Calum McAndrewColumbia Daily Tribune
It was the ‘Mizzou’d it’ to end all ‘Mizzou’d its.’
An errant snap, a punt, a tackle box that unbeknownst to most — including the punter — stretched back to the ends of the Earth, a roughing-the-punter call, and yet another devastating, head-scratching one-score loss for Missouri football.
Kentucky punter Colin Goodfellow got a last-gasp boot on the ball at the edge of the UK goal line, Missouri linebacker Will Norris hurried and tackled him, and … Kentucky kneeled out the game for a 21-17 win.
“I don't know if I knew off the top of my head that the tackle box is extended for infinity,” Goodfellow said in an interview with the Columbia Daily Tribune on Wednesday. “I don't think anybody really knew that.”
No kidding.
Goodfellow, now a special teams assistant at Duquesne, was carted off the field with an injury that kept him out until UK’s bowl game. Boos rang around Faurot Field. The Tigers lost an SEC game by one score for the fourth time that season. Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said postgame Kentucky was “rewarded for a huge mistake.”
And then, eight months later, the NCAA took note and announced a rule change at Southeastern Conference Media Days in July. The example they used for altering the rulebook: The Missouri-Kentucky play, which in the rule’s modified state would have given MU the ball.
One year on from that dramatic, college-football-altering ending, Missouri and No. 24 Kentucky will go at it again in a series that has had no shortage of closely contested battles. The Tigers and Wildcats, both 5-1, play Saturday evening in Lexington, Kentucky.
Here’s the tale from the infamous Faurot Field punt from the player at the heart of it all.
The play
Goodfellow and UK coach Mark Stoops had talked about it.
The punter had already seen a snap go high over his head against Florida earlier in the season. That snap rolled into the end zone, and instead of forfeiting six points, Goodfellow hoofed it out backward for a safety.
So Stoops asked the unit: “What happens if it doesn’t go in the end zone?”
“We all kind of looked at each other and said, ‘Yeah, that's a good question,’” Goodfellow said.
As luck would have it, Goodfellow asked an official the next week, specifically querying what would happen if a snap went over his head, didn’t reach the end zone, and booted it out backward.
“And (the official) said that would be a penalty, half the distance to the goal,” Goodfellow recalled, “and there, your best option is to kind of do your best to get it in the endzone without making it obvious or you're S.O.L (S**t outta luck).”
And what do you know … that exact situation, one that would alter the college football rulebook, happened eight weeks later in Columbia, Missouri.
Kentucky was not S.O.L. that day.
“Saw the snap, knew it was over my head immediately,” Goodfellow said. “I took a quick peek running back to see if anyone was on me. I knew it wasn't gonna go in the end zone so I knew I had to pick it up and try to make a play.”
He did.
Goodfellow hoofed it out of play. Norris crashed into Goodfellow. Flag. Penalty. Kentucky ball. And for all intents and purposes: Ball game.
That result even took the punter a little bit aback, though.
“Everybody thinks that I knew the roughing the punter call was coming. I had no idea it was coming,” Goodfellow said. “I had no idea I was still in the tackle box. I was just trying to make a play for my team and was fortunate enough that I was and fortunate enough that the ball didn't stray from a straight line and ended up in my favor.”
Goodfellow saved the day, but it cost him the remainder of his final regular season, as he went down with an injured leg and elbow.
There are no hard feelings though.
“(Norris) just as easily could have been the hero of the game and blocked a punt. Again, there's no hard feelings, it was a football play,” Goodfellow said. “I don't think there was anything, quote-unquote, dirty about it. I think it was just unfortunate.”
The aftermath
The punter had no clue he’d just saved the Wildcats’ day.
He found that out after health checks from his teammates transgressed into hearty congratulations and music and dancing —that he couldn’t take part in on one healthy leg.
Just like any SEC win, he said. Given the opportunity, he said he’d do it again.
But the boos as he was carted off were a little hard to get over.
“I will say it was pretty tough watching some videos of me being carted off on the field and hearing boos from the Mizzou stadium — that was a little rough,” Goodfellow said. “But you know, again, I understand they're passionate, it was a close game. It's an SEC game on the road. Obviously, there's going to be passion.”
Goodfellow was attended to after the game by the Missouri training staff, who he said were “nice and appreciative” to him.
But he was left with another sour taste, as that ended up being his last contact with anyone from the team.
“That's the one thing I was kind of disappointed about, nobody from Mizzou ever reached out to us,’ Goodfellow said. “Which, you know, you don't expect it. Everybody has said Missouri versus Kentucky is now a, quote unquote, rivalry. You know, there I'm sure there's some love lost, I'm sure there is some hard feelings, but, you know, an injury like that happens, you would expect at least somebody to reach out. … Nobody reached out from the actual team, player-wise or anything like that.”
The rule change
Goodfellow said he doesn’t remember ever seeing a play like it. And he likely never will again.
The SEC announced a rule change at SEC Media Days in July amending the interpretation of the tackle box that Goodfellow, rightfully by the then-rules, was protected.
Here’s the essence of the new rule:
“If the kicker possesses or carries the ball more than five yards behind his original position at the snap, those protections of running and roughing are no longer in effect," SEC coordinator of officials John McDaid said.
That would mean no flag on Norris. Missouri would have had a chance to win the game.
It seems like a logical rule. Goodfellow can see why a team should get punished for making a mistake. But, Goodfellow is still a little disappointed by the development
He brought up the vagaries of the five-yard rule, and how that could be left up to officials’ interpretation. As a rugby-style punter, that was something he’d become accustomed to, but losing another protection
“I understand the rule change but I'm a little disappointed because punters are now less protected,” Goodfellow said. … “It is a little discouraging that you could have a season- or a career-ending injury and not for nothing, but you know, not saying that Mizzou would have scored a touchdown or you know, what happens after that play if it doesn't get a call. But you know, it does kind of suck that if something were to happen in a similar situation, you know, it kind of was for nothing.”
Nearly a year later, and Missouri (5-1, 1-1 SEC) versus Kentucky (5-1, 2-1) is back on the docket. And Goodfellow, for the first time since graduating, will be back in attendance at Kroger Field.
It was a game that his schedule allowed him to get to. But it was also the matchup he had his eye on.
“I'll be excited to be down there,” Goodfellow said, “Hopefully, Coach Drinkwitz doesn't hate me too much.”
