Keishawn Bierria, normally a University of Washington inside linebacker, collected the Arizona State onside kick, shot through a fragmented line of Sun Devils without much trouble and didn't stop running until he reached the end zone 45 yards away.
That was 2016 and the last kickoff return turned into a Husky touchdown covering six seasons, 60 games and 99 returns.
Yes, the Huskies are way overdue for another, especially when considering they've had Michigan transfer Giles Jackson idling on the roster like some high-performance race car for 13 months now.
Another one of the more confounding developments for Jimmy Lake's two UW teams was the inability to come up with a touchdown runback on a kickoff, punt, interception or fumble.
This used to be a glorious Husky trademark.
From 2013 to 2017, the UW scored 32 times on the various kinds of runbacks — with Dante Pettis setting an NCAA record with 9 punt returns for scores and John Ross and Shaq Thompson supplying a school-record 4 kickoffs and 3 fumble recoveries for instant points, respectively.
In the four seasons since, the Huskies have just 5 returns for scores.
During Lake's time in charge, the UW came up with just one of those adrenaline-boosting and momentum-changing plays in 2020 and 2021 — Bralen Trice's lumbering 72-yard fumble return for a TD last September against Arkansas State.
The Huskies just couldn't spring Jackson loose, this after he arrived with a track record of electric 95- and 97-yard Big Ten scoring returns for the Wolverines.
The 5-foot-9, 177-pound speedster from Antioch, California, threatened to go the distance just one time in 19 returns last year for the UW, momentarily breaking free for a 43-yarder against Oregon. That was it.
While some of this is just plain luck when it comes to kickoffs, the onus also falls on the coaching staff for having the right personnel on the field to open some holes or to even introduce a clever scheme that might require a misdirection handoff, anything to get someone like Jackson into the open spaces.
In their history, the Huskies have had 25 kickoff returns go for touchdowns {see the list below}. Bierria's was the shortest for a score. Three have covered 100 yards, two by Ross. Two guys named Mitchell, Allen and Steele each have popped a long one for points. So did a player named McElhenny.
Jackson currently is the Huskies' fastest player with a 4.4-second 40-yard dash. He's got his back history of bringing people out of their seats and flying by opposing players on the way to goal-line glory unheeded.
With new coach Kalen DeBoer preaching that all of his UW units will be explosive and in a perpetual attack mode, figure that the new coach has a decent chance of sending Jackson from end zone to end zone and breaking that kickoff scoring drought fairly soon.
Tomorrow: Husky punt returns.
UW Kickoff Returns for Touchdowns
100 — John Ross, 2014, UCLA
100 — John Ross, 2013, BYU
100 — Paul Arnold, 1999, Air Force
99 — Anthony Allen, 1979, Pittsburgh
99 — Jim Krieg, 1971, TCU
98 — Toure Butler, 1998, BYU
98 — George Guttormsen, 1924, Whitman
97 — Jim Krieg, 1970, California
96 — John Ross, 2014, Oklahoma State
96 — Hugh McElhenny, 1949, Minnesota
95 — Roc Alexander, 2001, Idaho
95 — Kyle Stevens, 1979, Utah
95 — Jim Krieg, 1970, Stanford
92 — John Ross, 2016, Rutgers
91 — Jim Jones, 1957, Minnesota
90 — Steve Bramwell, 1963, Air Force
90 — Charlie Mitchell, 1960, UCLA
90 — Hugh Beckett, 1925, Whitman
89 — Louis Rankin, 2007, Washington State
89 — Ja'Warren Hooker, 1997, Arizona
89 — Joe Steele, 1976, UCLA
87 — Sam Mitchell, 1952, Idaho
87 — Ernie Steele, 1940, Washington State
85 — Charlie Mitchell, 1960, Idaho
60 — Chuck Allen, 1959, Colorado
45 — Keishawn Bierria, 2016, Arizona State
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