Austin Kafentzis did not follow many of his family members on to the University of Hawaii campus and the football team roster.
By way of three other colleges, the former high school standout quarterback in Utah wound up at BYU, and he was a real headache Saturday for the opposing Rainbow Warriors in the season finale for both teams at Aloha Stadium.
Kafentzis, who started the year as a slot receiver and ended up as a second-string running back, ran for 98 yards on 18 carries, by far his best outing of the season. He also had more playing time than usual, due to an injury to starter Squally Canada, who left the game in the second quarter due to the concussion protocol after rushing for 113 yards on 17 carries.
“The line created huge holes for us,” said Kafentzis, whose father, Kyle, was a defensive back for Hawaii in the mid-1980s and is one of eight from his extended family to play for the Rainbow Warriors. “Every running back was able to get yards. It’s always nice being able to run behind those big guys.”
Riley Burt added 78 late-game yards to help the team’s rushing total reach 285 in the visitors’ 30-20 victory.
Earlier in the season, Kafentzis was the Cougars’ scout-team quarterback. He had plenty of experience at the position as a four-time Salt Lake Tribune all-state first-teamer at Jordan High in Sandy, Utah.
“The road this year has been pretty crazy,” Kafentzis said. “I came in with the mind-set that I was going to switch positions and really do whatever the coach wanted me to do. If he wanted me to play receiver, I was going to go play. If he wanted me to play running back … and that’s what it ended up molding into.”
The Kafentzis name has a long history at UH. Uncles Mark, Sean, Kurt and Kent played here, as did cousins Tyson, Landon and Mikhail. All except Mikhail played defensive back.
“That’s what I’ve done my whole life, one of the only ones in the family,” Kafentzis said. “It feels comfortable playing offense and getting your hands on the ball.”
The future is bright for the sophomore, who took a few detours before getting to Provo. He even threw a pass as the quarterback in a wildcat formation early in Saturday’s game, but the ball went in and out of the hands of Brayden El-Bakri.
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Kafentzis enrolled at Wisconsin after being recruited by then-coach Gary Anderson. After spring drills, he was ranked fifth on the QB depth chart and decided to transfer to Nevada. He had to sit out a year, only to leave in June 2016, six months after the departure of then-coach and current UH coach Nick Rolovich. For the 2016 season, Kafentzis suited up for Arizona Western, but played sparingly.
“It’s been a long journey, but it feels good to finally get out and play with all these guys,” he said. “There’s a lot of seniors that are walking off with a win and that’s what we wanted to do. This is our bowl game. That is how we treated it. We attacked it as any other week, but with a little more significance because we wanted to walk away with that W for the seniors.”
