Kick 6! Duke pulls off 109-yard FG return for touchdown to end half vs. NC State
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The Kick 6 is remembered fondly, or maybe not so fondly, in SEC football circles.
That depends on what SEC fandom you talk to.
But on Saturday afternoon in Raleigh, in a Week 10 clash between 6-2 Duke and 4-4 NC State, the Kick 6 arrived in the ACC, loudly and proudly. Duke was already leading by a comfortable 24-3 margin when Wolfpack kicker Kanoah Vinesett was setting up for a 50-yard field goal attempt.
The kick was on target, but it was a little bit short, and that little bit cost NC State more points in a way it never could have imagined.
Because waiting for the kick that was going to fall just before the crossbar was Duke sophomore safety Andrew Pellicciotta, who had a mission in mind when he caught that field goal attempt 9 yards deep in his own end zone.
His mission?
How about taking it back 109 yards, all the way to the other end zone for a stunning touchdown return that included a lot of zigs and zags and a few missed tackles.
At the end of it all, instead of NC State pulling within 24-6, it was Duke taking a 31-3 lead on the last play of the first half and going into the locker room with the biggest hunk of momentum you could ever imagine.
Here is what will surely be one of the highlight-reel plays of Duke’s 2026 season:
Duke now has the Kick 6 as part of its football lore, and any time an SEC fan of Auburn or Alabama comes calling, Blue Devil football fans, of all people, can boast about the play that happened in Raleigh in 2026.
If Pellicciotta does nothing else in a Duke uniform, he will always be remembered for what he did on the first Saturday of November at NC State.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
