Arizona Put A 349-Pound DT On Punt Coverage And It Went About As Poorly As You Would Expect

Arizona Wildcats defensive tackle Chubba Ma’ae is an absolutely gargantuan human being.

Ma’ae, who is in his first season at the FBS level after transferring from UC Davis, is listed at 6-foot-2, 349 pounds on the Wildcats’ official roster. There’s a lot of use for a man that size in college football, especially when you consider he was second-team all-conference a year ago.

But none of those uses, at least that we’ve seen, are on punt coverage.

First-year Arizona head coach Brent Brennan used Ma’ae as one of the personal protectors for punter Tyler Loop on Sunday. And despite Loop being well-protected, the end result was about as bad as you could imagine.

Ma’ae, all 349 pounds of him, wound up having to chase down Kansas State punt returner Dylan Edwards. Edward, in comparison, stands at 5-foot-9, 167 pounds and was previously timed at 4.38 seconds in the 40-yard dash.

The foot race did not end well for Ma’ae…

Edwards flew by the big defensive tackle, who tried his absolutely damndest to get an angle, en route to a 72-yard punt return for a touchdown.

The score put Kansas State ahead 14-7 in the second quarter and the Wildcats (Kansas State edition) never looked back.

Now, to his credit, this is just sort of what Kansas State does.

The ‘Cats are best team in the nation at returning kicks and punts for touchdowns. In fact, they have been for nearly two decades.

Since 2005, Kansas City has combined to run 62 kicks and punts back for touchdowns. That number leads the nation and averages out to more than three per season.

And that’s considering the fact that legendary return man Darren Sproles graduated from KSU in 2004.

But even so, Brennan might want to rethink having the heaviest player on his roster out there chasing down punt returners.