Wide Right I

Wide Right I is the colloquial name for a 1991 college football game between the Miami Hurricanes and Florida State Seminoles. The game is one of the most significant in the history of the Florida State–Miami football rivalry, and its name is a reference to its dramatic ending: with 29 seconds remaining, Florida State kicker Gerry Thomas missed a 34-yard potential game-winning field goal "wide to the right." It was the 26th meeting between the first- and second-ranked teams in the AP Poll^[2] and only the second between top-ranked teams from the same state (the other being the 1968 Purdue–Notre Dame game).

Miami's win was the fourth time in five years that the Hurricanes knocked Florida State out of national championship contention.^[2] The game was also the first of a peculiar string of five over the next 12 years in which Florida State lost to Miami due to a late missed field goal that would have won or tied the game, often with national championship implications at stake. Florida State suffered an immediate case of déjà vu when kicker Dan Mowrey missed a field goal wide right on the final play of the 1992 meeting between the schools, a 19–16 Miami win known as "Wide Right II." In later years, two additional "Wide Rights" and a "Wide Left" followed.