Maldonado’s Mad Dash: Inside the play that became an instant classic for Arizona football

Arizona defensive coordinator Duane Akina has a collection of game clips he refers to as the “Gold Reels.” Those plays are the best of the best — the ultimate coaching film.

“Not anybody or any play can get on these tapes,” Akina said. “Chuck Cecil’s on the tape. Chris McAlister is on the tape.”

The standard to make the gold reels is as high as can be. It requires something truly special.

Gunner Maldonado, Dalton Johnson and their defensive teammates met the standard in last season’s Alamo Bowl.

Maldonado’s epic 87-yard fumble return — following Johnson’s jarring hit — turned the game in the Wildcats’ favor. Down double digits at the time, Arizona went on to defeat Oklahoma 38-24 to secure the fourth 10-win season in program history.

“Maldonado’s Mad Dash” instantly became one of the iconic plays in the annals of UA football, joining Cecil’s 106-yard interception return vs. ASU and the “Leap by the Lake,” among others.

But it wasn’t just clutch. It was teamwork at its finest.

“That’s probably the teach tape of all teach tapes for our guys,” UA defensive assistant Brett Arce said. “We’ve been preaching playing hard, playing for one another, swarming to the football. And that is the ultimate clip in the biggest moment at the end of the year, which really helped us turn that game. Because if they go down and score, that’s a different look.”

Many of the Wildcats who played key roles in that game are no longer in Tucson. But the central figures in Maldonado’s Mad Dash are still around.

With spring practice ending and offseason workouts on the horizon, it seemed like the ideal time to relive the latest addition to Akina’s Gold Reels. Here’s how it all went down — and what some of the main participants had to say about it.

The read and the hit

The Alamo Bowl was a game of runs. Arizona scored the first 13 points. Oklahoma scored the next 24. And the Sooners were threatening for more.

Oklahoma had the ball at the UA 23-yard line with 21 seconds left in the third quarter. The Sooners faced second-and-10.

Oklahoma lined up in the shotgun with a running back to the left of freshman quarterback Jackson Arnold, two receivers split wide and two wings.

At the snap, the right wing, Drake Stoops, pivoted and looped to his left as if to take a handoff from Arnold. Arnold instead pulled the ball out and threw a slant pass to Jalil Farooq, who was split out to the right.

“It was an RPO,” UA linebacker Jacob Manu said. “I remember he faked a run. (Treydan) Stukes was at corner. Stukes is outside leverage, forcing him inside.”

Stukes had spent most of the season as Arizona’s nickel back. But an injury to Tacario Davis forced a lineup shuffle. Stukes was lined up opposite Farooq.

“He was pressing,” said Johnson, a safety. “Did his job how he was supposed to, bring the receiver back inside. And then I saw the quarterback looking to my left.”

Johnson was lined up on the left side of the defense at linebacker depth. As the play fake happened, including linemen pulling to the defense’s right, Johnson drifted a few paces in that direction. But he had his eyes on Arnold the entire time.

“I got in his eyes and just broke,” Johnson said. “Broke at a 90-degree angle, and it happened to be a bang-bang play.”

Farooq caught the ball at the UA 17. He slowed down at the catch point, sensing that Johnson was coming from the inside. Johnson had dropped to the 17 and took a beeline to Farooq.

“So often on plays like that, those linebackers or safeties take (a wider) angle,” Akina said. “So now they overrun that football on the cutback. But him taking that angle, that was his big hit.”

Farooq sensed that Johnson was encroaching and spun away from the impending hit. He had the ball tucked into his right arm. Johnson lowered his helmet, which struck the bottom tip of the ball. It squirted out of Farqooq’s grasp and deflected off the helmet of Stukes, who was right behind the Sooners wideout. That caused the ball to soar into the air and tumble end over end, like a kickoff.

“That was just a great play by both of them — great coverage by Stukes, and Dalton put his hat literally on the ball,” said Maldonado, the safety who was named the Alamo Bowl’s Defensive MVP. “It popped up. I was in the right place at the right time.”

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Maldonado was playing deep — out of the TV screen at the snap. He was at the 5-yard line when Farooq caught the ball. Maldonado was at the right place at the right time because he read his keys properly.

“The depth of the quarterback’s drop tells you the depth of the route,” Akina said. “If the quarterback’s gonna drop one step, the routes are at 6 yards. There’s no reason for the middle safety to back up, because the ball is going to come out. So if Gunner would have been backing up as a middle safety, he would have never been there. … If he was too deep, that ball would have hit the ground.”

Turning and running

Maldonado broke on the ball. He jumped slightly to his right at the 16 and snared it at the 17. Immediately, every Wildcat turned and ran, looking for Sooners to block.

“We immediately think six when we get our hands on the ball,” Stukes said. “I just took off right away. Coach Akina always brings up how I passed the first O-lineman cuz I just trusted that Gunner could beat him to the sideline.”

The first Sooner on the scene, at the 20, was offensive lineman Troy Everett, listed at 6-3, 294 pounds. Stukes ran right past him. Johnson got in his way briefly. Everett appeared to pull up with a leg injury while in pursuit and had no chance of catching Maldonado as he streaked down the left sideline.

“Stukes blocks ‘first dangerous,’ ” Akina said. “The offensive tackle is coming. Stukes can think about blocking this one. But he knows (and) felt that Gunner caught it in stride (so) Stukes just said, ‘Forget it. Gunner can outrun this one.’ ”

Arnold had a decent angle on Maldonado between the UA 35- and 40-yard lines. Stukes, ahead of Maldonado by about 5 yards, shoved Arnold out of the way, driving him from the 40 to the 45.

“The first red (jersey) I saw was the quarterback,” Stukes said. “I was able to get a good hit on him.”

Another offensive lineman, 6-6, 327-pound Jacob Sexton, was Maldonado’s closest pursuer at the UA 45. Freshman linebacker Kamuela Ka’aihue got in Sexton’s way just enough for Maldonado to run past him. Sexton made a diving tackle attempt at the Oklahoma 49 and came up empty.

Johnson was slightly ahead of Maldonado. Just past the 50, Johnson started turning and looking back to see if any other Sooners were nearby.

At the 25, Johnson and Maldonado were side by side. Johnson even placed his left hand on Maldonado’s right arm. Stukes was slightly ahead of them to their right, still running full speed.

All-out effort

Two Sooners still had a chance to bring down Maldonado short of the goal line.

The first was receiver Jayden Gibson, who was trailing the group and running along the sideline. Johnson spotted Gibson at the 17, turned and got a piece of him at the 11.

Stoops, who’d executed the fake handoff at the start of the play, was now about 5 yards ahead and sizing up Maldonado from the numbers. Stukes spotted him and gave him a two-handed shove to the chest at the 9. By the time Stoops dove into Maldonado’s legs, he was 3 yards into the end zone.

“I took a peek back to see if Gunner was still running,” Stukes said. “I saw he was, and I was like, ‘Oh crap, I gotta keep running.’ Stoops was coming from the other side. I had to turn to get that last block for him to get in there.”

As Maldonado crossed the goal line, four of his teammates were inside the 10: Johnson, Stukes, Ka’aihue and defensive tackle Bill Norton.

“You talk about the swarm drill,” Akina said. “It was Dalton who had the big hit that caused it; he (also) made the big block on the guy chasing. If he wasn’t there, that’s not a touchdown.

“Because Stukes was smart enough to let (Everett) go, he was the one that picked up (Stoops) at the end. Otherwise, they tackle it on the 10-yard line. Big play, but who knows? Maybe we don’t score a touchdown. So it’s all those hidden, little things.”

Arizona scored the game’s final 25 points. The Wildcats would finish with six takeaways. None featured as much all-out effort as Maldonado’s Mad Dash. None required as much teamwork.

“We’ve watched that play a couple of times since,” Maldonado said. “Just seeing the switch of ‘Gunner has it and I’m blocking’ — just seeing that switch and the want to get in the end zone by everybody, it was amazing.”