Graham Gano knew the questions were coming.
After all, this is Miami week. And he's the starting kicker at Florida State.
So the senior from Pensacola wasn't exactly shocked when reporters brought up a couple of memorable field-goal misses from years gone by.
"I remember former FSU kicker Gary Cismesia always got questions about it, so I knew it was coming," Gano said.
In fact, it's something he's been preparing for since he was in high school.
As a sophomore at Gonzalez Tate High, one of his class assignments was to make a list of his future goals.
The first one was to be a kicker at Florida State. But he allowed himself to get a bit more specific.
"One of the things in my paper was to kick the game-winner against Miami," Gano said.
He might just get his chance Saturday.
If he does, he'll join a line of Seminoles kickers who have had last-second field-goal tries against the Hurricanes. But instead of going wide left like Xavier Beitia did in 2002 or wide right like Gerry Thomas in 1991, Dan Mowrey in 1992 and Matt Munyon in 2000, Gano hopes to kick it just right.
"People say it's a curse and stuff, but that's baloney," said Gano, who was 3-for-3 last week against Colorado, including a career-long 52-yarder. "You've just got to go out there and kick it straight. If you kick it straight, it will go in."
Ever since Gano committed to the Seminoles, he has been hearing about "Wide Right."
He was even heckled during a postseason all-star game during his senior year of high school.
"Even in the CaliFlorida Bowl, all the fans were going, wide right or wide left if I missed one in warmups," he said. "I just think it's hilarious. It's something that gets in some people's heads, but I just love hearing that stuff."
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