"The Longest 2 1/2 Minutes In My Life"
Nov. 17, 2007
By JACK WILKINSON
The miss was inconceivable, the pressure now unbearable, the
consequences surely catastrophic. Not just for football. For future
family harmony.
"That," Travis Bell said, "was probably the longest 2-1/2 minutes in my life."
It wasn't just that Bell, as sure-footed a placekicker as any in
college football, pushed a 33-yard field goal wide right with 2:31
left. That left Georgia Tech trailing North Carolina 25-24 and Bell
dazed.
"I came off the field thinking, 'Man, I can't believe I missed that,'"
said Bell. "I don't miss those kicks. That's automatic."
It wasn't just that Bell, given a 59th-minute reprieve, then had to
endure a last-second, strategically-timed timeout called by Carolina
coach Butch Davis. "I don't think I've ever had a kick where the coach
doesn't call time out to ice. It doesn't bother me."
Nor did it freeze or faze Bell when, after kicking an apparent
32-yard, game-winning field with 18.7 seconds left, he had to re-do it
all over again. Carolina was penalized five yards for having 12 men on
the field.
"It is smart," Bell said of the possibility that the Heels
intentionally had an extra defender on the field, making Bell's kick
from the left hash mark even dicier.
"The angle's tougher. I was actually wondering if we were going to
decline it," Bell said of the dead-ball foul called before the ball
was snapped. "At that angle, five yards makes a huge difference."
Tech couldn't decline the penalty. No biggie. What, Bell worry? Not
even when the second snap was high. Durant Brooks, the superb punter
who moonlights as a holder, caught the ball and gave Bell a perfect
hold. "He's one of the best in the league at holding and punting,"
Bell said, smiling. "A dual threat."
And when this kick sailed true and through the uprights with 15.3
seconds left, when Tech's Michael Johnson blocked Connor Barth's
63-yard Tar Heel prayer of a field goal attempt and time finally
expired, Tech exhaled and Bell breathed easy at blessed last. Who
wants to screw up the first time your soon-to-be father-in-law watches
you kick in person?
And Hudson's daughter? "I was so upset when he missed," said Holly
Hudson, Bell's finacee. "My mouth just dropped. I was choked up."
And Hudson's younger brother's reaction to Bell's misfire? "I said,
'Way to go, man!'" said Tim Hudson's, Holly's uncle who also pitches
for the Braves when he isn't sitting in the stands at Bobby Dodd
Stadium. "I'm just teasing," Hudson told his niece, laughing.
By then, Holly could stand on her own two feet. She didn't flinch when
Carolina called that timeout to disrupt Bell's concentration and ice
him. "They've done it his whole career. He's pretty good under
pressure, though."
The senior, a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award as the nation's top
placekicker, began Saturday 20-for-23 on field goal attempts this
fall. His 20th, last week at Duke, made Bell Tech's single-season
record holder. He'd already kicked a 33-yarder in the second quarter
to give the Jackets a 10-3 lead and himself the 59th field goal of a
stellar career.
Yet even Bell -- who'll marry Holly July 9th in Costa Rica, with the
reception to follow later back here at Uncle Tim's house -- was
momentarily unnerved by his fourth-quarter miss.
"Honestlyl I thought for the first 30 seconds that game was over,"
said Bell. "But everyone kept saying, 'You're going to get another
chance.'"
Even his coach. "When he came off the field when they called time
out," said Chan Gailey, "I said, 'Hey, not many guys get the
opportunity to do it twice. You got the chance, go do it.'"
Not that it was a textbook Tech field goal. "Nah, I just wanted to
keep it interesting," Bell said, grinning. "Just knuckled it through."
"It was a line drive," said Holly, a senior at Georgia State. "But it was good."
"In the scorebook," Tim Hudson said, "it's a beauty."
With that, Tech had its seventh victory and Bell his 60th career field
goal, tying Scott Sisson's school record. At game's end, Bell headed
toward the north end zone to wave to his intended. There in the
stands, Holly had had some stout family support. Literally.
"I had his brother, Justin, and two sisters -- Annie and Megan --
holding me," Holly said. "Justin picked me up. We were all screaming,
excited. And then I started crying, of course.
"When Travis made the second kick," Holly said, "Tim looked back at us
and said, 'Now I know what I put you guys through with me.'"
"But," the pitching uncle said, "one of my pitches usually doesn't win
or lose a game."
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 2008 Media Guide |
