Shannon Kingston gets nervous every time her son Parker takes the football field. After all, at 5-foot-11 and 187 pounds, he’s not the biggest guy out there and he happens to play the most dangerous position — punt returner.
Tutored by former Utah star Britain Covey, Kingston follows a six-step plan.
- Watch the snap.
- Look to see which gunner got the best release at the line of scrimmage.
- Look up and find the ball.
- At the last possible second, look down “to see if you are going to get completely obliterated.”
- Look back up to the ball.
- Make the catch and start running.
When everything goes just right, the lightning quick Kingston can take it to the house — as No. 23 Colorado discovered in the Alamo Bowl. And sometimes, like against No. 13 Kansas State, when everything goes completely wrong, he can do it, too.
Speed covers a lot of sins.
As Kingston trotted onto the field on Sept. 21 with 11:09 to play in the third quarter against the Wildcats, Shannon’s stomach started to turn. Kingston hadn’t played a single down in the first half and she sensed this punt return was an opportunity to make a name for himself.
“This is my only shot,” Kingston reminisced on the “Y’s Guys” podcast. “I have got to do something.”
Standing on his own 33-yard line, Kansas State punter Simon McClannan launched a 57-yard kick up into the lights at LaVell Edwards Stadium. For Kingston, who was standing on his own 30, this is where the trouble began.
“I misread the spin (on the ball) and I ran up too far,” he said. “It kept carrying and I thought, ‘Oh no!’ So I stuck my hands out. I could have let it bounce, but I was like, ‘I have to do something with this ball or I’m not going to get another shot.”
McClannan’s punt deflected off Kingston’s hands and started bouncing toward the Wildcats goal line.
“Oh, you have got to be kidding me?” he thought as he turned around to recover the ball. “I’m saying, ‘Please, have a good bounce where it hops up in my hands and I can turn the corner and run.’”
The ball, or someone, was listening.
“The prayer was answered in .02 seconds, and it hopped up into my hands,” Kingston said. His momentum, however, had taken him inside his own five-yard line. “I’m on the two — ‘Oh, don’t get tackled right here.”
Kingston dodged defenders as he crossed the field to the BYU sideline before taking a right turn with nearly 100 yards out in front of him. This wasn’t unfamiliar territory. As a junior at Roy High, he ran the 100-meter dash in 10.79 seconds.
“I was running as fast as I could. It felt like I was in the 100-meter dash in high school again,” he said. “Just go!”
He went.
By the time Kingston reached the 30-yard line, and with teammates making their blocks, his mood shifted from panic to pandemonium. “I’m like, ‘Holy crap! This is going to go all the way!”
Fifty-five yards downfield, Kingston ran out of gas — but he still had a few more yards to go.
“At about the 15-yard line, I couldn’t feel my legs anymore. I honestly think I blacked out because I don’t remember crossing the goal line or anything after that,” he said. “It was so loud that my ears were ringing. Then everything went silent. It was crazy!”
Kingston’s 90-yard punt return (which was more like 140 yards) capped a 28-point BYU barrage during a six-minute stretch that turned the game into a blowout. It also completed a personal quest.
“All (last) summer, I was thinking how I wanted to score a touchdown in front of the ROC, a punt return, and put my hands up. I thought that would be sweet and then it actually happened,” Kingston said. “It was the craziest experience I have ever had. The ROC was screaming. It was awesome.”
Kingston’s moment continued. As it turned out, Shannon wasn’t the only one with a restless stomach.
“Sitting on the bench, I had guys coming over and punching me in the chest and in the stomach. I’m like, ‘Guys, I can’t breathe!” he said. “(Receivers coach) Fesi (Sitake) got out of there at the right time. As soon as he got up, I just turned and threw up.”
Not only was the punt return for a touchdown the first at BYU in 11 years, but it also took Kingston back 11 years to his little league days in Layton.
“It’s funny, nothing sums me up more than that,” Kingston said. “That touchdown, (the ball) going over my head and hitting my hands. In little league, I’d have a snap go over my head, I’d just pick it up and turn the corner and run — and that was our best play.”
Shannon concurred.
“Honestly, when I dropped it, she was like, ‘Oh my gosh! What are you doing?” Kingston said of the now famous Kansas State punt return. “Then I picked it up and she said, ‘Well, that sums you up — right there.”
Speed and confidence fuels Kingston heading into his junior season, where Athlon has tabbed him as a preseason All-American.
“I know that I can return punts for touchdowns. I want to be in the end zone, and I want to get there every time,” he said. “I’m excited for this year. I have some goals back there and hopefully I can get them.”
Dave McCann is a sportswriter and columnist for the Deseret News and is a play-by-play announcer and show host for BYUtv/ESPN+. He co-hosts “Y’s Guys” at ysguys.com and is the author of the children’s book “C is for Cougar,” available at deseretbook.com