Dane Key, Tayvion Robinson called Barion Brown's touchdown return: "Oh, he's gone."

Kentucky led Ball State 30-14 with 42 seconds remaining in the third quarter — still technically a two-score game with plenty of football left to play. Cardinal specialist Jack Drake booted the ensuing kickoff to the one-yard line, caught by Wildcat standout Barion Brown.

He followed his lead blocker Ramon Jefferson through a sea of jerseys and came out the other side to an open field. One cut back right with only the kicker to beat and Brown was as good as gone, 99 yards to the house to put the Wildcats up 37-14.

From there, it was all over but the shouting. Kentucky goes on to win 44-14 to move to 1-0 on the year.

Brown calls his shot

“It felt great. It’s a dream come true for any football player to score a touchdown on a kick return, and it’s a blessing,” Brown said after the victory. “Being able to make it on the side where my parents and friends were sitting made it great.”

It was a repeat of his debut performance as a freshman, returning a 101-yard kick for a touchdown against Miami (OH) in the season opener. The Wildcats held a 13-10 lead at halftime before Brown broke things open with the program’s first kickoff return touchdown since 2009.

“I ain’t gonna lie, as soon as I caught it, as soon as it hit my hands, it was cookies. I knew it was [a] touchdown,” Brown said of his first touchdown at Kentucky.

It happened agaiiiinnnnnnnn 🍪 pic.twitter.com/0B4Nva8Ckn

— Kentucky Football (@UKFootball) September 3, 2023

One year later, he did it again to become just the fourth player in Kentucky football history to have at least two career kickoff return touchdowns, joining Derrick Locke, Derek Abney, and Craig Yeast. He’s also the third player in program history to have a kickoff return touchdown in consecutive seasons, joining Yeast (1996-98) and Locke (2008-09).

And he got it out of the way in game one both times.

This time, though, he called his shot.

“I’m returning one week one, a punt return or a kick return. You’re gonna have to play this back because I’m going to run one back,” Brown said at UK Media Day. “I’m going to run it back and then I’m going to dance in front of my momma. You heard it. Please don’t kick it to me because it’s going to be bad. I might get your special teams coach fired if you kick it to me. I’m going to return it.”

Dane Key, Tayvion Robinson knew it was coming

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, they did not listen. No word yet on Ball State special teams coach Cory Connolly’s employment status.

Brown called his shot to open training camp, but his standout counterparts in the wide receiver room called it in real-time. Considering the game situation and the sophomore superstar’s abilities, Tayvion Robinson and Dane Key knew he was gone the second the ball hit his hands.

And they were right.

“We were sitting on the bench and Tayvion said, ‘If he gets a chance right here, he’s taking it back to the house right here.’ I was like, ‘I agree,'” Key said. “Then boom, he caught it. And I said, ‘Oh, he’s gone.’ We said it at Media Day, if they kick it to him in game one, he’s going to take it to the house.”

An all-around effort to execute

Brown would finish with a team-high 156 all-purpose yards — 117 coming on kickoff returns and 39 at receiver on three catches. The production was no surprise for Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops after seeing the way he’s operated in practice from the spring through fall camp to get to this point.

He’s become a guy who commands the ball and makes the most of those opportunities when he gets it.

“He is one of those guys that works so hard. He’s ready to go,” Stoops said of Brown. “He wants that ball, wants to go score. So that was good for him and good for us.”

Brown didn’t do it all on his own, though. It also took extraordinary execution to make that happen, an all-around effort from a special teams unit that was excellent the entire afternoon.

It takes everyone to make plays like that.

“Our group has really worked hard as a group. He got some good blocking and some good effort there. Great individual effort by him,” Stoops said. “And just overall, I think just the team has worked hard in all phases, not just snapping, holding, kicking, but the blocks for that. We were just solid across the board it looked to me.”

Gotta keep it up.