Foot Notes : In Bid for Its First National Championship, Florida State Hopes That History Is Not Repeated and Its Kicks Sail Straight Against Miami Today

There are two words that live in Florida State football infamy: wide right.

Without wide right, the Seminoles might have won national championships the last two seasons. Without wide right, Gerry Thomas wouldn’t be hiding in the shadows, Dan Mowrey wouldn’t be picking notes off his windshield that read, “Mowrey, you suck,” and Scott Bentley wouldn’t be conducting round-the-clock interviews on today’s game between undefeated and No. 1-ranked Florida State and undefeated and No. 3-ranked Miami.

But here they are--Thomas, Mowrey and Bentley--linked by the memories of two missed field-goal attempts against the cross-state rival Hurricanes. Or as the heartless Miami signs read: “Wide Right--The Gift That Keeps On Giving.”

Talk all you like about Florida State quarterback Charlie Ward and linebacker Derrick Brooks, Miami quarterback Frank Costa and the Hurricane defensive front four, Florida State’s frenetic “Kentucky Derby” offense and Miami’s surprising running game, but sooner or later it all comes back to two kicks. Two wide rights.

“There’s like 100 plays in every game,” Mowrey said. “But one kick has determined the outcome of a game. Sure, Gerry Thomas or I should have made the kicks, but the cold fact is that we missed. All anybody remembers is that we missed.”

It isn’t fair, but then again neither is Coach Bobby Bowden’s failure to win a national title, or his inability to win more than one game against Miami in the last eight tries. In each of the last two seasons, Bowden has stood on the Florida State sideline and watched a football cartwheel just outside a goal-post upright. With each miss went a chance to slip on a championship ring.

In 1991, it was Thomas who trotted onto the Doak Campbell Stadium field, site of today’s game, and found himself faced with a 34-yard kick with 25 seconds to play. The Seminoles were ranked No. 1, owners of a 16-game winning streak and hailed as one of the finest teams in school history.

And then Thomas missed. Suddenly, no one remembered that the former walk-on kicker had already kicked three consecutive field goals in the game, or that Florida State’s defense gave up 10 fourth-quarter points, or that the Seminole offense managed only one touchdown all day.

Instead, Thomas became the footnote, the supposed reason for the 17-16 loss. He also became the first part of a legacy.

Thomas left the team the following season. He is now completing his last semester at school, but he wants nothing to do with the past or the annual media interview requests that occur during Miami week.

“He’s made it very clear that he really doesn’t want to talk,” a Florida State spokesperson said.

Mowrey understands why. Mowrey understands better than anyone.

“He took the criticism a lot different than I did,” said Mowrey, who enters today’s game as Bentley’s understudy. “He took it more to heart. When he heard the criticism, he took it more personally.”

Every week during the season, Mowrey and a handful of other Florida State players retreat to a local fishing hole. It has become their place of refuge, their place, Mowrey said, “to get away from it all.” So treasured are the ponds that Mowrey won’t divulge their names or locations.

But try as he might, Mowrey can’t elude the memory of last Oct. 3, when his last-second, 39-yard game-tying attempt against the Hurricanes squirted wide right.

“I could have gone out at Miami and missed eight field goals, but made the winning field goal and been a hero,” he said. “Excuse me for saying this, but that’s horse . . .”

As with Thomas the year before, Mowrey kept Florida State close with three field goals. And as usual, the Seminole offense struggled to score more than a single touchdown and the Florida State defense gave up nine fourth-quarter points and, with them, the Seminole lead.

Still, with 1:35 to play, Florida State proceeded to drive from its own 19-yard line and didn’t stop until it neared Miami’s 22. Watching from the sideline was Mowrey.

“We were going down the field . . . 60 yards in, like, 30 seconds,” Mowrey said. “I’m saying, ‘We’re going to win the game.’ I’m standing there with my helmet at my side. Then Coach Bowden says, ‘Let’s kick.’ I say, ‘OK . . . what?”

Mowrey simply wasn’t ready. Unlike his three previous field-goal attempts that day, Mowrey didn’t take any practice kicks near the Seminole bench. Instead, he put on his helmet, ran onto the Orange Bowl turf and missed the 39-yarder.

“Totally my fault,” he said. “It’s really the only kick I’ve never prepared for mentally. I was a fan at that point. I didn’t even think about (kicking).”

Mowrey said he remembers nothing about the kick, other than he missed. As he waited for the snap, Mowrey recalled thinking, “Why am I kicking?” which isn’t exactly your formula for success.

Then the ball faded away and Miami’s 19-16 victory was secure.

“I fell on the ground,” Mowrey said, “and thought, ‘Oh, God, what have I done? What in God’s name have I done? Anything but wide right.’ ”

Now it is Bentley’s turn to try. The true freshman, who already has been featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, has been the center of attention this week. The usually happy-go-lucky Bowden approached him Monday evening and asked if a media blackout was in order. Bentley said he could handle the questions. And Mowrey also has spoken to Bentley every day in hopes that his own personal experiences will help against Miami.

“I really shouldn’t be doing it, but he’s a good guy,” Mowrey said. “I shouldn’t be telling him that stuff, because I want to kick.”

Bentley, who has missed seven extra-point attempts this season and made six of eight field-goal attempts, saw Thomas’ kick in 1991 and Mowrey’s kick in 1992. The first time it happened, he said: “I didn’t think it was anything. But last year I thought there was no way it could happen two years in a row. I really felt for Dan. Dan doesn’t deserve what happened to him.”

Does anybody?

If Bentley is right about today’s game, it won’t come down to a single kick. But Mowrey knows better. He was there and even today is occasionally haunted by the thought of a chance lost.

“I dream about that every day,” Mowrey said. “The truth of the matter is, there’s no way to alleviate the pain of that kick last year unless I kick one this year.”