Christian Ponder seemingly was given every chance to wilt in the frantic final quarter.

A huge lead evaporating. A wounded-duck interception taken back for a touchdown. Miami's defense growing in confidence and ferocity. More and more noise from a Dolphin Stadium crowd sensing another UM miracle.

Ponder would be the first to say he didn't handle it perfectly. But he did just enough to preserve Florida State's wet and wild 41-39 triumph.

''You play the University of Miami at their place, you don't get a much tougher situation,'' FSU coach Bobby Bowden said. ``It's a good place to panic. I never saw him panic.''

Instead, Ponder stifled UM's mad comeback by directing a nine-play, 81-yard drive that ended in Antone Smith's 20-yard touchdown burst and a 41-32 lead.

Ponder converted perhaps the most crucial play himself. Finding his receivers covered on third-and-11 from the FSU 49, he scrambled 13 yards for a diving first down at the Miami 38.

''That was huge,'' said Ponder, whose legs were just as important as his arm in this contest. ``I dropped back, saw nothing open and had a lot of room to run.

``I saw a guy and tried to dive [out to the first-down marker]. I managed to dive out in front of him.''

Said Bowden: ``He's a pretty cool customer.''

And one with the edge in a matchup of quarterbacks getting their first taste of UM-FSU warfare.

ONE OF MANY DUELS

UM's Robert Marve showed great moxie in bringing the Hurricanes back from their 24-3 deficit, only to come up short.

''Both quarterbacks did a good job -- theirs and ours,'' Bowden said. ``They're going to see each other again. Probably many times.''

Despite a 3-1 record as a starter, Ponder was widely considered the less established quarterback entering Saturday's showdown. Instead, the game allowed the sophomore to showcase his dual-threat ability.

With offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher mixing up draws, sprints and options, Ponder wound up running for 144 yards on 19 carries -- FSU's best quarterback rushing day in 60 years.

The only better performance came in FSU's second season -- 146 yards by Ken MacLean against Cumberland. The Seminoles had not had a quarterback rush for 100 yards since 1992, when Charlie Ward did it against Maryland.

''That's pretty big,'' Ponder said. ``Charlie Ward's a legend. But I love to have the ball in my hands. If I have the ball in my hands, I always feel I can do something with it.''

It's that type of ability that prompted Fisher to choose Ponder over incumbent Drew Weatherford at the end of fall camp.

ON THE RUN

''He's a better runner than he looks like,'' Bowden said. ``He doesn't look very good doing it, but he keeps getting first downs.''

Certainly UM's defenders had no choice but to take notice -- especially after Ponder cut inside on an option that popped for 45 yards and led to FSU's second touchdown.

''We knew he could run. We saw it on film,'' linebacker Sean Spence said. ``We just didn't know he could run that fast. He surprised me.''

It was a far different performer than what Ponder showed two weeks ago in a three-interception outing against Wake Forest.

''It's a character game,'' Fisher said. ``You have to learn from your mistakes. All young players make mistakes, but the good ones don't make the same one 2-3-4 times.''

Marve, after completing just two passes in the first half, bounced back to complete 15 of 32 after intermission. He finished with 122 yards and a near comeback.

''Obviously we didn't jump out of the gate the way we wanted to,'' he said. ``But we felt like we had a chance. We just didn't pull it out.''

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