Florida State defeats Auburn to win college football championship

Jameis Winston and the Florida State Seminoles on Monday faced down adversity for the first time and showed they could take a punch if that's what it took to win a national championship.

The Heisman Trophy winner threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Kelvin Benjamin with 13 seconds left and Florida State beat the Auburn University Tigers 34-31 to win the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) after being down 21-3 in the first half.  

With its win, Florida State, a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), snapped the Southeastern Conference’s seven-year winning streak in college football's biggest game.

Florida State, which finished the season undefeated, hadn't faced a challenge like it did against Auburn all season — beating competitors by an average of 42 points per game.

Winston struggled much of the night, but was near perfect when the Seminoles needed it most, completing six out of seven passes for 77 yards on the game-winning 80-yard drive. A pass-interference penalty on Auburn cornerback Chris Davis gave Florida State a first-and-goal at the 2-yard line, and on the next play Winston hit his big receiver, Benjamin, for the touchdown.

There was no miracle finish for the Auburn Tigers, who had won twelve of thirteen games this season before losing to the Seminoles on Monday. They tossed the ball around on one final play, but it ended with Florida State jumping on a fumble, and the Seminoles sprinting onto the field under a storm of garnet and gold confetti.

Running back Tre Mason had given Auburn a 31-27 lead with a 37-yard touchdown run with 1:19 left after wide receiver Kermit Whitfield had put Florida State in the lead for the first time since the first quarter with a 100-yard kickoff return to make it 27-24 with 4:31 left.

Mason ran for 195 yards and quarterback Nick Marshall threw two touchdown passes for the Tigers.

"I told them in the locker room, we put together the biggest turnaround in the history of college football. We were on the brink of making it one of those magical seasons," Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said.

For the game, Winston completed 20 of his 35 pass attempts, throwing for a total of 237 yards and two fourth-quarter touchdown passes. 

Winston, who turned 20 Monday, told his teammates: "I said 'Guys, we didn't come here for no reason.' I said 'Y'all, this is ours, man.'"

The Seminoles were down 21-3 in the first half, and wobbling, but never fell over. And now Florida State is national champion for the first time since 1999, the first team to win it after being down at halftime.

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press