Will Ferrin was that kid growing up.
Whenever there was a substitute teacher at his elementary school, the future BYU kicker would be in the front of the class, hand raised high, asking questions nobody particularly wanted answered. Only Ferrin’s childhood queries were a little bit different than most.
“I’d raise my hand and ask if they were a BYU fan or a Utah fan,” Ferrin recalled.
He may have started his college career at Boise State, but Ferrin always bled the deepest shade of Cougar blue. His first football memory was when his father, Jim, sat him down and explained what BYU versus Utah meant — not just in football, but in every part of a BYU man’s life.
“It was him explaining the Holy War,” Ferrin said. “That was such a big part of my childhood.”
Now, when Ferrin eventually explains the rivalry himself, he’ll be a deep part of that lore — the man who helped shape a streak and keep BYU’s increasingly legendary, undefeated season alive.
With just nine seconds left, and the clock running, Ferrin ran out onto the field and drilled a 44-yard field goal to give BYU a 22-21 win in the early moments of Sunday morning. The Cougars hadn’t won in Rice-Eccles since 2006. They hadn’t won back-to-back Utah games since 2007.
Even as Utah coach Kyle Whittingham ran to midfield to snipe at officials, and Ute athletic director Mark Harlan threatened the Big 12 for a holding call that set up the kick, Ferrin celebrated accordingly.
BYU head coach Kalani Sitake even called the team back out from the locker room for an encore of the fight song — and gave Ferrin extra time to bask in the visiting crowd serenading him.
“Will was as cool as could be,” Sitake said. “There was no way to stop the clock or freeze him. So we just felt really good about running the ball, having the clock run, and having him just run up there and kick.”
After that ...
“Pandemonium,” quarterback Jake Retzlaff would say.
Of course, you can’t talk about the Ferrin kick without the backstory. BYU was inside its own 10-yard line, down to its final down, when Utah came up with a sack to potentially end the game.
But a defensive holding flag flew and BYU had a second life.
“That’s the game of football,” Sitake said. “You can’t hold people. … Refs are a part of the game and glad we were able to capitalize on it."
Wide receiver Keelan Marion looked Retzlaff in the eyes and told him what came next.
“You’ve been leading us to 8-0. So go lead us to nine. Lead us to nine. And that is what he did,” Marion said.
Retzlaff drove 65 yards in a minute, 53 seconds and handed the rest to Ferrin. By the time the ball was halfway through the air, Retzlaff turned his back to stare into the crowd.
“I hugged Hinckley Ropati and told him I loved him [and] said Will is going to make this kick,” Retzlaff said. “I turned away. I knew it was in. If it wasn’t, that would have been really awkward.”
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Brigham Young Cougars head coach Kalani Sitake, center, celebrates with Brigham Young Cougars players after the game between the Utah Utes and the Brigham Young Cougars at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024.
And for it to be Ferrin — “Big Game Bill” as Retzlaff calls him — in that moment, it was special.
He started at Boise State and learned under special teams coach Kelly Poppinga. Ferrin kept inching closer to the job, but never had his moment as he sat behind one of the better kickers in the country, Jonah Dalmas. He decided to redshirt, pack his things and look for a place to compete.
Poppinga offered him his dream. The coach was about to leave Boise State to be the special teams coordinator at BYU after a staff shakeup. Ferrin, from Kaysville, had an open invite to join.
“Will was, percentage-wise, our better kicker up there,” Poppinga remembered last fall camp. “But the other guy had been kicking forever. But he was a good backup for him.”
Ferrin grew up in the stands of LaVell Edwards Stadium — wearing his royal blue on the hard-backed seats— and didn’t want to miss it. Now people don’t want to miss him.
He’s become one of BYU’s most reliable kickers in years. He is 85% in 2024 and has a career-long 54-yarder. He hasn’t missed a kick since September.
“Worst comes to worst, throw Will out there and he’s going to get it done,” linebacker Isaiah Glasker said.
When Ferrin left the field after a wild win, he spotted his father who had introduced him to the rivalry. They talked about the moment when Jim Ferrin told him what the Utah game was all about.
But Ferrin doesn’t need teaching now. He doesn’t need to ask questions to teachers about it either. Now, kids in classrooms across the state will be talking about him.
“Eight-year-old Will Ferrin would be hyped, that’s for sure. Probably more than I am showing right now,” he said. “I feel like I am just a part of Cougar Nation. It is cool to win this game and to be in that role.”
