Where Parker Kingston’s touchdown ranks among college football’s best recent punt returns

By now you’ve probably seen Parker Kingston’s 90-yard punt return touchdown against Kansas State. Given how viral it went on social media, it was definitely hard to miss.
While Kingston’s heroics sent LaVell Edwards Stadium into hysteria and cemented his place in program lore forever, where does the play rank among the best punt return scores of the past decade?
Here’s what I determined.
No. 23 Utah vs. No. 3 Oregon, 2021
It was the exclamation point on arguably the biggest win in the history of Rice-Eccles Stadium.
Just before halftime of Utah’s beatdown of No. 3 Oregon, Britain Covey fielded a Ducks punt east of the right hashmark on his own 22-yard line, immediately darted over to the opposite side of the field and proceeded to walk — or sprint — the tightrope all the way down the left sideline for the score.
Covey’s return made Kyle Whittingham look like a genius: rather than let Oregon run out the clock to end the half, Whittingham called timeout to force the Ducks to punt, leading to one of Utah’s most electric moments ever.
No. 2 LSU at No. 3 Alabama, 2019
Before Jaylen Waddle was starring for my fantasy team, he was a force to be reckoned with in the SEC.
Against an absolute juggernaut LSU squad in 2019, Waddle swung out of a vicious (yet uncalled) face mask and escaped for a 77-yard touchdown, doing so with minimal blockers until passing midfield.
BYU vs. No. 13 Kansas State, 2024
How did nobody even touch Parker Kingston on this return?
It appeared disaster was imminent for Kingston upon initially misplaying this punt — he muffed it at the 23-yard line and picked it up at the 10 — only for him to go full video game mode for a 90-yard score where he really ran for much more than that.
It was BYU’s first punt return touchdown in more than a decade, and it came with the Cougars’ defensive safe return unit on the field — by far the least likely group to orchestrate such magic.
Kingston deserves all the praise in the world for this play, but two unsung heroes deserve some love here. First, check out Isaiah Glasker (#16), a linebacker, who’s keeping up stride for stride with Kingston for pretty much the whole sequence. Maybe Glasker should get a chance to make a return at some point this year. The kid’s got some wheels.
Then, at the 0:13 mark of the above video and in the bottom right corner of the screen, Tanner Wall takes out two Wildcats with one block. It’s no wonder he’s earned two Special Teams Player of the Week nods from BYU coaches so far this year. Truly a certified football guy.
I found this return from Kingston to be so glorious that it deserved having “Higher” by Creed added to it — probably the highest honor I can give out via social media.
Oklahoma State at No. 20 Oklahoma, 2014
It’s a real shame Oklahoma left the Big 12, as the Bedlam rivalry series with Oklahoma State was one of the conference’s most compelling features.
In 2014′s Bedlam action, future NFL star Tyreek Hill made his first national introduction as one of the fastest men on the planet. He took a 92-yard punt to the house in the game’s final minute to force overtime, where his Cowboys would stun the Sooners for their second win in the past 12 tries.
Central Michigan at Western Michigan, 2021
Pimpleton’s 97-yard touchdown here may be the longest in all of college football in the past 10 years, but it’s the context of the return that earned him the top spot on this list.
Trailing 14-0 with just over five minutes to play in the half, Pimpleton fielded a Western Michigan punt and took it 70 yards to the end zone for his team’s first score of the game.
Then, four minutes later, he caught a touchdown to tie the game up at 14 points apiece.
Pimpleton wouldn’t stop there. In the final seconds before halftime — and even after all that running — he caught another punt and raced for 97 yards for the go-ahead touchdown after eluding three would-be Broncos tacklers.
There’s putting the team on your back, and then there’s what Pimpleton accomplished over the course of five minutes. We may never see anything like it ever again.