OSU football: Coach Mike Gundy was confident Quinn Sharp would make game-winning kick

Instead, Weeden took a knee in the middle of the field to center the ball for a Quinn Sharp field-goal try.

Yes, the 22-yard attempt — which Sharp drilled to give OSU a 41-38 victory in a wild contest at University of Phoenix Stadium Monday night — was a chip shot for one of the best kickers in the nation.

But OSU coach Mike Gundy had just watched Stanford kicker Jordan Williamson miss three field goals, including a 35-yarder as time expired in regulation and a 41-yarder to start the first overtime. Not to mention, Sharp had missed his only clutch field goal attempt of the season, a 37-yarder with 1:17 remaining in the fourth quarter against Iowa State that likely would have been the game-winner.

Yet the decision to turn to Sharp was an easy one for the Cowboy coach.

“If you can't make a PAT to win a BCS game, then honestly you don't deserve to win,” Gundy said.

It's been a season with plenty of crucial missed kicks in college football.

Boise State would be playing LSU in Monday's national title game if Dan Goodale's potential game-winning kick had not sailed wide right. Ditto for Sharp and OSU. Georgia's decision to put the Outback Bowl on kicker Blair Walsh after forcing a Michigan State turnover in the first overtime backfired when the attempt went wide right. Then, Walsh's 47-yard try in triple overtime was blocked.

OSU also saw a team not rely on its kicker late in the game this season. ISU handed the ball to Jeff Woody three consecutive times in double-overtime, which resulted in a touchdown, rather than trying for the field goal after Weeden tossed an interception to start the period.

Gundy emphasized his confidence in Sharp, who had made 20 of his 23 field goal tries coming into the Fiesta Bowl, as a reason why he opted to win the game with a kick in overtime.

But he also used a third-quarter OSU possession that started inside the Stanford five-yard line as evidence of why kicking made more sense.