The Ballad of Roberto Aguayo

On Saturday night, Florida State lost to the Georgia Tech in one of the most improbable endings in recent college football history.

With the game tied at 16 and six seconds remaining in regulation, the Yellow Jackets blocked a field goal, enabling defensive back Lance Austin to double back to his 22-yard-line to retrieve the football. He looped over to the left side of the field and picked up a convoy of blockers while shedding at least one arm tackle. Then, with one final defender to beat, the sophomore cut sharply back inside, sprinting the final 15 yards into the north end zone as time expired.

Per Georgia Tech, it was the first blocked field goal returned for a touchdown for the school since at least 1950. In games played this year, only Michigan State's punt seizure victory over Michigan rivals it as a bizarre finish. In the history of the sport, only Auburn's famous Kick Six against Alabama from 2013 compares to it in actual structure.

And, somehow, despite all of this, the ending was only the second most improbable part of the play.

The most unlikely moment came at the very beginning, when Florida State kicker Roberto Aguayo missed the 56-yard attempt. Of course, 56-yarders are tricky even with NFL kickers, but Aguayo's brilliance is such that it was nevertheless stunning to see him miss. The man does not miss fourth-quarter kicks. I mean this literally: until a nameless Yellow Jacket deflected that endgame effort, Roberto Aguayo had drilled all 20 of his field goal attempts and all 39 of his extra points at the most pressurized time of the ballgame.

Let's pause briefly for a thought exercise. Think of your favorite college football player. Now imagine where he stacks up relative to every other player at his position nationwide. Thought exercise over – Roberto Aguayo is better at his job than your favorite player is at his. The identity of said player is irrelevant because, just two and a half seasons into his playing career, Aguayo is on the shortlist for greatest kicker in college football history. No other current player can make a similar claim.

No one else in college football, for instance, has won his position's national award in his first active season, the way Aguayo did by capturing the Groza award as a redshirt freshman in 2013 following a season in which he drilled 21 of 22 field goal attempts. He followed that up by hitting 27 of 30 field goals last year, including 9 of 12 from 40 yards out or further. Aguayo has made every single extra point attempt of his career – 174 and counting. He has converted all 41 of his career field goal attempts inside 40 yards. He holds the national record for points in a season, with 157. Such is his dominance that a legitimate case can be made for him, a kicker, to forgo his senior year and declare for the NFL Draft.

"I don't think anyone would blame Aguayo if he left after his [redshirt junior] season for the NFL," CBS Sports Senior Draft Analyst Dane Brugler said via email. "He would be in high demand, especially with so many teams looking for a reliable kicker. There hasn't been a kicker drafted in the top three rounds of the NFL Draft since Mike Nugent was selected 47th overall in the 2005 class, but Aguayo has a chance to change that."

Roberto Aguayo is great without any qualifiers or caveats. He has no holes in his game. He's big and technically sound and consistent, and he plays his very best at the most crucial times. He is as close as it gets to a perfect prospect.

Of course, his position helps keep him anonymous. Kickers rarely become celebrities, unless of course they miss important kicks.

And this is too bad, because Aguayo's quest to become the best ever is the most significant storyline Florida State has every week. There should be a running tracker for his career field goal percentage – which, at 89.5%, currently sits second all-time in college football history and is just .5% off the best ever-mark (Louisiana-Lafayette's Brett Baer is first at 90 percent). People should chronicle Aguayo's quest to become a three-time All-American, and discuss where he ranks among the all-time Seminoles, Deion Sanders (but not Sebastian Janikowski) among them.

None of that will happen, of course, because this is football we're dealing with and we're more likely to talk about quarterbacks and running backs. But Roberto Aguayo will keep kicking the ball in sweet harmony until his college career is over, whenever that may be. Unfortunately, a blocked kick ensured he'll no longer be perfect, although he probably deserves to be.