Travis helps Seminoles upend Tar Heels in signature victory

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A Florida State team looking to get back to respectability in the ACC made a striking statement. The Seminoles now have a confidence-building victory, momentum that could carry them in Mike Norvell’s first year as their coach.

Jordan Travis ran for two touchdowns and threw a scoring pass to help FSU build a big first-half lead, and the Seminoles held off No. 5 North Carolina 31-28 on Saturday night.

Travis guided an offense that generated 432 yards for Florida State (2-3, 1-3 ACC) but was shut out in the second half.

The Seminoles gave Norvell a signature victory following a shaky start, which included a season-opening defeat to Georgia Tech and a blowout loss at Miami. But Norvell began to see FSU turn the corner in the previous week’s 42-26 loss at Notre Dame.

“There’s been plenty of adversity throughout the course of this year, through the early part of this season,” Norvell said. “These guys believe in what we do. Coming off of last week, we saw moments, we saw flashes, we saw a team that was playing harder, really trying to work to play together. This week, we challenged throughout the course of the week that we needed that consistency to show up.”

The consistency showed up for the Seminoles — at least for a half.

UNC quarterback Sam Howell, who committed to FSU before the Tar Heels hired coach Mack Brown, led three second-half touchdown drives to pull to 31-28. The Tar Heels (3-1, 3-1) drove into FSU territory, but dropped passes on third and fourth down in the final seconds ended the comeback bid.

The Tar Heels racked up 558 offensive yards, including 317 in the second half. Howell completed 20 of 36 passes for 374 yards, with 283 coming after halftime. He had three touchdowns but also a costly interception that defensive end Joshua Kaindoh returned 25 yards for a touchdown.

Travis, a redshirt sophomore making just his second college start, completed 8 of 19 passes for 191 yards and a 12-yard touchdown pass to Camren McDonald. He also ran 16 times for 107 yards as the Seminoles jumped out to a 31-7 halftime lead, the most dominating performance for the program in recent memory.