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Despite a tumultuous fourth quarter in which the Seminoles were outscored 21-7, the FSU offense was knocking at Virginia’s door with a chance to tie or win after a first-down catch by Keyshawn Helton. At that point the clock should’ve been stopped with 7 seconds left to spot the ball and reset the chains. Instead, it continued to run down.
In college football, clock stops on the first down and doesn't start until it's ready for play.
— Alex Kirshner (@alex_kirshner) September 15, 2019
Watch the clock not stop until three full seconds after FSU's first down, leading FSU not to clock it and instead run a nothing play to lose the game.
Real bad pic.twitter.com/0KkZb3fknq
The mishap comes just a day after another game-clock gaffe in the Wake Forest-North Carolina game, after which the ACC ruled that the referees erred on the final play and should’ve allowed UNC one more second to play.
In the end, Florida State was left with no timeouts, and due to the runoff, not enough time to spike the ball. At that point if the ball would have been spiked, by rule, the game would have been over:
Lolololol. Fantasy land dude. Also, you know, from the rule book. Have to have 3 or more seconds to clock. Clock under and it's game over. pic.twitter.com/9lrZMjMmjR
— onebarrelrum (@TheOneBarrelRum) September 15, 2019
Instead, Florida State’s offense hurried back to the line to run a rushed final play, and you know the rest.