The sheer sight of Kevin James did not prove to be too much for Illinois football kicker Caleb Griffin. He wasn’t fazed!
The Illini, at 2-4, traveled east to Maryland for a Big Ten conference matchup with the 5-1 Terrapins on Saturday evening. It came down the final 90 seconds.
Maryland made a field goal with one minute and 31 seconds left in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 24. A touchback on the proceeding kickoff gave Illinois the ball at its own 25-yard-line.
- Four-yard run
- 29-yard pass
- 12-yard pass
- Timeout Maryland
- -1-yard run
- Timeout Maryland
- Nine-yard run
- -3-yard loss
The six-play sequence gave the Illini a 4th-and-5 at the Terrapins 25-yard-line with one second left. Just one.
Griffin trotted out for the 43-yard attempt. A make won the game. A miss sent it to overtime.
As Griffin lined up his kick, Maryland put the Kevin James meme up on the jumbotron to try and throw him off guard. The meme, which stems from a photo of the actor on set for King of Queens, has gone insanely viral over the last few months.
Nobody knows what it means, or why, but it gets the people going.
Fast forward to Saturday night and Griffin was staring James in the face as he tried to hit a walk-off field goal to give his team its fourth win of the season. It was as if James was looking into his soul.
Griffin nailed the kick and went sliding in the end zone to celebrate.
An alternate angle of the kick, coupled with the Kevin James meme, created an iconic college football image. The ball went flying through the uprights, with one second left on the clock, as James smirked from above.
James posed for that photo more than 25 years ago. Imagine if you had told him at the time that it would be used to try and distract a kicker from a walk-off field goal in 2023. The internet is amazing!