By Charles Goldberg
AuburnTigers.com
PASADENA -- Auburn came with a blink of an eye of winning its second national championship in the last four years.
Florida State's Kermit Whitfield and Jameis Winston wouldn't let it happen.
They stole a page out of Auburn's playbook for the dramatic when Whitfield returned a kickoff 100 yards with 4:31 for a brief lead, and then Winston threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Kelvin Benjamin with 13 seconds remaining to send Florida State to a 34-31 victory in the BCS Championship Game on Monday night in the Rose Bowl.
It prevented the biggest comeback story in college football history, though Auburn still finished with a remarkable season and a 12-2 record. The Tigers came within seconds of winning their second national title in the last four seasons.
Oh, Auburn tried to win with its usual heroics. Tre Mason broke Bo Jackson's single-season rushing record when he scored on a 37-yard run with 1:19 remaining to give Auburn a 31-27 lead. But Winston, the Heisman Trophy winner, drove the Seminoles in for the game-winner.
Auburn had beaten Georgia, Alabama, and Missouri to get this far, and won four games in the final minute, or second. But not this night. Florida State was the one with the heroics.
Auburn led 21-3, then found itself up 21-20 with 10:55 left in the game. Florida State took the lead in the fourth quarter, but Mason's TD run gave the Tigers a late lead.
Just not late enough.
Auburn found new pages in its playbook in the first half, throwing touchdown passes to Tre Mason and Melvin Ray for the first time in their careers as Marshall out-played the Heisman winner Winston in the first half.
Marshall completed passes to seven different receivers in the first half. But even with the passing, Auburn stuck with its familiar successful formula of letting Mason run. The tailback who went for 304 yards on 46 carries hit halftime Monday night with 96 yards on 18 carries.
Marshall hit the break having hit 7-of-13 passes for 113 yards and those two touchdown. Winston was only 6-of-15 passing for 62 yards and no touchdowns, though he did set up FSU's only first-half touchdown with a nice scramble to the Auburn 3.
Auburn got two early sacks against him, then forced him to fumble to set up the Tigers' third touchdown.
Credit punter Steven Clark for setting up Auburn's first touchdown when he flipped the field when he kicked the ball dead at the Florida State 2. The Seminoles couldn't move it, and, after a Chris Davis punt return, the Tigers found themselves in great field position at the FSU 25. Six plays later, Marshall threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Mason to make it 7-3 Auburn with 3:07 left in the first quarter.
Auburn scored on its next possession in a most surprising way when Marshall found Ray running alone down the middle of the field for a 50-yard touchdown pass and a 14-3 lead with 13:48 left in the second quarter.
Auburn kept hammering away at Winston, and, after a short run, recovered his fumble at the FSU 27. Marshall made it 21-3 when he ran around end on a 4-yard run with 5:01 left in the second quarter. Florida State got that touchdown back after successfully faking a punt, watching Winston run for 21 to the Auburn 3 and scoring on the next play on a Devonta Freeman run.
That made the halftime score 21-10.
Roberto Aguayo kicked his second field goal of the game, this time a 41-yarder, to cut Auburn's lead to 21-13 with 6:05 left in the second quarter. Winston then threw a touchdown pass to cut the score again, but an unsportsmanlike penalty on the Seminoles cost them a chance to for two. Instead, FSU kicked the extra point to close the gap to one.
