At first, winning kick looked way short, then just short, then . . . it's good.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

TAMPA, Fla. _ I was standing under the goal posts in the South Carolina end zone, awaiting the end of a boring game that had somehow turned breathtaking.

South Carolina had led Ohio State, 28-0, late in the third quarter. But now it was 28-all, and there were seven seconds left in regulation in the Outback Bowl.

Daniel Weaver, the Gamecocks' baby-faced sophomore kicker, jogged onto the field. The last time Weaver had done that, one quarter ago, he had missed an extra point wide. Now he was about to try a 42-yard field goal to win the game. If the game went into overtime, surely Ohio State would win, for the Buckeyes had scored four straight touchdowns.

There were about a dozen of us directly under the goalposts. We were all trying for a catbird seat to the first bowl game of the New Year _ and one of the finest of any year. A security guard on one side of me silenced the squawk of his radio. The stadium hushed, too.

The ball was snapped and placed, and Weaver hit it so high that the game's seven remaining seconds all seemed to tick off before it came down.

This was a field goal masquerading as a 9-iron shot to the green. The attempt lasted longer than some New Year's resolutions.

The guy on the other side of me held tight to the protective netting just behind the goalposts, trying to ensure that the kicked ball didn't land in the stands. He needn't have bothered _ Weaver's kick wasn't going nearly that far.