Colin Goodfellow Saves the Day for Cats at Missouri
Colin Goodfellow has had a very nice career with the Kentucky football team. He’s been a reliable punter during his six years with the program, including being named to the Ray Guy Award Watch List both this season and last.
Goodfellow, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, has also been an outstanding student and citizen. This year, he’s a semifinalist for the Campbell Trophy, given to the nation’s top football player when it comes to football, academics and community.
But Goodfellow will not be remembered by the Big Blue Nation for any of that. Instead, he will be remembered for what he did late in Kentucky’s 21-17 win at Missouri on Saturday.
After falling behind 17-14 in the fourth quarter, the Cats rallied to take the lead on a touchdown pass from Will Levis to Dane Key with 5:18 to play.
On the following possession, the UK defense forced Missouri to punt and the Cats took over with 4:13 to play. It seemed that Kentucky would only need to make a couple of first downs to seal the victory. But the Cats rushed three times for a total of six yards and were forced to punt.
Little did anyone know that the game was about to have a dramatic twist.
Goodfellow retreated into punt formation with 2:35 left, standing on his own 27 yard line to await the snap. But the ball was snapped over his head and Goodfellow was forced to run back toward the end zone to pick the ball up.
That’s when an unlikely set of circumstances happened. Goodfellow could have kicked the ball out of the back of the end zone for a safety. But he didn’t. He could have fallen on the ball, giving Missouri incredible field position, inside the UK five. But he didn’t.
Instead, Goodfellow was able to not only scoop the ball off the Faurot Field turf, but he was able to turn 180 degrees and get a kick away.
The kick was not great but the effort was. And, to make the play even more amazing, Missouri’s Will Norris was all over Goodfellow but somehow did not block the punt. Instead, Norris hit Goodfellow’s leg on the follow through of the punt, which resulted in a roughing the kicker penalty and an automatic first down for Kentucky.
UK head coach Mark Stoops praised the play after the game, saying it very clearly.
“He made a remarkable play.”
Goodfellow’s heroics were dampened by the fact that he was injured on the play. He left the field on a cart after that play and, following the game, Stoops said Goodfellow was “hurt bad.”
The Cats offense would be able to run about two more minutes off the clock before backup punter Wilson Berry booted the ball back to the Tigers with just 38 seconds left. Missouri could do nothing with the possession and the Cats would hold on for the win.
While football is a team game and this was a team win, UK’s victory in Columbia on this day will always be remembered for the play that Colin Goodfellow made to save the day. He likely gave up the rest of his career to save the game in the ultimate team sport.
