game.

Virginia Tech’s Thursday night game at Miami on Nov. 1 could turn out to be a season-defining game in the Coastal Division race. And college football fans still want to keep an eye on Clemson. Although the Tigers lost control of their own destiny in the Atlantic Division race Saturday and need Florida State to lose to get back in the conversation, a one-loss season could add up to another at-large BCS bid for the ACC.

Or, knowing Clemson, the Tigers might lose at BC this weekend.

Saturday felt like November in the ACC, but there is still plenty to play for and even more to lose.

Heather Dinich talks about the performance of FSU quarterback EJ Manuel in the Noles' win over Clemson.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- The redshirt roller coaster for defensive end Chris Casher took another turn in pregame warmups Saturday, and Jimbo Fisher said the freshman is now likely to miss the season because of a knee injury.

Casher tweaked the knee during warmups, Fisher said, and he spent the rest of the game on the sideline on crutches. Fisher indicated the injury is related to cartilage damage from an issue Casher had in high school, but it's likely that surgery will be required to fix the problem.

"They've got to look at it, but they think it's an old one where the cartilage will sometimes lay right and then all of a sudden you'll tweak it and it'll flip up and catch," Fisher said. "In warmup, he just twisted his knee. They think it's an old injury from high school he just played through."

Casher performed well in fall camp, but he and fellow freshman defensive end Mario Edwards Jr. were slated to redshirt when the season began. Then defensive end Brandon Jenkins went down with a season-ending foot injury, and Fisher pulled the redshirts for both freshmen.

He qualifies for a medical redshirt despite appearing in two games this season. In his limited work, Casher made just one tackle.

More injury updates: Defensive end Bjoern Werner suffered a minor hand injury against Clemson, but it didn't affect his playing time.

"He jammed one of those knuckles or dislocated a joint," Fisher said.

Werner had the fingers taped after the game, but he also played a season-high in snaps. With the injuries to Casher and Jenkins, FSU is thin at defensive end, but Fisher said Werner's increased playing time was at the player's request, not because of roster limitations.

Wide receiver Jarred Haggins missed Saturday's game, but he's expected to be back for Monday's walk throughs, Fisher said.

Beyond that, Fisher said his team came through the game relatively healthy.

"Typical bangs and bruises of a very physical, exhausting game," he said.

Still, Fisher decided not to have the team practice Monday afternoon, choosing instead to hold meetings and do walk-throughs without any extensive workouts.

While the physicality of Saturday's win played a part in the decision, Fisher said the biggest reason was simply that most players didn't leave the stadium until the 2 to 3 a.m. Sunday.

"The 48 hours after a ballgame is huge as far as your conditioning and rehab for the next week," Fisher said.

ACC honors: Quarterback EJ Manuel was one of three Florida State players to earn ACC weekly honors after Saturday's win over Clemson.

Manuel was named the ACC's offensive back of the week after throwing for 380 yards and rushing for 102 more. He also earned national offensive back of the week honors and was the Davey O'Brien award winner as the nation's top quarterback for the week.

Right tackle Menelik Watson also earned ACC honors as the offensive lineman of the week, while Lamarcus Joyner earned specialist honors for his 90-yard kickoff return that helped swing the momentum in FSU's come-from-behind victory.

Game time: Florida State's Oct. 6 game against N.C. State will kick off at 8 p.m. on either ABC or ESPN2, according to a release by the ACC.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Chris Thompson's hand still stung from the high fives he'd earned after rumbling through tackles for a 22-yard touchdown run when he noticed the flag. A hold on tight end Nick O'Leary negated the run, pushing Florida State's offense in the wrong direction yet again.

In the end, none of it mattered. The 11 flags on Florida State on Saturday were simply the twists and turns needed to add some drama to a 49-37 win over Clemson.

But for a team that finished 116th in the nation in penalties a year ago, the myriad of flags was particularly troubling.

"That's the disappointing thing," Jimbo Fisher said. "That's ridiculous. We can't play undisciplined like that. In a big game, this will eventually haunt us."

For much of the first quarter, it seemed like those flags would be Florida State's undoing against Clemson.

The Seminoles drove to the Clemson 33 late in the first quarter, but a false start on O'Leary stalled the drive, and Dustin Hopkins missed a field-goal try.

On the final drive of the second quarter, it was a repeat performance. Florida State had a third-and-1 at the Clemson 13, and left tackle Cameron Erving was whistled for a false start. EJ Manuel's next pass fell incomplete, and Hopkins again missed the field goal.

The offense found its groove in the second half, erasing the damage done, but the Seminoles still finished with one more penalty Saturday than they'd accumulated in the first three games combined.

It's not ideal, guard Josue Matias admits, but there was a silver lining.

After Thompson's big run was called back, Florida State responded quickly, with Manuel hitting Rodney Smith for a touchdown on the next play.

"It didn't really bother us, because we knew we could always do it again," Matias said. "Our job is to block, and we executed."

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- The play was wide open for the second time.

In the first half, Sammy Watkins had overthrown the receiver. In the second half, he didn't miss. Clemson's second crack at the trick play went 52 yards for a touchdown and put the Tigers up 28-14.

Jimbo Fisher needed to stop the bleeding, and the Florida State defense was hemorrhaging yards. So he pulled them together on the sideline and offered a reminder. He told them they'd fallen short of the hype, but that was OK. It's how they responded that mattered.

"I saw the look, and you start to get a little disgust, and you feel frustrated," Fisher said. "They've been told how great they are for a year-and-a-half. Nobody can play that way all the time. I told them to forget all that. Just go back, regroup, and we'll win this."

For the first three weeks of the season, everything came easily for Florida State's top-ranked defense. On Saturday, Tajh Boyd and Clemson spent the first 35 minutes of the game shining a spotlight on every chink in the armor.

But Fisher promised redemption if the unit could find its footing in the second half, and that's exactly what happened.

Watkins' touchdown pass meant Clemson had tallied 426 yards of offense on its first 44 plays. The Tigers mustered just 106 more on their next 33 plays.

"We knew it was not going to be easy," defensive end Bjoern Werner said. "But we have a goal at the end of the season, and we know there are going to be tough games like that. But that's a game you're going to remember for a while."

The touchdown pass from Watkins was emblematic of how Clemson attacked Florida State's vaunted defense. It didn't chip away on the ground or look for yardage over the middle. The Tigers dug deep into the playbook, pulling out trick plays and long throws.

It wasn't a surprise, and yet it was utterly overwhelming.

"We knew that was going to come," tackle Timmy Jernigan said. "Teams aren't going to play us straight up."

As the game wore on, however, Clemson ran out of tricks, and the physicality of Florida State's defensive front took control.

The defensive line took control of the line of scrimmage, and Boyd found less and less time to throw before he was flushed from the pocket. When under duress Saturday, Boyd completed just two of 10 passes for 55 yards and threw his lone interception.

"We just had to start getting more penetration, especially in the middle," Jernigan said. "We had to put the center and the guard in his lap and make him think fast."

The key wasn't a change in scheme, Jernigan said. It was simply a matter of outworking the Clemson offensive line for four quarters.

It was a game that could've gotten out of hand, he admits. But rather than back down as Clemson pulled ahead, the defense turned up the heat.

"I know when I'm tired, when I see the guy in front of me breathing harder, it's time to get them now," Jernigan said. "It's time to go. Once we see that, we're coming."