Some folks — and not just BYU fans — are calling Parker Kingston’s punt return in the Cougars’ win over Kansas State the “Play of the Year,” even though most teams are just four games in. But those people have fairly decent reasons for that projection. I mean, what could possibly top … that? It registered on the Stableford Scoring System of Football Preposterousness somewhere between Keystone Cop comical and how-is-that-possible harebrained, all in a good way, a most memorable way.
Even K-State fans have to admit that.
If every game featured such a play, people would be perfectly willing to put their kids’ college funds at risk to shell out cash for season tickets and millions would devote large chunks of personal time to watch on TV and boosters would donate ridiculous amounts of money to collectives to pay out a gazillion dollars to 18-year-old recruits to come play for the school for which they root.
Yeah. Unimaginable.
This, though, was the very definition of I-can’t-believe-what-I-just-saw entertainment.
Like a lot of observers, I went back to review film of the play about a hundred times, which was made even more astounding and eye-popping since it came in the midst of a barrage of other unlikely plays that gave BYU a Big 12 win over a ranked opponent that almost nobody had on their bingo card.
I took note of 10 things that happened before, during and after that punt return worthy of closer consideration.
1. BYU punt returners historically almost never even try to do what Kingston did here and for good reason — they’re not talented enough, not fast or shifty enough to pull it off. It’d been more than a decade since a Cougar had taken a punt to the house. Their job typically is to catch the punt without fumbling it, often calling for a fair catch, so the offense can advance the ball from there. How many stellar returners can you remember among the Cougars through the years? James Dye? Did Reno Mahe or Vai Sikahema return punts? Anybody remember? Beats me. Kingston averaged less than five yards per return last season. And this year, after Saturday night, he had 121 yards, 90 of which came on this particular play.
2. Kingston misplayed the ball which was launched from the K-State 22-yard line and angled left to the BYU 22-yard line, where Kingston drifted right, misjudging it, potentially setting up the exact kind of mistake BYU returners are taught and trained not to commit, reaching for it in a crowd.
3. As the out-of-position Kingston stretched out his hands for the spinning ball near the Kansas State sideline, with players stacked up around him like planes on the runway at LaGuardia, a ball he might have caught had he been Mr. Gadget, it instead skimmed off his fingertips, twirling backward toward the BYU goal line. This was fortuitous for Kingston since, had it twirled in any other direction, Wildcats could have pounced on the ball, leading to an easy K-State score.
4. Kingston alertly noticed the direction of the spin, running backward to his own 8-yard line, where he gathered in the ball and started galloping to his left, across the field, but not forward, rather in retreat all the way back to the 2-yard line, with coverage guys in hot pursuit. He perused the field, easing up for a moment, then bolting. If Kingston had been mic’ed up, I swear, you might have heard him making like Curly running from Moe and Larry, “Woob-woob-woob-woob-woob-woob.” At that point, this return officially transformed from a football play into cartoonish survival mode.
5. K-State players weren’t the only ones Kingston had to dodge. Yes, purple coverage dudes Colby McCalister and Wesley Fair were all over him, Fair diving at his feet and McCalister chasing him, then with a wall of three other Wildcats in front of him, one of them face-planting at his feet. Even a referee had to scoot out of the way. Kingston maneuvered past Cougars who were in the frame, too, BYU’s Raider Damuni flew by him into the end zone, and Isaiah Glasker was in front of him, hitting the brakes and pivoting to help escort Kingston down BYU’s sideline in positive direction.
6. Other Cougars joined to escort, as well. Kingston later called it a “personal escort.” Even those completely out of the play jogged along for good measure, as though they wanted a clear, unobstructed view of something big, something to remember.
7. Every BYU player, at this juncture, up and down the sideline could see and sense all of that, jumping up and down like heated kernels in a JiffyPop pan on a red-hot burner. K-State had committed so many defenders in its initial push to ether recover the ball or tackle Kingston, that it collectively forgot the field is 53.3 yards wide. Kingston seemed to pick up on this, using every bit of it in his now instinctual escape.
8. Kingston jetted down that sideline … well, it was more the move of a Cessna single-engine prop than an F-16 … over the last acreage as though he knew he had to hurry, but he also wanted to embrace every sweet second of it.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Brigham Young Cougars wide receiver Parker Kingston (11) celebrates his punt return touchdown during the game between the Brigham Young Cougars and the Kansas State Wildcats in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024.
9. As he crossed the goal line, luxuriating in that crossing, Kingston then put the hell in the question — What the hell are you doing? — when he released the ball with a casual flip, causing more than a few to wonder if he had actually gotten past the airspace over the goal line before letting the ball loose. Upon review, he did indeed get in all proper, but if he hadn’t, Kingston would have turned the best moment of his football life into the worst. He would have transformed fame into infamy, would have allowed Moe and Larry to catch up with Curly to slam a socket wrench over his head.
10. Once there, Kingston rather fittingly stretched out his arms as he turned to face the BYU student section like an actor at the end of a great performance, hearing the applause, exulting in the moment, a moment that not only will be remembered by him, by BYU fans, but by everyone who watched it — either live or in highlights. “It was stunning to see that,” said K-State coach Chris Klieman. They all scribbled down that Stableford score — of stunning or unbelievable or you’ve got to be kidding or fantastic, whatever it was, a score landing somewhere between comical and harebrained, in a good way, a most memorable way.
