Thursday, September 7 Florida State's Weinke makes his wait worthwhile By Bob Harig Special to ESPN.com

To his teammates, Chris Weinke is a senior citizen, somewhere in the age range of Florida State coach Bobby Bowden. At least it seems that way. He has money. He's been around. He is "old."

	Top 'Nole: Florida State's Chris Weinke.

Of course, being 27 still makes Weinke a young man. But in the world of a college student, that age difference is a lifetime.

Six weeks into this decade, Weinke signed to play at FSU when he was a 17-year-old football phenom from Minnesota. Many of his teammates at that time had to yet to make it to junior high. It was February of 1990.

Today, Seminoles everywhere don't much care how old Weinke is.

It was Weinke who held them together Saturday during their showdown against rival Florida in ""The Swamp." It was Weinke who rebounded from his own grave error to lead the No. 1-ranked Seminoles to 17 straight points in the second half. It was Weinke who guided them to a 30-23 victory over the Gators and a spot in the Sugar Bowl, where FSU will again play for the national championship.

"He's the general," said FSU quarterback-turned-fullback Dan Kendra, whose knee injury in the spring of 1998 paved the way for Weinke. "His composure just brings a good aura of confidence to the whole team."

"He is definitely a difference maker," said Bowden, 70, who completed a perfect regular season at FSU for the third time. "His calm is the best thing he's got going."

Weinke has plenty of experience to draw upon. And it might not all come from the football field. He has suffered through failure and learned from it in six years of "more downs than ups" in the minor-league baseball system of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Then there was the physical and psychological recovery from a neck injury suffered just 54 weeks ago, one that was so severe it could have paralyzed him. Weinke had to watch last year's Florida game in writhing pain, wearing a neck brace, unsure of his future.

That's why Weinke figured nothing could bother him Saturday, not 85,000 screaming fans, not the pressure of his biggest game.

"I'm not a kid," Weinke said. "I can handle the pressure. I thrive on pressure. Put it on my shoulders ... Ask anybody on the football team. I'm under control out there all the time, even when things aren't going well."

Never was that more evident than in the third quarter. The Seminoles led 13-3 in the first half, but had blown two good touchdown opportunities in the red zone. So when Florida took a 16-13 lead when defensive back Bennie Alexander picked off a Weinke pass and returned it 43 yards for a touchdown, the Seminoles and Weinke were ripe to fold.

Instead, Weinke never looked better.

He completed five straight passes to set up a 54-yard tying field goal by Sebastian Janikowski. Then, after a blocked punt, he guided the Seminoles to another touchdown. A 27-yard touchdown pass to Marvin Minnis gave FSU a 30-16 lead with 6:03 left.

"A younger guy or less mature guy might have just quit," said FSU offensive coordinator mark Richt. "He didn't fluster one bit. Even last year after his six interceptions against N.C. State, he never lost his confidence."

That game, by the way, is the only one Weinke has lost has FSU's starting quarterback.

"When the pressure's on, I respond," Weinke said. "I think I responded after I threw the interception. I knew they had taken the lead from us and if we didn't come back and score that we were going to be in for a long night."

Weinke's confidence is impressive enough, but perhaps more remarkable is his return to action after such a serious injury.

Fluid that dripped from his spinal chord made the injury painful into last January, shortly after FSU's loss to Tennessee in the Fiesta Bowl. He was not allowed to participate in spring drills. And he didn't take his first hit until FSU's opener against Louisiana Tech.

The injury sidelined him last year for the Florida game and then the national championship game against Tennessee. There are many Seminoles who believe FSU would have captured the title with a healthy Weinke.

Still, he had never performed in a game as big as Saturday's. The highest-ranked team he had faced was then-No. 10 Georgia Tech on Sept. 11. Nor had he played in an environment as unforgiving as Florida Field.

"It's the biggest game of my career, no question about it," Weinke said in the days leading up to the game. "It's a huge game. I watched it growing up. I watched it the six years I wasn't here. I watched it in '96 here when I was ready to make my decision to come back. I've been around it. It's my turn now."

When Weinke first arrived at FSU in the fall of 1990, Brad Johnson and Casey Weldon were vying for the starting quarterback job, with Charlie Ward waiting for his turn.

Three years later, Ward led the Seminoles to a victory over the Gators at Florida Field, won the Heisman Trophy and guided FSU to its first and only national championship.

Meanwhile, Weinke had left the program barely after arriving. He decided to sign a professional baseball contract, one that paid him a $375,000 bonus. Because he never enrolled in school, he never used up any eligibility.

After six years of bouncing around the minors -- Weinke had a brief stint as high as Triple-A -- he yearned for fall Saturdays. He missed the pageantry of college football. He wondered if Bowden would live up to his promise that he'd always have a scholarship available if Weinke wished to return.

Bowden did, and sure is glad.

Not that a return would guarantee success.

Other high-profile recruits who signed baseball contracts have returned to college football with mixed results. Georgia's Quincy Carter and LSU's Josh Booty have not always found the going so great.

"Chris is a man," Bowden said. "When I go out and talk to him on the sidelines or after a game, it's a different conversation than it is with some of these other guys. He's a man. Those other guys are puppies."

And Weinke is the big dog, headed to the Sugar Bowl.

Bob Harig, who covers college football for the St. Petersburg Times, writes a weekly college football column for ESPN.com.