You'll never, in a million years, guess Andrew Janocko's favorite NFL player. Would you believe Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo? Janocko even has a Romo jersey hanging in his closet. Honest to goodness.

"I was joking the other day with one of my best friends from high school that I always wanted to be Tony Romo," Janocko said yesterday at Pitt's South Side headquarters. "Well, now I am."

The kid showed me something right then. You have to be a strong person to be able to laugh at yourself in tough times. I'm thinking Janocko is as strong as they come. Not that he didn't cry his eyes out Saturday after Pitt's 45-44 loss to Cincinnati -- a game that cost the Panthers a share of the Big East Conference championship and a trip to the Sugar Bowl to play Florida. He was the holder who botched the snap when Pitt was kicking the extra point to take what would have been a 45-38 lead with 1:36 left. A similar thing happened to Romo in a Cowboys playoff game at Seattle after the 2006 regular season.

Saturday was a cold, raw day at Heinz Field. The ball was wet and slippery. The bottom tip of it skidded away from Janocko when he put it down on the slick field for Dan Hutchins to kick.

"I have no excuses. I just didn't get my job done," Janocko said, firmly. "A lot of people have told me it was just one play in the game. I know that. But at the same time, I have to take responsibility for my crucial error."

Time is supposed to heal just about everything. That appears to be the case with Janocko, a redshirt sophomore walk-on who paid his way to Pitt his first two years before earning a scholarship this summer. He has started to study offensive video of North Carolina, Pitt's opponent Dec. 26 in the Meineke Car Care Bowl. In addition to being the Panthers' holder for the second consecutive season, he is their scout team quarterback. He takes seriously his job of helping to get the Pitt defense ready for the next game.

That wasn't on Janocko's mind Saturday, though. He said he felt "pretty sick" as he watched Cincinnati move down the field to score the winning touchdown with 33 seconds left. After the game -- after his first fumbled snap in six years of holding for kicks, going back to his schoolboy days at Clearfield High School in Central Pennsylvania -- he huddled in the tunnel leading to the Pitt locker room, alone, crying. Assistant head coach Greg Gattuso pulled him inside where defensive tackle Mick Williams, one of the seniors who will leave Pitt without a Big East title, was the first to console him at his locker. A number of other players and coaches stopped, including head coach Dave Wannstedt, who was among those who told him the fumbled snap wasn't the only play that beat Pitt. Sometimes, coaching goes far beyond what happens on the field.

A big reason Janocko decided to walk on at Pitt rather than take a scholarship to play football at St. Francis (Pa.) or baseball as a pitcher at West Chester is Wannstedt. "I want to be a coach. I figured I could learn a lot from him," Janocko said. He has a 3.08 grade point average and should graduate in August in three-years-and-change with a degree in history and a minor in political science. He has applied to Pitt's School of Education and wants to work toward his teaching degree during his final two seasons of eligibility.

"Hearing [Wannstedt] after the game didn't mean much at the time," Janocko said. "But now? Having that kind of support from your head coach? It means everything."

Janocko left the locker room quickly. "I didn't take a shower. I didn't even wipe off my eye black," he said. Waiting outside were his parents, Tim and Trina, along with quarterback Bill Stull's parents, Bill and Debbie.

"Billy's parents are great. They actually made me feel a little better," Janocko said. "Mrs. Stull hugged me and said, 'We've been there. We know how you're feeling.' "

You might have heard something the past few seasons about Bill Stull being blamed for a couple of Pitt's defeats.

Tim Janocko also embraced his son, still in tears, the eye black slowly rolling down his face. Something Tim Janocko said to his son also stuck. The father has been the head football coach at Clearfield for the past 25 years. His son played for him and called him "my best friend."

"He just told me that one play won't define me. The way I react to it will define me," Andrew Janocko said.

"I'm going to use it as motivation."

Janocko cut out newspaper pictures of the bobbled snap and hung one in his locker, another above his bed in the South Side apartment he shares with teammates Myles Caragein, Henry Hynoski and Dan Cafaro. Janocko attached a message to the one in his bedroom:

Don't forget the feeling. Get out of bed and go to work.

So Janocko does. His final exams in "Colonial Latin America," "Religion and Politics," "The American Presidency" and "Environmental Geology" are next week. Then, there's the bowl game against North Carolina.

"If it comes down to a kick, I won't think twice about it," Janocko said. "I'll want the ball. It's like the line from the movie, 'The Replacements.' 'Winners want the ball.' I like to think I'm a winner. "

I'm not about to disagree with the kid.

First Published: December 9, 2009, 5:00 a.m.