College Team Pulls Off One of the Best Kick Returns Ever by Turning a Sure Safety into a Touchdown

By Joe Setyon September 6, 2019 at 10:58am

There’s probably a version of this story in which a mediocre-at-best college football team pulls off an epic upset against one of the best NCAA Division II programs in the country thanks to unbelievable kickoff return.

Unfortunately for readers who like Cinderella stories, that’s not exactly what happened here.

In fact, Minot State, who finished a brutal 1-10 last year, was blown out 52-7 on the road to the University of Minnesota Duluth, a clearly superior squad that started the season ranked No. 14 in the country among all DII teams.

But while Minot State only scored one touchdown, it sure was a doozy.

In fact, I’d go out on a limb and say this was the coolest play we’ve witnessed thus far into the young college football season.

UMD had a 15-0 lead late in the first quarter on Thursday when they kicked the ball off to Minot State’s Cory Carignan.

That’s when things started getting crazy.

Carignan tried to catch the ball a few yards in front of the end zone but muffed it.

He had to scramble to pick up the football about four yards behind the goal line.

Is this the wildest kick return you've ever seen?

A sea of UMD players surrounded Carignan while he was still in the end zone, and for a moment it looked like they were about to tackle him for what would have been a safety.

But somehow, someway, Carignan bounced off a tackle, changed directions and blasted out of the end zone, this time surrounded by a convoy of blockers.

UMD could do very little to stop him as he raced down the sideline, thanks to a combination of Carignan’s blazing speed and some perfect blocks.

Watch the video below courtesy of MDU Productions:

Now, I’d be doing the entire Minot State football team a disservice if I didn’t mention the massive block at the end of the play from Ali Mohamed, who effortlessly tossed the last UMD defender in Carignan’s path to the ground, allowing his teammate to score.

Here’s another look at that incredible block:

#11 is not the kicker, by the way pic.twitter.com/DzPtF3c6tF

— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) September 6, 2019

It was a wild play all the way around.

And while Minot State didn’t win the game (or come anywhere close), it was their squad that grabbed national headlines, not UMD.

Here’s to hoping we see lots more of these sorts of crazy plays as the college football season continues.

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Football, NCAA, Sports

Joe Setyon

Deputy Managing Editor, Editorial

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Joe Setyon was a deputy managing editor for The Western Journal who had spent his entire professional career in editing and reporting. He previously worked in Washington, D.C., as an assistant editor/reporter for Reason magazine.

@JoeSetyon

Joe Setyon was deputy managing editor for The Western Journal with several years of copy editing and reporting experience. He graduated with a degree in communication studies from Grove City College, where he served as managing editor of the student-run newspaper. Joe previously worked as an assistant editor/reporter for Reason magazine, a libertarian publication in Washington, D.C., where he covered politics and wrote about government waste and abuse.

Birthplace

Brooklyn, New York

Topics of Expertise

Sports, Politics