UK's Mickelsen Didn't Sit With Couch Around
Salt Lake Tribune 19Jan99
By Jay Drew: Salt Lake Tribune

College Football offensive receiver, Lance Mickelsen, a returned missionary and Utah native, thought he grew up in a small town in the middle of nowhere until he was invited to the tiny backwoods hometown of his teammate and good friend, Kentucky quarterback Tim Couch who is a Kentucky native. Lance was born and raised in Redmond, Utah, pop. 850, which is located in the middle of the state between and almost equal distant between Manti and Richfield. He attended North Sevier High School in Salina, Utah.

Lance. now at age 25, completed his college football career this year at the University of Kentucky by catching a 36-yard touchdown pass from Couch in a 26-14 loss to Penn State in the Outback Bowl on New Year's Day. The TD reception marked the 10th received from Couch, and his three catches in the bowl game for 65 yards gave him a total of 51 catches for 527 yards for his two-year career at U of K.

"Catching a touchdown pass in a bowl game, in front of the legendary [Penn State Coach] Joe Paterno, from Tim Couch, who is going to be a legend, is an experience I will always remember,'' said Mickelsen, who will graduate in June in business management.

Lance hasn't received any scouting contacts from professional teams so he is assuming that his football days are over. But that is OK for his because nobody ever figured that he would get as far as he did.

Lance was named to the All-State team at the end of high school and accepted a football scholarship from two year Snow College in Ephraim, Utah. However, after he finished his mission, Snow College told him he probably would not see any playing time. Undeterred by the bad news, Lance worked hard and became a starter his sophomore year and had an all-conference season, attracting some attention from small four-year schools.

He was set to walk on at BYU when Kentucky, who has assistant coaches which family ties to Utah, called and offered a recruiting visit. Three weeks later, Mickelsen was catching passes from Couch, and the rest is history. Crouch finished fourth in the voting for the Heisman Trophy this year and recently announced he is leaving U of K a year early for the NFL.

Lance is proud to have helped in Kentucky's resurgence as a national title contender. The Wildcats were 4-7 the year before he arrived. They went 5-6 his first season and were 7-5 this year. "I grew up watching Alabama and Tennessee and Florida play, so to play against teams like that was a total thrill,'' he said.