Ismail said his job was to find a crease, run through it, and make somebody miss. Hester had himself quite the day against the St. Louis Rams back in 2006, returning two kicks for touchdowns in the game. One of his players, Eric LeGrand, remains paralyzed from the neck down today due to an injury suffered on a kickoff last October. Heisman Trophy, Walter Camp Award, Doak Walker Award, AP and Sporting News Player of the Year. Howard, the 1991 Heisman trophy winner, is the only return man to win the Super Bowl MVP. The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NCAA or its member institutions. And before Hester made his name in the biggest game by returning the opening kickoff for a TD in Super Bowl XLI, he showed similarly great timing in college. Lions coach Dan Campbell said he planned to use Williams as a gunner on punt team in his first NFL game, but the Lions never got the opportunity as the Jacksonville Jaguars failed to force a punt. Spiller racked up 2,052 yards and seven touchdowns (an FBS record) on kickoff returns and added 569 yards and a score on punt returns for good measure. All NFL Teams. After a punt from the New Orleans Saints landed into the endzone, it appeared that the ball was going to bounce out of bounds, causing a touchback to the 20-yard linebut it didnt. His 27.6 yards per kickoff and 13.6 yards per punt-return averages were solid but not eye-popping. "Hes done it. Build your own custom leaderboards with Stathead Football, Frequently Asked Questions about the NFL and Football, Pro-Football-Reference.com Blog and Articles, Subscribe to Stathead Football: Get your first month FREE. Who holds it: Case Keenum, Houston, 2007-11 Like, he wants to do everything. All NFL TeamsNFL All NFL TeamsNFL And its like, 'Well, yeah, thats good, but what happens when the balls punted to that side of the field, we thought it was going to be over (on the other) side of the field and hes like, 'Oh, (expletive), I got to go over there.' 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. Devin Hester (Miami) 11 of 15 Jamie. Statistics are current through the 2022 NFL season and include stats accrued in NFL, AFL and APFA games. Return to Top; Players. It is the most violent, video-friendly, terrifying, electrifying, dangerous and dramatic play in football. ruled that the play should have been blown dead. Jackson is a pending free agent, while Raymond is coming off the best season of his career. Feel free to disagree because that's part of what this is about. Join our linker program. Why its untouchable: Coached by the legendary Bud Wilkinson, the Sooners won two national championships during their record-setting stretch in the mid 1950s. Why its untouchable: Could it be more obvious? The following is a list of the NFL career punt return leaders ranked by punt return 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. 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. 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. And his most memorable returna 91-yard dash with one minute left in the 1991 Orange Bowl that (would have) dashed Colorado's national championshipdidn't even count due to a clipping penalty. 3 running back Justin Jackson as their top kick returner last season. Greg Arias covers the Tennessee Titans for All Titans.com on Sports Illustrated/FanNation. As a matter of policy, Sports Reference only reports the results of games as played on the field. Some records are meant to be broken. All logos are the trademark & property of their owners and not Sports Reference LLC. Not that the Red Raiders' notoriously potent offense needed help putting points on the board, but Welker was an extra threat to score any time he fielded a kick. Hall was fasthe once recorded a 40-yard dash time of 4.29 secondsand his slender frame at 58, 187 pounds made it easy for him to slip around tacklers. The Lions used backup receiver Kalif Raymond as their primary punt returner and No. NFL Kick Returns for Touchdown Single Game Leaders All-Time Kick Returns for Touchdown Leaders Build your own custom leaderboards with Stathead Football. Welker scored eight touchdowns on punt returns in his career ('00-03), tying the FBS record. Watch our How-To Videos to Become a Stathead, Subscribe to Stathead and get access to more data than you can imagine. Have we mentioned this guys pretty good at returning kicks? 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. NFL Career Leaders - Punt Return Touchdowns. The longtime Chicago Bears return man forced teams to think hard about kicking him the ballhis electrifying speed and agility made him arguably the best kick returner of all time. Copyright 2000-2023 Sports Reference LLC. Most games scoring a touchdown, career. You should have watched the Ohio Stadium crowd any time Ted Ginn Jr. went back to field a kick. 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. 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. It's almost unfathomable to see a stat line of 12 receptions, 326 yards, 27.2 yards per reception andzero touchdowns. You can't knock Schiano for wanting to make the game safer. Record: Four gamesRecord-holder: Barry Sanders, Oklahoma StateSeason: 1988. was better than Barry when it came to returning kicks. The touchdown also helped Hester set an NFL record for the most return touchdowns by a player in a single season. Again, that's with Kmic playing in 3 more games. Gordons incredible 408-yard performance through three quarters, no less against Nebraska was short-lived. Raghib Rocket Ismail from Notre Dame returned two kickoffs for touchdowns in a 1988 game against Rice. Enter your information to receive emails about offers, promotions from NCAA.com and our partners. 44 touchdowns are tied with Kmic for the most ever and ahead of anyone else in NCAA history. Thomas is a member of both the College Football and NFL Hall of Fame. 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. That season, he averaged 19.8 yards per kickoff return and scored three TDs on punt returns. All rights reserved. + Indicates Hall of Famer, season age in parentheses, Every Sports Reference Social Media Account, Site Last Updated: Friday, March 3, 2:32PM. Four games. 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. None of the members of this class will ever hear their names called in Canton, but as a group, and what they provided for the Titans, even though small in some cases, was a solid class top to bottom that played some excellent football and were part of some good, but not great Titans teams. Kick return touchdown in the Super Bowldoes it get any more exciting than that? Use without license or authorization is expressly prohibited. As a freshman in just his second game for the Hurricanes, against rival Florida, Hester took the opening kickoff 98 yards to the house. Adams took one step back after receiving the kick and seemingly had nowhere to go as he got close to the right sidelinethree Tennessee tacklers got right in his facebut instead of giving up, he changed direction and ran backwards (something coaches say never to do on punt returns). In this post, we talk about kickoff returns for touchdowns. Use without license or authorization is expressly prohibited. Twenty-five players in college football history have run two kickoffs back for touchdowns in the same game. 4-ranked Auburn Tigers (10-1, 6-1 in the SEC). Hester may not be the fastest person to ever play football, but I don't think I've seen anybody run faster on a football field. That's roughly what Nevada's Alex Van Dyke averaged during his two-year career Nevada. Keenum was granted a medical hardship in 2010 after tearing a knee ligament, but his five touchdowns over three games prior to injury count. Of course, some records are literally unbreakable. 1977 1976 1947 NFL Punt Returns for Touchdown Single Game Leaders All-Time Punt Returns for Touchdown Leaders Players must meet the minimum requirements to show up on this leaderboard. Some school's results have been altered by retroactive NCAA penalties. Build your own custom leaderboards with Stathead Football. "It's hard to ask a guy to do all those things at a really high level, and people dont realize that," Fipp said. Statistics are current through the 2022 NFL season and include stats accrued in NFL, AFL and APFA games. Those gargantuan numbers would only be approached within a pass-happy offense with literally two or fewer reliable targets. (Jones-Drew's 91-yard kickoff return TD in that same game was understandably overshadowed.). Brian Mitchell, the three-time All-Pro who, interestingly enough, never once returned a punt or kickoff in college. We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. As a junior in 2005, Jones-Drew set the FBS single-season markby averaging 28.5 yards per punt return. Im going to go track that thing down. 2022 The Game Before the Money All Rights Reserved. Find out more. But wiping out the kickoff? Or write about sports? 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. We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. 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. Active players are listed in bold. 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. I want to be the punt returner, too. The score set records for the longest kickoff return and longest play in Super Bowl history. Before Hester was torching NFL special teams units in the pros, he was making complete fools of his fellow college players while playing at the University of Miami. It's also worth noting that numerous Nevada players from the 1990s and early 2000s hold FBS passing and receiving records, so Van Dyke's record might be a case of the right player in the right system in the right era, which is why it may never be topped. One of the college football's best receivers in 2021, Williams. Build your own custom leaderboards with Stathead Football. 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. College Football at Sports-Reference.com Blog and Articles; We're Social.for Statheads . Start the video below at 1:11 for the amazing return. In 2010, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. 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. Every Sports Reference Social Media Account, Site Last Updated: Saturday, March 4, 6:41AM. We're going to double dip with Barry Sanders but this time it's a family affair. "White Lightning" was another dual-sport football/track star who finished his Iowa career ('94-97) as the Big Ten's all-time leader in punt-return yardage and touchdowns. Some school's results have been altered by retroactive NCAA penalties. Schiano referenced a statistic that more than 15 percent of the catastrophic injuries suffered on the football field happen on kickoffs, even though there are only a handful of kickoffs per game. Do you have a sports website? One college player tops everybody in this category because he returned two kickoffs for touchdowns twice! Active players are listed in bold. Ten players have done that in NFL history. The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. It takes speed to return kicks well, but it also takes field vision, anticipation, agility, and some video game-like juke moves. On one September day in 2003, Perkins tortured the Bruins for 277 yards on seven punt returns, scoring touchdowns from65, 74 and 84 yards out. Find out more. The football gods skipped over this game pitting the nations best team against a small college from Tennessee at legendary Grant Field and let the bloodletting continue for four horrific quarters. And that really wasn't even his best year as a kick-returner. Both of Ismails kickoffs returned for touchdowns were in the second half, the first coming on the second-half kickoff. 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. Record: 1,383 passing yardsRecord-holder: Patrick Mahomes, Texas Tech (819 yards) and Baker Mayfield, Oklahoma (564 yards)Season: 2016. 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. Why its untouchable: College footballs Heisman winner in 1999, Dayne topped 2,000 yards for the second time in his Big Ten career to finish with an incredible NCAA-record 7,125 yards on the ground on a record-breaking 1,220 carries. Beforehis breakout Heisman season (1988), Barry played backup to Thurman Thomas and made his mark on special teams. The notion of putting up "video-game numbers" can be overstated at times, but a stat line like that to start a game is something you're far more likely to find in an arcade or a friend's basement than on the gridiron in an actual FBS game. Learn how your comment data is processed. Build your own custom leaderboards with Stathead Football. 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). And unfortunately, its days may be numbered. If you don't, then you punt the ball. Record: Six passesRecord-holder: Brooks Dawson, UTEPSeason: 1967. Do you have a sports website? 5th down. Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. It would take a dynamic talent like Randy Moss, who was interested in playing four seasons, to come close. Attaboy, Leach. Hall started running backwards and crossed to the other side of the field, outrunning the entire Broncos unit before heading into the endzone untouched. By any measure, it was a near-perfect performance and the one incompletion was a dropped pass. The Human Joystick made video-game like moves on the field and one of his most impressive returns came against the Denver Broncos in 2003the same season in which he set a record by returning a kickoff or a punt for a touchdown four games in a row. In order for this record to be topped, it would take a pair of quarterbacks likely future NFL starters to average roughly 700 passing yards apiece. Here are 10 current college football records one man at SDS has deemed unbreakable: Who holds it: Oklahoma, from 1953-57 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. 'Be a gunner? So its always an accountability factor on both sides, but we expect big things from him.". Lions' brass has a plan. Davis' record stretched across back-to-back games against Memphis and Navy (he completed his first 26 attempts against the Midshipmen), and given the number of passes Davis completed in a row, it would likely force a potential record-breaker to complete 37 or more passes against two different opponents, which means two different schemes and opposing rosters to diagnose and dominate. Officially, Arizona States Terrell Suggs holds the NCAAs single-season record with 24 sacks in 2002. Who holds it: Trevor Insley, 1996-99 The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. Elite running backs rarely play four seasons in todays game where the shelf life for ballcarriers has diminished and players arent often asked to carry it 30 times-plus every Saturday to save tread. All rights reserved. Subscribe to Stathead Football: Get your first month FREEYour All-Access Ticket to the Pro Football Reference Database. CLICK HERE, Ranking Titans All-Time Draft Classes, No.4: "It's time for The Freak." The return marked the longest punt return touchdown in NFL history. Andy Wittry has written for Stadium, SI.com, Sporting News, the Indianapolis Star, Louisville Courier-Journal and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He still showed game-breaking ability at times last season but had two punt return touchdowns wiped out due to penalties while averaging 8.8 yards on 13 attempts with a long of 19. Join our linker program. Who holds it: Ron Dayne, Wisconsin, 1996-99 Dwight's style wasn't gracefulhe was reminiscent of one of those old NFL Films segments starring Crazy Legs Hirschbut he got where he needed to go in a hurry. Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson said Williams is on par with Cleveland Browns receiver Jakeem Grant as the fastest player he's ever coached. Lions special teams coordinator Dave Fipp embraced the idea of incorporating Williams into a return role next season, when the team expects him fully healthy after missing most of last season while rehabbing from a torn ACL. most games with two kickoff returns for touchdowns, A Brief History of The 1970s Pittsburgh Steelers vs Houston Oilers Rivalry. SHAWN WINDSOR:Lions' brass has a plan. Stats: 2,854 passing yards, 30 passing touchdowns, 1,473 rushing yards, 20 rushing touchdowns, 42 receiving yards, receiving touchdown Newton got his one SEC chance after his troubled time. Who holds it: Connor Halliday, Washington State, 2014 Watch our How-To Videos to Become a Stathead, Subscribe to Stathead and get access to more data than you can imagine. 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. We present them here for purely educational purposes. 2023 NCAA | Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. College football bold predictions with B/R's Adam Kramer, FBS records and milestones that could be broken and reached this season, 5 predictions for the 2021 college football season, College football's longest active road winning streaks, Georgia wins the 2023 CFP National Championship, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. A compilation of every kick return touchdown of the 2020 college football season. From there it was a track meetand no one could catch Jones. Offenses rarely get six possessions in a quarter, much less time to throw it to the end zone six different times. He is a former college linebacker, a longtime coach and a parent. Why its untouchable: Youve got to feel for Reaves, the Gators errant passer who tossed nine completions to the opposing defense at Auburn in 1969. Watch our How-To Videos to Become a Stathead, Subscribe to Stathead and get access to more data than you can imagine. No. After the game, Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz told reporters he simply told Ismail to run to middle. He is a graduate of Indiana University. 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. ROAD WARRIORS: College football's longest active road winning streaks, Record: 3,690 rushing yardsRecord-holder: Barry Sanders, Oklahoma State and Byron Sanders, NorthwesternSeason: 1988. You could still try to maintain possession of the ball.