Melody Munyon remembers the expression as if she had read it yesterday afternoon.

‘Mama, don’t let your baby grow up to be a kicker.’

Munyon is the mother of Matt Munyon, who two years ago kicked field goals at Florida State. While traveling to Georgia Tech for a September 2000 game, she picked up an Atlanta newspaper and came across that line, she said yesterday, speaking by phone from her Panama City Beach, Fla., home.

Just before kickoff that day, her baby, 19-year-old Matt, was temporarily relieved of his placekicking duties. He reclaimed his job in time for a 49-yard kick on Oct. 7, 2000, three steps that would alter almost every one to follow. His attempt sailed by the Orange Bowl goal post. Miami 27, FSU 24. Wide Right III.

Florida State’s cursed luck continued Saturday, when sophomore Xavier Beitia joined Munyon, Dan Mowrey and Gerry Thomas in a select and undesirable brotherhood of FSU placekickers to miss game-winning or game-tying field goals in the waning seconds against Miami.

Beitia lined up from 43 yards with the capability to halt Miami’s win streak at 28 and derail the Hurricanes’ national-title pursuit. The snap came out low – perhaps because the holder lined up eight-and-a-half yards behind the line of scrimmage rather than seven – and the kick flew left of straight. A 19-year-old man was reduced to a free-flowing reservoir of tears for an hour despite the calming efforts of his parents.

‘It’s really sad that they put so much emphasis on this poor kid (Beitia),’ Melody Munyon said. ‘We were at another game at Mississippi State, and we were listening on the radio and got the score. It’s just too much for these kids. People just won’t let it end. He can’t just miss and walk off and go on. It’s been 10 years since the first one, and they still call it Wide Right I or II. It’s just pathetic.’

Munyon speaks from the heart. Matt Munyon was taunted and harassed publicly, not to mention demoted again following that ill-fated, 49-yard try. He transferred to Troy State, sat out last year, and while he’s on the roster, has yet to attempt a field goal. He refuses to be interviewed.

‘He’s fine,’ Melody Munyon said on his behalf. ‘He’s playing college football, living his life. My son is one of those kids who, when it was over, it was over. He had a better opportunity at another school and made the decision to move on.’

Gerry Thomas began this whole Wide Right saga, pushing a last-second, 34-yard kick in 1991 in a 17-16 loss. A recent Miami Herald article reported that Thomas works in Tampa as an attorney. He has never talked publicly about the kick.

The following season, Dan Mowrey became the tragic figure of Wide Right II by yanking one from 39 yards. Now a 30-year-old prosecutor, Mowrey also volunteers as a high school football coach in St. Augustine, Fla., according to the Herald.

‘Gerry chose to deal with it differently than I did,’ Mowrey told the Herald. ‘That game is part of my life, and I have nothing to be ashamed of. That’s easy to say now, but it took me awhile.

‘At first, I was (upset). I was in a rage and numb at the same time. People would come up to console me, and I wanted to punch them. Other people said I sucked, and I wanted to punch them, too. I thought about it every day, wishing I could have the kick over. I can’t say exactly when it stopped, but one day I just woke up and said, ‘Hey, there’s nothing you can do about it now, so get over it.’

‘There are still some jackasses who walk by me and say, ‘What’s up, Wide Right?’ My friends never say it, but some people with no common sense will come up and say that. It’s just something I have to live with, and Xavier will, too.’

Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden is torn when it comes to dealing with these kickers.

‘Mowrey, Thomas, Munyon, it is tough on them,’ Bowden said yesterday. ‘But that comes with the territory. I talked with Beitia (Tuesday) for the first time with the whole team there. He feels so bad. I was thinking how innocent he looks sitting there. And I’m thinking about all the bad play calls that I’ve made that cost us games, and I’m telling him, ‘Look son, I’ve been doing this for 50 years. It comes with the territory.’ ‘

Undeniably, though, it’s different somehow. For the kicker executes the action that determines a win or a loss. And the kicker, at only 19, lacks the perspective and resiliency of a 72-year-old man with 328 career wins.

Mowrey told the Herald he plans to call Beitia once the kick sinks in. Melody Munyon said her son already has. Yesterday, in his first meeting with the media since The Kick, Beitia revealed so much.

‘What can I do?’ Beitia said rhetorically. ‘No matter if I make 15 game-winners, Miami 2002 will always be there. I can’t dwell on it. It was just my turn to miss. I can’t have flashbacks. I’ve got to be stronger than before.’

‘Matt (Munyon) told me that I don’t realize it now, but I’ll be so much better because of it,’ added Beitia, who is from Tampa. ‘He uses it every day for motivation.’

‘I agree,’ Melody Munyon said. ‘But it’s true. ‘Mama, don’t let your baby grow up to be a kicker.’ Anything else. Just not a kicker.’

***

This and that

This gem relayed by former Daily Orange sports editor Dave Curtis: Fifth-ranked Furman marches 80 yards in less than three minutes, capped by a TD pass with seven seconds left, to go up, 15-14, at No. 4 Appalachian State (I-AA) Saturday in the Southern Conference’s annual ‘Bojangles Bowl.’ Furman decides to go for two, calls a screen pass and gets picked off. The linebacker from ASU runs 20 yards, gets caught by the quarterback, and then laterals to a safety, who takes it the remaining 76 yards for the improbable 16-15 victory. They tore down both sets of goalposts. ASU coach Jerry Moore called the victory ‘a miracle.’ The Paladins’ first-year coach, Bobby Lamb, accepted blame. ‘I’ve lost a lot of games, but never one like that,’ Lamb told the Greenville (S.C.) News. ‘I take full responsibility for it. (I went from) the highest high you can get to the lowest low.’ … Nebraska junior quarterback Jammal Lord will start Saturday at Oklahoma State despite being charged with violating the peace during the wee hours Sunday morning. Lord, 21, spent the remainder of the overnight in a detox center. Lord did not speak with reporters this week and has not since he nearly lost his starting job three weeks ago. ‘I know that Jammal was issued one ticket,’ coach Frank Solich said. ‘There was cooperation from that point on to my knowledge. The system that we have in place and probably most systems around the country would not kick a young man out of playing or a starting role.’ … Preseason Heisman Trophy favorite Rex Grossman, from Florida, ranks 11th in pass efficiency. In the SEC. … Eddie Gossage, general manager of Texas Motor Speedway, has proposed shifting the annual Red River Shootout between Texas and Oklahoma from the Cotton Bowl (capacity: 70,000 plus) to his racetrack (capacity:150,061) in 2004. Gossage would construct the field on the track’s infield and reconfigure the frontstretch to seat between 125,000 and 150,000 fans. Both schools’ athletic directors told The Dallas Morning News they would listen to a proposal. ‘That would give both schools the ability to accommodate all their season ticket holders,’ Gossage told the Morning News. ‘Thousands of fans are left out now, but it doesn’t have to be that way.’ The contract with the Cotton Bowl, situated on the site of the Texas State Fair, expires after next season. … Disgruntled former Colorado QB Craig Ochs appears to have settled on Div. I-AA Montana, quelling rumors that he would enroll at Washington. ‘All I can say is he is verbally committed to the University of Montana and will enroll in classes starting in January,’ Montana coach Joe Glenn told the Associated Press last Thursday. … Further testament to the Michigan State of disunion. MSU WR Charles Rogers’ streak of consecutive games with a touchdown catch ended at 14. Iowa held Rogers to five catches in a 44-16 Hawkeye rout. … Florida (previously No. 16), Wisconsin (23) and Auburn (24) dropped from the AP poll. This is the first time the Gators have been unranked in 12 years. Three teams unranked last week fill out the Top 25: No. 23 Colorado (4-2), No. 24 Alabama (4-2) and No. 25 Bowling Green (5-0). … CBS Sportsline ranks Syracuse No. 102 of 117.

***

Heisman watch

Iowa State QB Seneca Wallace has emerged as a viable Heisman winner. Saturday, he conservatively but efficiently beat high-scoring Texas Tech, 31-17, on 15-of-22 passing for 148 yards and one touchdown. This weekend, he could make a resounding statement by leading No. 9 ISU (6-1) past No. 2 Oklahoma in Norman, Okla.

***

Line of the week

Colorado running back Chris Brown on his 25-carry, 309-yard blitzing of Kansas: ‘I thought I was at 170. But I guess I was way off.’

***

V.I.P. M.I.A.

Rex Grossman, QB, Florida: Grossman practiced yesterday for the first time this week and appears likely to start against Auburn. ‘He looked pretty good out there to me, and he was throwing everything,’ Florida coach Ron Zook told the AP. ‘I felt good about it.’ We’ll see how Zook feels on Saturday. In Grossman’s last two starts, both losses, he’s thrown eight interceptions.

Matt Mauck, QB, LSU: Mauck needed a cast following Saturday’s 36-7 win at Florida to stabilize his right foot, injured when a Florida tackler fell on his lower leg during the fourth quarter. Now, it appears he may need surgery. ‘The evaluation on Tuesday showed he has a significant injury to the mid-foot,’ LSU team doctor Brent Bankston announced yesterday. ‘At this time, he will be out indefinitely and will undergo further testing to determine if surgery is necessary.’ Bankston recently performed arm surgery on RB LaBrandon Toefield, who is not expected back for five weeks.

Published on October 16, 2002 at 12:00 pm