As a kickoff returner, Barion Brown enters 2024 riding some crazy streaks

With apologies to Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk and the late, lamented St. Louis Rams, one of football’s greatest shows on turf in 2024 will originate in Lexington, Kentucky.

When Kentucky Wildcats star Barion Brown returns kickoffs, it generates more electricity than natural gas. The 6-foot-1, 182-pound speedster from Nashville will enter his junior season riding a trio of crazy streaks as a kickoff returner.

When UK begins its 2024 campaign against Southern Mississippi on Aug. 31 at Kroger Field, Brown will be seeking to return a kickoff for a touchdown in the season opener for the third straight year.

In 2022, in his first game as a collegian, Brown took the opening kickoff of the second half 100 yards for a touchdown in what became a 37-13 Kentucky victory over Miami (Ohio).

Last season, Brown illuminated Kentucky’s 2023 season opener by taking a Ball State kickoff 99 yards to the house in what became a 44-14 Wildcats victory.

Given Brown’s track record in the season’s first game, it would seem to behoove Southern Miss special teams coordinator Greg Meyer to order his kickoff team to consistently boot the ball out of bounds. Just let Kentucky start drives on its 35-yard line as a result of the penalty that would occur rather than risk another season-opening, lightning bolt from Brown.

During the 2024 season opener, Brown will be seeking to extend another streak by returning a kickoff for a touchdown in a third straight game.

In Kentucky’s 38-31 upset of No. 9 Louisville in last year’s regular season finale, Brown uncorked a 100-yard kickoff return “answer” after U of L had appeared to take full control of the game by scoring a touchdown to go up 17-7.

During the return vs. U of L, Brown was clocked as running a scalding 22.6 miles per hour.

Apparently, lessons are not easily learned in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

In Kentucky’s very next game, when the Wildcats faced Clemson in what ultimately became a dispiriting 38-35 come-from-ahead loss for UK in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl, Dabo Swinney and crew began the second half by kicking off to Brown.

It took the Kentucky star 13 seconds of elapsed clock time to receive that kickoff and then take the football all the way to the Clemson end zone.

The Gator Bowl kickoff return TD put Brown in the UK record book on multiple fronts as a kick returner.

His four career touchdowns running back kickoffs is the Kentucky school record.

Brown was the only player in the FBS last season who returned three kickoffs for TDs. That made Brown the single-season leader in UK football history in kickoff return touchdowns.

Those three kickoff return TDs also allowed Brown to tie the single-season SEC record, a mark he shares with Tennessee’s Willie Gault (1980), Georgia’s Brandon Boykin (2009), Vanderbilt’s Warren Norman (2009) and UT’s Evan Berry (2015).

Brown will enter 2024 carrying an average of 31.75 yards on 32 career kickoff returns. That average yardage is also the UK career mark for kickoff returns.

In an era when strong-legged kickoff specialists often boom the ball through end zones, Brown has averaged only 16 kickoff return opportunities a season in his first two years rocking Kentucky blue.

By way of comparison, Derek Abney averaged just under 24 returns (23.75) a season while becoming the all-time leader in kickoff returns at Kentucky (95) during his four-year (2000 through 2003) UK career.

Brown’s exploits as a return man have earned him ample recognition in advance of the 2024 season. The Sporting News named him a preseason First Team All-American as a kick returner. USA Today tabbed Brown a Second Team All-America choice as an all-purpose player.

Whether Brown gets to back up his preseason accolades with chances to return kickoffs will be an interesting facet of Kentucky’s 2024 season. One would certainly think opponents will go out of their way to NOT kick him the football.

If Brown gets at least some chances to run kickoffs back, it will be fascinating to see if he extends what is easily the most quirky of his kickoff return “streaks.”

Of Barion Brown’s four kickoff return touchdowns as a collegian, all have come in the third quarter of games.

He ran the opening kickoffs of the second half back for TDs vs. Miami (Ohio) in 2022 and against Clemson in last season’s Gator Bowl.

His kickoff return touchdown vs. Ball State in last year’s season opener came with 28 seconds left in the third quarter. He burned Louisville’s kickoff team with 5:38 remaining in quarter three.

So, Kentucky fan, as you prepare for the new football season, you should incorporate one hard, firm rule into your 2024 game routine:

As long there is a chance Barion Brown could be returning a kickoff, you cannot risk going to the concession stands during the third quarter.

This story was originally published August 26, 2024 at 4:55 AM.

Mark Story

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-444-4731

Mark Story has worked in the Lexington Herald-Leader sports department since Aug. 27, 1990, and has been a Herald-Leader sports columnist since 2001. I have covered every Kentucky-Louisville football game since 1994, every UK-U of L basketball game but three since 1996-97 and every Kentucky Derby since 1994. Support my work with a digital subscription