Utah
21-year-old University of Utah student wins $125K in ESPN kicking contest
SALT LAKE CITY — A 21-year-old University of Utah senior is $125,000 richer after kicking a 33-yard field goal for Pat McAfee’s Kicking Contest during ESPN’s “College GameDay” Saturday.
The challenge is part of the “College GameDay” experience that has taken over many college campuses in anticipation of big games, like the one Saturday night against the Cincinnati Bearcats. The challenge itself was started by former NFL punter Pat McAfee to prove that scoring a field goal is much harder than it looks. Upward of $1 million is put on the line, much of it going to charity, and another portion going to the kickers themselves.
Jonah Knubel was among the hundreds of people who camped overnight, hoping that his ticket would be drawn. As chance would have it, his ticket was not drawn. But, as circumstance would have it, he would be the one to perform the challenge.
“My ticket was not called for the contest, but the guy who won the raffle looked over and said, ‘I’m not kicking this. I’m way too nervous. I don’t know how to kick,” Knuble recalled. “I said, ‘Hello! I’ll kick it for you, because I have experience kicking.’”
Knubel’s experience came from playing on the Jordan High School football team as a kicker his senior year, where he earned All-Region honors.
After speaking with the powers that be, it was agreed that Knubel would attempt the 33-yard kick, but the $1 million prize money would be split between him and the ticket holder. Added to the wager was a prediction by McAfee himself, who said that if Knubel made it, Utah would be the sure winner of tonight’s game.
“It kind of felt like a fever dream,” Knubel said. “Getting to high-five everyone, being on TV and getting to meet everyone was honestly so amazing. And when the kick finally came and I missed the first attempt, I was absolutely crushed because I knew I could make it pretty easily.”
In a clutch move, a timeout was called, and Knubel was awarded another kick. This time, the prize money was $500,000, where he would split $250,000 with the ticket holder and the other $250,000 going to a local charity.
His high school kicking experience kicked in, and he scored big. Not only that, but Knubel became the second to win the challenge this year out of 10 challenges, and one of seven who have won since it began in 2023.
After a lot of thought (and a nap), Knubel, a finance major, told KSL.com that he plans on “wisely” spending his winnings.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
SALT LAKE CITY — A California man in Utah, as part of his duties with the National Guard, is accused of trying to solicit sex from a young teenager.
Joshua Ruben Rodriguez, 29, of Fresno, was charged Tuesday in 3rd District Court with attempted rape of a child, a first-degree felony, and enticement of a minor, a second-degree felony.
The investigation began when an agent with the Utah State Bureau of Investigation posed as a 13-year-old girl on a “popular social media site … in an attempt to locate and apprehend adults attempting to have sexual contact with children,” according to charging documents.
On April 16, Rodriguez sent the agent a message — believing he was talking to a teen girl — that stated, “I’ll be direct with you, I would like to get to know you and (have sex with) your mind into a daze to where you feel like a woman,” according to charging documents.
When the “girl” asked if he had a problem with her age, Rodriguez replied, “I don’t have a problem with your age,” the charges state.
The agent told Rodriguez to meet at an apartment complex in Salt Lake County where the girl lived, claiming her mother would be gone. When Rodriguez arrived, he was taken into custody, the charges state.
“(Rodriguez) does not have ties to Utah. He is a resident of Fresno, California. (He) was in town as part of his military service with the California National Guard,” prosecutors stated in charging documents while requesting he be held without bail pending trial.
ST. GEORGE, Utah (KUTV) — One person was hospitalized at the St. George Regional Hospital after a car rolled and caught fire just south of the Utah-Arizona border.
The Beaver Dam and Littlefield Fire Department in Arizona said its crews responded to the crash near the Black Rock Road exit – roughly two miles south of the state border – on Sunday night.
Upon arrival, crews put out the car fire and found the driver had left the scene. A single occupant, who was able to get out of the car on their own, was transported to the hospital by a Beaver Dam ambulance.
MORE | Crashes
Their condition has not been publicly released.
Details on what led to the crash and the condition of the driver were not immediately available.
The Beaver Dam and Littlefield Fire Department said law enforcement investigated the scene.
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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz missed out on the NBA Playoffs, but still scored a big win thanks to a coin flip.
In Monday’s tiebreaker coin flip to determine who had the fourth-worst record in the league last season, the Jazz came out winners over the Sacramento Kings, who had the same 22-60 record.
Had the Jazz lost the coin flip, they would have been fifth in NBA Draft Lottery odds. Only the worst four teams are guaranteed to remain within the top eight of the lottery.
If Utah had fallen to fifth, there would have been the chance they could have dropped out of the top 8 teams in the lottery, and owed the draft pick to Oklahoma City, which was top-8 protected in a previous trade.
The Jazz now have an 11.5 percent chance to win the first overall pick in the NBA Draft Lottery, which is scheduled for Sunday, May 10.
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