Use without license or authorization is expressly prohibited. Twenty-six players have one, five players have two, and Patterson has seven, a total that accounts for. The longtime NFL cornerback made everyone look like a fool on this play while he was playing with the Los Angeles Rams. Use without license or authorization is expressly prohibited. 1 on that list? Consider what we've seen from the most electrifying kick-returners to mark the college football landscape over the past quarter-century. Division III Mount Union's Nate Kmic had 2,790 in 15 games in 2008, compared to Sanders' 12. Every Sports Reference Social Media Account, Site Last Updated: Saturday, March 4, 6:41AM. It would take a dynamic talent like Randy Moss, who was interested in playing four seasons, to come close. Active players are listed in bold. Punts are a much, much less physical play.". Ismail said his job was to find a crease, run through it, and make somebody miss. So well just see how it goes.". Keenum was granted a medical hardship in 2010 after tearing a knee ligament, but his five touchdowns over three games prior to injury count. Copyright 2000-2023 Sports Reference LLC. Logos were compiled by the amazing SportsLogos.net. . He was a man among boys off the edge in Tuscaloosa and later set an NFL record with seven sacks in a single game for the Kansas City Chiefs in 1990. 1 pick in the NFL draft (Mayfield), the former of whom is arguably a generational talent at the position and the latter of whom was named the best player in the country one year later. Hall backpedaled as he caught a booming punt, and then proceeded to embarrass the entire special teams unitHall was nearly consumed by three Broncos players, but he juked in and out of the way to avoid them. 14. . 3 running back Justin Jackson as their top kick returner last season. Join our linker program. We present them here for purely educational purposes. + Indicates Hall of Famer, season age in parentheses, Every Sports Reference Social Media Account, Site Last Updated: Friday, March 3, 2:32PM. Use without license or authorization is expressly prohibited. With just the kicker to beat, Washington pulled a fantastic stutter step to put him to the ground and ran his way into the endzone. You could still try to maintain possession of the ball. 1990. Though I understand the safety concerns, it would be a shame to tear down a stage on which some of college football's most talented players have put in work. Find out more. Do you have a sports website? Find out more. He is a graduate of Indiana University. Or write about sports? Who holds it: Connor Halliday, Washington State, 2014 Hall started running backwards and crossed to the other side of the field, outrunning the entire Broncos unit before heading into the endzone untouched. Hail Mary passes, knockout tackles, and deep throws down the sideline are all cool plays in football, but there's nothing quite as exciting as a kick return touchdown. He made everybody miss twice against Michigan. Like sports history? Hester blew through an open lane to go basically untouched into the endzonehigh-stepping his way in all the way from the 20-yard line. In this post, we talk about kickoff returns for touchdowns. The return went for 109 yards, setting a record for the longest play in NFL history. As a sophomore, he led the nation in kickoff return yards with 442, while averaging 31.6 yards per return. The Detroit Lions are reportedly considering using wide receiver Jameson Williams as a returner for the 2023 NFL season. Leaders Since 1976 Share & Export Modify, Export & Share Table Get as Excel Workbook The Hurricanes star did some impressive work in the NFL, but his best return ever might be from his days at The U. Hesters return against Duke was like a work of artif there were a museum honoring returns in football, this one might be considered the Mona Lisa of punt returns. The touchdown also helped Hester set an NFL record for the most return touchdowns by a player in a single season. "The goal when we originally drafted him, we didnt know really how much we were going to get out of him but it was good to have him get some kind of game experience to kind of feel the speed of the game," Holmes said. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. Hester set the NFL record for most return touchdowns (combining kickoffs and punts) with 20 over the course of his career, and one of his best came in Super Bowl XLIwhich was played in Miami, where Hester went to collegeagainst the Indianapolis Colts. With this play against Tennessee in 2011, the Arkansas wide receiver and return specialist made the argument that he pulled off the best punt return in football history. Do you have a sports website? As a junior in 2005, Jones-Drew set the FBS single-season markby averaging 28.5 yards per punt return. The national leader in receiving yards per game during the 2020 season was Ole Miss' consensus All-American wide receiver Elijah Moore, who averaged 149.1 yards per game. Keenums NCAA record of 1,546 career completions also wont be touched. The team that would now be kicking off would have the option: They could punt the ball or they could go for it. Because when I was a kid, he was the guy who made me think returners were supposed to take punts and kickoffs back for touchdowns on a regular basis. Cordarrelle Patterson was tied for the most kick return touchdowns in NFL history entering Week 11 of the 2022 season. Again, that's with Kmic playing in 3 more games. Except C.J. Boasting the speed and fluidity you'd expect from an All-American sprinter, Rossum owns the FBS career record with nine total return touchdownsthree on punts, three on kickoffs, three on interceptionsand ranks second in Notre Dame history with a 22.9 punt-return average. Most games scoring a touchdown, career. After a final lateralmaking for eight laterals in totalall the way across to the opposite side field, the Hurricanes took the ball up the sideline and found wide open space, scoring the game-winning touchdown. Washington also returned a punt 99 yards for a touchdown later in that game, setting a team record with two return scores in the same game. We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. Do you have a blog? Im going to go track that thing down. That's roughly what Nevada's Alex Van Dyke averaged during his two-year career Nevada. The next year, his Heisman year, Sanders took the opening kickoff in the opening game back 100 yards for a score against Miami-Ohio. Howard, the 1991 Heisman trophy winner, is the only return man to win the Super Bowl MVP. As good as Jones-Drew was, UCLA has never seen a return man as dangerous as Antonio Perkins. There have been some amazing kick and punt returns in football over the years, here are the best of the best. During the 2013 campaign at Washington State, Halliday also set a new NCAA record with 89 passing attempts at Oregon. UTEP quarterback Brooks Dawson once threw a touchdown pass on six consecutive attempts against New Mexico and what makes it really unbreakable is that he started the game 6-for-6 with six touchdowns. No. Ben Johnson, Aaron Glenn content even if head coach jobs never materialize, Brad Holmes: 'I don't think the cupboard's bare on defense'. The score marked the first time an opening kickoff was returned for a touchdown in Super Bowl history. The following is a list of the NFL career punt return leaders ranked by punt return touchdowns. KEY: Gms = Games Played, Num = Kickoff Returns, Yds = Kickoff Return Yards, Avg = Kickoff Return Average, Lg = Longest Kickoff Return, TD = Kickoff Return Touchdowns, Yds/G = Kickoff Return Yards Per Game. A compilation of every kick return touchdown of the 2021 college football season. Jameson also has to hold his part and make sure that hes doing everything that he needs to do. Subscribe to Stathead Football: Get your first month FREEYour All-Access Ticket to the Pro Football Reference Database. Whether it be a kickoff return or a punt return, football players put their amazing athletic ability on display as they weave in and out of tacklers, rushing down the field after receiving a kick. 1-ranked and two-time defending national champion Alabama Crimson Tide (11-0, 7-0 in the SEC) as a 10-point favorite over the No. Missouri. "Hes done it. Well, in this case, its probably a good idea that Jones didnt listen to that advice. It is the most violent, video-friendly, terrifying, electrifying, dangerous and dramatic play in football. Single game leaders only reflect years for which we have complete boxscore data (1950 onward), all playoff games, and all 100 yard rushing/receiving or 300 yard passing games from 1940-1959. Ginn visited the end zone four more times on kick returns over the next three seasonsincluding taking the opening kickoff back 92 yards in the 2007 BCS National Championship Gameand finished his career as the Big Ten's all-time leader in punt-return touchdowns. ', "There's just a difference in there, and that difference makes an exponential difference on the field of play with the whole group.". NFL Career Leaders - Punt Return Touchdowns. On Wednesday, Lions general manager Brad Holmes praised Williams' "rare talent, rare ability (and) serious passion for the game," and said the team was "expecting big things" from last year's No. Imagine if the fantasy football owners who covet Jones-Drew so much now could have had him in college, where in addition to his rushing and receiving exploits,he was also a record-setting kick-returner. 44 touchdowns are tied with Kmic for the most ever and ahead of anyone else in NCAA history. Twelve players, including 2014 Biletnikoff winner Amari Cooper from Alabama, have surpassed the lofty 1,700-mark in a single season since 2008, but that often means NFL dollars will soon come calling once the three-year removed from high school rule has passed. That same season, his best game came in week 15 against Jacksonville, where he had an 83-yard interception return for a score, a 70-yard kick return, and broke up a touchdown pass to save the game. For a few years in the early 2000s with the Kansas City Chiefs, Hall electrified the NFL with his dynamic speed and hard-to-believe kick and punt returns. All logos are the trademark & property of their owners and not Sports Reference LLC. There have been 43 kickoffs returned for a touchdown since Patterson was drafted in 2013. For a quarterback to break East Carolina's Dominique Davis' record of 36 consecutive passes completed, he would have to double Mertz's streak of 17 completions in a row, then complete three additional passes for good measure. Still, he has breakaway. We do not target any individuals under the age of 21. No one will forget the Heisman pose after the 93-yard punt return TD against Ohio State, but they also shouldn't forget the body of work that led to Howard's defining moment. In 1997 he totaled a Super Bowl-record 90 punt return yards and 154 kickoff return yards with one . 46. In the famous UCLA game, on his first punt return, he made about four or five moves in a five-yard area before finding daylight. Build your own custom leaderboards with Stathead Football. He left Oklahoma as the school's career leader in punt return yards and tied Wes Welker and Ted Ginn Jr. for the FBS career record with eight total kick return touchdowns. All NFL TeamsNFL All NFL TeamsNFL Ten players have done that in NFL history. Ismails first touchdown return against Michigan was the first kickoff returned for a touchdown against the Wolverines since 1957 over 30 years before Rockets epic launch. Contact Dave Birkett atdbirkett@freepress.com. Andy Wittry has written for Stadium, SI.com, Sporting News, the Indianapolis Star, Louisville Courier-Journal and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. If you feel like you're losing control over your gambling experience, call 1-800-GAMBLER (NJ, PA, WV), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-888- 532-3500(Virginia) 1-800-522-4700 (NV, TN), 1-800-522-4700 (CO, TN), 1-855-2CALLGA (IL), 1-800-270-7117 (MI). You can't knock Schiano for wanting to make the game safer. Every Sports Reference Social Media Account, Site Last Updated: Saturday, March 4, 6:41AM. During his freshman and sophomore seasons, Jones-Drew averaged over 26 yards per kickoff return, and by the time he went pro, he had scored seven return touchdowns. Oklahoma freshman Samaje Perine eclipsed the total the following week after the Kansas Jayhawks forgot how to tackle, carrying the pill 27 times for a new NCAA-record 427 yards. It was potentially a perfect storm of a conference (Big 12) and its offensive philosophy (the air raid and spread offenses), a startling lack of defense (each team finished with 854 yards of offense) and two special quarterbacks. It shouldn't include Jalen Ramsey. All rights reserved. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. It's impossible for someone to break Nevada punter Pat Brady's 99-yard punt without having a touchback, and similarly, no player will ever top the record of a 100-yard return of an extra-point attempt, which is held by eight different players. 5. Washington took the kick from one yard inside the endzone and proceeded to juke his way past the front line of the Chargers special teams unit. You want to see over 100,000 people afraid to move? As a senior, Keenum was spectacular, throwing 48 touchdowns passes to just five interceptions a ratio of nearly 10:1. I sat in awe, refreshing ESPN.coms GameTracker last season after every carry from Melvin Gordon, waiting on Wisconsins star running back to surpass the 400-yard barrier and inch closer to Ladainian Tomlinsons all-time mark. The Irish victory at Michigan in front of over 105,000 fans made Norte Dame the first school to defeat Michigan head coach Bo Schembechler in three straight seasons. The option to go for it would replace the onside kickoff. After receiving the pooch kick at their own 25-yard line, Miami started lateraling the ball to keep it alive, eventually getting all the way back to their own 3-yard line before making their way upfield again. By any measure, it was a near-perfect performance and the one incompletion was a dropped pass. For those that don't know, a kick return touchdown is when the kickoff retu. In the 2020 season, Wisconsin quarterback Graham Mertz completed his first 17 pass attempts in the Badgers' season-opener against Illinois as he finished 20-for-21 passing for 248 yards and five touchdowns. Fipp said it sometimes makes more sense to use a complmentary player in a return role so they can devote more energy to the craft, and he cited former NFL receiver DeSean Jackson, who he coached with the Philadelphia Eagles, as an example. O.J . Heisman Trophy Winners: D. Henry, B. Sanders, . That same power, speed and aggressive running style that has made him a superstar every-down back in the NFL made him a lethal returner for UCLA. Who holds it: David Klingler, Houston, 1991 Perkins wasn't ridiculously fast, but he mastered the art of being elusive in tight spaces. Roos and Stewart were bookend tackles throughout their career, and it's not often a team finds a pair of starting offensive tackles in the same draft. Weaving through traffic and toeing the sidelines in ways that would make Kyle Busch and Cris Carter smile, Javier showed anybody who watched him serve four years ('06-09) as Alabama's home run threat that he is more than just Gilbert Arenas' little cousin.