After a winless September to start the season, Florida State entered its matchup with Syracuse at 0-4 and in as desperate need for a victory as any program in the country.

But after 59 minutes and 59 seconds Saturday afternoon, the Seminoles and the Orange were all tied up as kicker Ryan Fitzgerald lined up for a game-winning 34-yard field goal attempt.

Before the kick, Fitzgerald had a passing moment with FSU head coach Mike Norvell.

“I just went up to him and said, ‘Trust what you do,'" Norvell recalled. "And he said, ‘I got this.’”

He certainly did.

Fitzgerald, a redshirt freshman from south Georgia, kicked the game-winner as time expired, sealed the 33-30 win for the ’Noles and raced his excited teammates down the opposite end of the field in celebration.

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While it wasn't the longest attempt, it certainly was a pressure-filled kick.

Fitzgerald had connected on a 35-yarder earlier in the game, but he had also missed one of his four extra-point tries. And he had missed two field goals and an extra point earlier in the year.

But when Fitzgerald assured his head coach he would come through with the game on the line, Norvell said he had nothing but confidence.

“I believed him,” Norvell said. “We put our guys in situations throughout camp. The majority of practices that we have, we finish with a game-winning kick. Ryan was ready for the moment, really proud of him. Happy for him to have that moment.”

Redshirt sophomore quarterback Jordan Travis, who set up the winning kick with a clutch 25-yard scramble the play before, said he, “knew the kick was going in.”

“I've got faith in my dog," Travis said. "I see it every day in practice when he goes out there and works his butt off every single day. I am happy for him for sure."

Part of the challenge for a kicker is the downtime between the big moments they face when they walk on the field. And as Syracuse drew closer and closer with FSU -- erasing Seminole leads throughout the game -- Fitzgerald was considering the possibility of a crucial kick long before the end of the game.

“I was already preparing in my mind, because we were winning by three. I already envisioned it in my mind that however it would play out, whether we were tied or down by three,” Fitzgerald explained. “Mentally, I had already prepared for that moment and I just treated it like any other kick. Trust my technique. … Having the confidence and visualizing it going right down the middle.”

That confidence likely comes from already being placed in several high-pressure situations so far in 2021. While other players spoke after the game about the Seminoles' whirlwind start to this season, nobody knows the emotional swings quite like Fitzgerald.

“In Week 1, I went from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows in a matter of 15 minutes," he said. "It was a good learning process. Learning and building confidence from the highs and the lows and knowing how to respond and keep getting better. I have a long way to go, and I’ve just got to keep getting better.”

In that aforementioned season opener against then-No. 9 Notre Dame, Fitzgerald was tasked with hitting the kick that would complete a riveting, 18-point fourth-quarter comeback.

He delivered with a 43-yarder with just 40 seconds left, but later missed another attempt in overtime. The next week, however, he came back with a 53-yard make as his lone attempt, in a crucial spot versus Jacksonville State.

Even last week against Louisville, when Fitzgerald missed an extra point in the second quarter and a field goal in the early fourth quarter, he came back to nail his second attempt with eight minutes left to keep FSU within one score.

Now 4-of-6 on field goals for the season, Fitzgerald was asked about the staff sticking with him throughout the early misses.

"It’s just confidence in me, and knowing that I have the capabilities of doing really well," he said.

The decision to stick with Fitzgerald starts at the top with Norvell, who picked the third-year kicker over redshirt junior Parker Grothaus after a close battle in camp.

After the game, Norvell delved deeper into what the win meant for the entire roster.

“I am happy for our players. I know the work that goes into it. I know how much this program means to them,” Norvell said. “It’s a challenge, when you start off a season 0-4, some of the ways that we’ve lost games. Our kids feel that. To see them be able to finish this game the way that it was finished was huge.”

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