MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- Kevin Kelly answered every question as a real man would have.

What were the chances of you missing a third kick? Did you feel the coaches lacked confidence in you by calling a fake field goal to end the game?

Yes, the final kick that went through the uprights on second down wasn't supposed to happen. Penn State coach Joe Paterno and his staff wanted to end the game with a touchdown after Kelly failed to seal an Orange Bowl victory on two previous attempts, once in regulation, the other in the first overtime.

Nittany Lions holder Jason Ganter changed the play at the line of scrimmage because he didn't like the formation of Florida State's defense. He saw a suspect Seminoles defender in a position that could have signaled trouble.

"A guy was jumping around that he wasn't too sure about," quarterback Michael Robinson said. "He made a very intelligent decision by kicking a field goal."

That left Kelly in a position many kickers wish they could revisit: to have not one but three chances -- in the same game -- to be the hero. Perhaps Paterno felt Kelly's confidence was shaken, and who would argue with the decision to take the game off the left leg of a true freshman?

"I guess the coaches did call it because I had missed the two," Kelly said. "They probably wouldn't have had I not done that."

Kelly had been in a similar situation before. His last game-winning field goal came in the second game of his freshman season in high school. But similar doesn't mean identical. Sure, this time he was again a freshman. But this time, a BCS bowl victory was hanging in the balance, a senior class that depended on him for a season was expecting him to succeed one last time and a 79-year-old coach was hoping for a storybook ending to a resurgent season.

The 5-foot-7 kicker from Neshaminy High School just outside of Philadelphia entered not knowing what intense pressure can await a place kicker. He left with experience that can surely aid him for the remainder of his collegiate career.

Most would agree that football is the ultimate team sport. To execute plays properly, all 11 men must complete their tasks. But at no other time during the game is one man singled out so obviously, at no other time is a player's foul-up more magnified.

"After the second one, he said, 'Coach, I'm sorry,' " Paterno said. "I said, 'Ah, horse manure, you're sorry, you're gonna have another chance to win the game. Let's forget about that one, just get your head on right to win the next one.' Thank goodness it worked out."

No question this Lions team is anchored by a senior class that at some point last spring decided that mediocrity wasn't going to be an option. But freshmen have played vital roles, too.

On the sideline, Robinson made sure Kelly knew how much he's meant to this team.

"I told him, 'It doesn't matter if you make it or miss it, you've made this season a great senior year for me,' " Robinson said.

Robinson then said he still wanted him to make the kick. When it was over, the freshman-kicker-turned-veteran described the feeling.

"It was really relieving, just having that chance two times and letting the team down, but then getting that third chance and having the team still rally around me and still have that confidence. It was big," Kelly said.

"Just watching it go through."