Wilson Berry on PAT return tackle: "You just got tracked down by a punter, mate"

Kentucky had all of the momentum in the world to close out the first quarter. Getting another shot on offense after a Florida penalty extended the drive on a punt, Ray Davis turned on the jets for a 75-yard touchdown run to put the Wildcats up 16-0 with 23 seconds to go — a simple PAT needed to make it 17-0.

Instead, a blocked kick with Florida cornerback Devin Moore there to recover and scamper the other direction in hopes of putting two points on the board for the Gators. Rather than allow the three-point swing, though, Kentucky punter Wilson Berry ran down the return man and made a score-saving tackle.

Again, a punter running down a cornerback on a return.

“It was really impressive, really impressive,” head coach Mark Stoops said during his weekly press conference on Monday. “He took great pride in it. He ran him down, made a strong tackle and made sure to roll on top of him and give him a little (something extra) [laughs]. You know what I mean? I really appreciate that.

“I think you all know and we know the importance of saving those two points. That’s a three-point swing if they get it in the end zone there. That was just a great effort and it showed some unique skills there, getting him down.”

What exactly was that extra something Berry gave Moore on the tackle? Well, it was enough to earn a nice talking-to from the officials, close to an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

Stoops asked his starting punter what he said to get the official’s attention. And the answer is objectively hilarious.

“We gave him a huge shoutout for the great effort that he had,” Stoops said during his call-in radio show Monday evening. “I joked in the meeting, I’m like, ‘I don’t usually have to talk to punters about not getting a 15-yard penalty.’ He was talking smack after making the tackle. I said, ‘What did you say?’ He said, ‘You just got tracked down by a punter, mate.’“

Sounds like something Max Duffy would say. In fact, Stoops said Berry — also a native of Australia — isn’t far off in terms of humor and trash-talk abilities.

“He and Max are pretty close,” Stoops joked.

Berry finished the day with three punts for 143 yards, good for an average of 47.7 yards per punt and a long of 56 yards. His biggest play, though, came as a chase-down artist on a blocked PAT to close out the first quarter.