AARON BEARD
AP Sports Writer
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The game between North Carolina State and Florida State continued Monday with coach Dave Doeren saying the Seminoles faked injuries to slow the Wolfpack down in their meeting over the weekend.
Florida State’s Jimbo Fisher didn’t appreciate the accusation.
“It’s a re-occurring thing,” Doeren said Monday. “It’s not just Florida State where it’s happening. There’s nothing the officials can do about it. It’s not a rule in college football. But I think it’s unsportsmanlike, personally.”
Doeren first raised the issue after Saturday’s 56-41 loss to top-ranked FSU, then was asked about it Monday during his weekly news conference. Doeren said FSU defensive players would go down with an injury that stopped the clock, go to the sideline then immediately return to the game.
He said one FSU player walked to the sideline “as slow as humanly possible” after an injury then returned to the game. After Saturday’s loss, Doeren referred to “all the crazy fall-down things” that slowed his offense’s tempo. N.C. State ran 87 plays for 520 yards.
Fisher denied his players faked anything when asked about Doeren’s comments during his news conference Monday.
“I accuse him of not knowing what he’s talking about,” Fisher said. “We’re not faking injuries, no one faked injuries and we wouldn’t do that. We’ll coach Florida State and he can coach North Carolina State.”
Doeren made a similar comment about Georgia Southern after the season-opening win, saying Eagles defensive players were tired and “kept falling down to stop our drives” and that the number of times it happened after halftime was “ridiculous.” He said Monday he’d like to see a rule requiring a player to miss more than one play if leaving the game due to injury.
Currently, that’s not the case.
Atlantic Coast Conference spokeswoman Amy Yakola said league rules require an official to stop the game with an official timeout if a player is injured, then summon medical staff to treat the player and get him safely off the field before resuming play. She declined to comment further on the issue.
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Associated Press writer Kareem Copeland in Tallahassee, Florida contributed to this report.
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