A Division II Football Player Turned A Near Safety Into A TD On A Wild Kickoff Return

The NFL dominated the football landscape on Thursday evening, kicking off the 2019 season with a highly publicized match-up between the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers. In fact, major college football took the night off to give way to the professional ranks but, at the lower levels, there was plenty of action taking place and that included a Division II battle between Minnesota-Duluth and Minot State. While that contest wouldn’t receive national attention under normal circumstances, a young man named Cory Carignan changed that with a memorable play.

Late in the first quarter, Minot State was trailing by a score of 15-0 and receiving a kick-off after a touchdown from Minnesota-Duluth. Carignan, who is No. 13 and a freshman wide receiver, served as the return man and, well, craziness ensued.

First, Carignan tries to field ball outside of the end zone but, after muffing the catch, the ball caroms into the end zone, leaving him with no option but to attempt to escape to avoid a safety. The kicking team is eager, though, and Carignan has to shed multiple tackles in the end zone before turning the corner down the right sideline in insane fashion.

To make things even more noteworthy, there is a haymaker of a block late in the run and, as Timothy Burke notes (in a follow-up tweet to the original video), the de-cleating block was not actually delivered to the kicker on the play. This is one of those plays that could easily slip through the cracks without attention on social media, simply because of the lack of a platform for this game. Still, Carignan made the play of his life and it’s worth watching to enjoy the madness.