I want to be the voice of younger kids who have troubles speaking up about things; just let them know that it’s going to be all right and that it happens for a reason. – Kaelin Clay
EUGENE, Ore. — Almost a year after Kaelin Clay became famous for dropping the ball at the goal line, he’s still owning the whole hot mess.
He maintains last year’s 51-27 loss to Oregon was his fault. The blame, he says, wasn’t on a defense that allowed 44 points. Nor was it due to season-ending injuries two Utah players incurred. A tepid run game, two interceptions and a poor third-down conversion rate had little to do with the loss, if you ask him.
“People say, OK, you take seven points off the board, they still beat us by this many, but if you know football …” he begins.
Then, like a long vertical kick return, he’s picking up speed as he goes.
“Say we go up 14-0 — and that night on defense, we’re playing lights out,” he says, his mind skipping back to last November at Rice-Eccles Stadium. “So say Oregon doesn’t score, and then we go down and kick a field goal or get a touchdown. Then it’s either 17-0 or 21-0. I don’t care what anyone says, if you’re down 21-0 on the road, you begin to panic.”
But none of that happened. Oregon dismantled the Utes with a 24-point fourth quarter.
Regardless, Clay went on to a phenomenal season: 1,420 all-purpose yards with eight touchdowns and All-America recognition. This week, he was added to the Detroit Lions' practice squad after being cut earlier by Tampa Bay, which drafted him in the sixth round. He says being mocked for his blunder last year — online views number in the millions — helped prepare him for the uncertainty of NFL existence.
“Life is crazy; things change,” he says. “One minute you’re up 14-0, or tied 7-7, but that moment right there helped me realize that no matter what happens, just keep pushing, because something good will happen in the end.”
The event on Nov. 8, 2014, is in every current collection of bonehead plays. Utah had gone up 7-0, but in the early second quarter, Clay found himself open across the middle, with nary a shadow in his path. His reception covered 78 yards, but he dropped the ball a yard shy of the goal line. Players scrambled as Clay celebrated, thinking he had scored. To his horror, Oregon’s Joe Walker emerged from the confusion, racing down the sideline for a 100-yard touchdown.
”I had started to kind of feel good about myself, but that play brought me down to reality,” Clay says.
Still, he continues, he never dodged responsibility. “I look back, and I owned it. I don’t even think I gave (media) people the chance to ask a question. I just said what I had to say and left.”
The blunder was reminiscent of Roy “Wrong Way” Riegels, the Cal lineman who nearly scored a touchdown for Georgia Tech in the 1929 Rose Bowl. Riegels had to be talked by his coach into returning to the game. Clay needed no such urging. On the ensuing kickoff, he returned the ball 41 yards. Early in the fourth quarter he caught a 58-yard pass, setting up a score that cut Oregon’s lead to 30-27.
“That game changed the way I look at certain things,” he says.
For instance, Utah. Rather than recoil at the memory, he says Ute fans inspired him. After returning to Salt Lake for pro day last spring, he stayed an extra month.
“Utah was the most fun I’ve ever had playing football,” he says. “The coaches, players, fans, community — I loved it. Utah in general is a place that I love. The landscape — I don’t think it can get better than Utah’s landscape. It’s a special place in my heart, and I truly mean it. I still think of it.”
Clay is predicting a 33-28 Ute win over Oregon this weekend, saying, “I just hope nobody does what I did.”
Even so, the moment allowed him to influence children who struggle with confidence.
“I tell them things are going to happen, you just have to keep pushing,” he says. “I want to be that voice. I want to be the voice of younger kids who have troubles speaking up about things; just let them know that it’s going to be all right and that it happens for a reason.”
Opportunity sometimes arrives in the strangest disguise.
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