Whether you call him Sweet, King or plain old Louie Sakoda, Utah’s All-American kicker solidified his legend Saturday by breaking two more school records.
Sakoda surpassed Utah’s all-time record for career points, which has aged like a fine wine for 75 years. He also broke the all-time field goal record that was established 15 years ago.
With six minutes left in the third quarter Sakoda knocked through a 47-yard bomb to tie the record of former Ute fullback, Frank Christensen at 235 points. Less than a quarter later he made his third and final field goal of the game breaking the record. In the same breath, he simultaneously broke Chris Yergensen’s field goal record of 45 career field goals.
“It’s definitely cool to have your name down in school history like that,” Sakoda said. “But that’s obviously something you can’t focus on with the (Oregon State) Beavers coming in here next week.”
After the game, Sweet Louie didn’t look particularly excited about breaking two school records. Perhaps it’s because the team didn’t finish strong or maybe he’s just thinking about winning future games. More than likely it had something to do with Sakoda’s business-as-usual demeanor. Sakoda understands that it’s his job to kick field goals for the team and just because he’s good at it doesn’t give him an excuse to flaunt it.
“It’s not really something a kicker should think about, you kind of jinx yourself with that,” Sakoda said, when talking about breaking the records.
Sakoda could have come within four points of the record last week against Air Force if it weren’t for two missed field goals. Granted they weren’t gimmies, but he still expects to make everything. It was a must for him to have a solid game Saturday to prepare himself for Thursday’s game against Oregon State.
“It was nice to get the confidence back,” Sakoda said.
One other career milestone for Sakoda against Weber State was his 100th career extra point. Watching Sakoda step up to kick the extra point it’s obvious that he doesn’t have a doubt in his mind that he won’t make it. He eventually made three more PAT’s in the game and his career record ranks third all-time at Utah.
Going into this season, Sakoda ranked first all-time in career field goal percentage with .833, which just happens to be his percentage through five games this season. He also has a 43.58 yards-per-punt average this season after 16 punts this year.