Georgia Tech’s Patrick Gamble blocked Florida State’ 56-yard field-goal attempt, and Lance Austin picked up the ball and returned it 78 yards to give the Yellow Jackets a 22-16 win Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium.
As Austin ran through the end zone, Tech’s homecoming crowd poured over the walls and onto the field to celebrate an ending and win few could have foreseen.
The victory snapped Tech’s five-game losing streak and the Seminoles’ 28-game winning streak in the ACC.
FSU was forced to try the long field goal because Tech forced Everett Golson to throw an incomplete pass on third.
Seminoles kicker Roberto Aguayo, a preseason All-American, had never missed a field-goal attempt in the fourth quarter, but he had yet to try a field goal of at least 50 yards this season.
His kick was low and Gamble reached up to deflect it.
“The only thing going through my mind was block the kick,” Gamble said.
Gamble said when he got down into his stance before the snap, he envisioned himself blocking the kick. He said he looked at Adam Gotsis and said let’s get a push on this guy.
“We got our hands up and luckily it hit my hand,” Gamble said. “I was celebrating and didn’t know what was going on.”
Gamble said he has blocked a kick in practice, but had never before done so in a game.
The ball bounced back to the 22-yard line, where Austin picked it up and began running toward Tech’s sidelines.
Tech coach Paul Johnson said he stopped screaming “get away from it” to “run, run, run.”
Austin said he couldn’t hear anyone as he reached down for the ball. What to do after a field goal has been blocked is a situation he said they work on in practice.
Austin said when he picked it up and started running, he saw a lot of green field ahead of him. He saw Aguayo coming at him and knew he was a good tackler so he cut inside him near the 15-yard line.
“It’s all surreal,” Austin said. “It still hasn’t hit me.”
The more Austin ran, the louder Tech’s fans became, exploding as he reached the end zone.
As he crossed the goal line, his twin brother and Tech player Lawrence Austin was the first to reach him.
“They picked it up, we tried to cover it and couldn’t get him on the ground,” FSU coach Jimbo Fisher said. “In football, anything can happen.”
Tech had completed its own version of Auburn’s kick-six.
That the play came a week after Gotsis just missed blocking Pittsburgh’s game-winning field goal wasn’t lost on Johnson.
“What a great play by Austin to pick it up,” Johnson said. “He got some key blocks and made some guys miss. I don’t care if it was the kicker, he still made them miss. We were due. It was our turn. We’ve seen so many lose ones like this go the other way. It’s good to finally be on the right end of one for change.”
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