But to do so in just five games is potentially unsustainable, and that's why Sanders' record, amid a season in which he rushed for 2,628 yards in just 11 games (! 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. Why its untouchable: Kevin Sumlins facilitator of the Air Raid during his time in college, Keenum was fearless from the pocket channeled visions of high-powered Cougars offenses of old, slinging it around like record-setting quarterbacks Andre Ware and David Klingler before him. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. Four games. 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. 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. ', "There's just a difference in there, and that difference makes an exponential difference on the field of play with the whole group.". Build your own custom leaderboards with Stathead Football. As a matter of policy, Sports Reference only reports the results of games as played on the field. The Kick Six (also known as Kick Bama Kick) was the final play of the 78th Iron Bowl college football game played on November 30, 2013 at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Alabama.The game featured the No. 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. 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. 3 running back Justin Jackson as their top kick returner last season. He tossed six touchdown passes in the second quarter of a blowout win over Louisiana Tech in 1991. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. Every Sports Reference Social Media Account, Site Last Updated: Saturday, March 4, 6:41AM. We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. 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. 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. Who holds it: Connor Halliday, Washington State, 2014 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. That will never be topped. A compilation of every kick return touchdown of the 2021 college football season. I think it would start the game in similar field position. 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. Record: Six passesRecord-holder: Brooks Dawson, UTEPSeason: 1967. 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. The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. One of the most controversial endings in college football history, Colorado scored a last second touchdown on the last play of the game on mistakenly-given . Logos were compiled by the amazing SportsLogos.net. He'd find the seam, hit the seam and just out-sprint the coverage like they were wearing snow shoes. We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. 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. Down three points with just six seconds left in this ACC matchup against Duke, the Miami Hurricanes were in a desperate positionthey needed to find a way to score a touchdown after a late score by the Blue Devils. The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. This might be the most controversial of all our classes to be No.3, but this class had depth and a star on the field, and a headache off it all rolled into one class. Some records are meant to be broken. Do you have a sports website? All rights reserved. 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. Like, he wants to do everything. Feel free to disagree because that's part of what this is about. One of the college football's best receivers in 2021, Williams tore his ACL in Alabama's national championship game loss to Georgia and played limited snaps in six games with the Lions last season. 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. Howard, the 1991 Heisman trophy winner, is the only return man to win the Super Bowl MVP. 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. Do you have a blog? (Jones-Drew's 91-yard kickoff return TD in that same game was understandably overshadowed.). 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. 'Be a gunner? Find out more. Record: 140.9 yards per gameRecord-holder: Alex Van Dyke, NevadaSeasons: 1994-95. Or write about sports? The option to go for it would replace the onside kickoff. Watching Spiller make defenders look like clowns while flying down the field in Clemson's orange unis, it was easy to recall images of Barry Sanders at Oklahoma State. 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. Active players are listed in bold. Use without license or authorization is expressly prohibited. Statistics are current through the 2022 NFL season and include stats accrued in NFL, AFL and APFA games. Williams missed most of last season due to an ACL injury but is expected to be fully healthy by the start of the next season. Williams returned two kicks for touchdowns in his one season at Alabama, when he averaged 35.2 yards on 10 kick returns. 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. 2022 The Game Before the Money All Rights Reserved. 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. 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. Heisman Trophy Winners: D. Henry, B. Sanders, . These opinions are mine and mine alone. 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. Looking for a great NFL history book? Why its untouchable: Insley, the NCAAs all-time receiving yards leader, managed just 574 yards as a freshman in 1996 before exploding for 4,431 yards and 30 touchdowns over his final three seasons. The touchdown also helped Hester set an NFL record for the most return touchdowns by a player in a single season. Use without license or authorization is expressly prohibited. Missouri. 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. Who holds it: Ron Dayne, Wisconsin, 1996-99 1 on that list? Ben Johnson, Aaron Glenn content even if head coach jobs never materialize, Brad Holmes: 'I don't think the cupboard's bare on defense'. 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. 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. CLICK HERE, Ranking Titans All-Time Draft Classes, No.4: "It's time for The Freak." Attaboy, Leach. 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. Schiano, like anybody who cares about football, cares about the welfare of the players. Heisman Trophy, Walter Camp Award, Doak Walker Award, AP and Sporting News Player of the Year. All logos are the trademark & property of their owners and not Sports Reference LLC. By any measure, it was a near-perfect performance and the one incompletion was a dropped pass. The record? His 27.6 yards per kickoff and 13.6 yards per punt-return averages were solid but not eye-popping. Every Sports Reference Social Media Account, Site Last Updated: Saturday, March 4, 6:41AM. Listen to The Game Before the Money Podcast! He finished his college career ('03-05)averaging 25.5 yards per kickoff return and 15.6 per punt return, with six return touchdowns. Record: 326 yardsRecord-holder: Nate Burleson, NevadaSeason: 2001. Good luck figuring out exactly what happened in November 2001 and why. But wiping out the kickoff? He doesn't own any national kick return records, and apparently he only scored six return touchdowns in his college career. This Big 12 shootout, which ended in a 66-59 win for Oklahoma, featured a future NFL MVP and Super Bowl champion(Mahomes) and a future Heisman Trophy winner and No. Well, in this case, its probably a good idea that Jones didnt listen to that advice. But the NCAA told me none of it ever happened, so maybe I was just dreaming. It took about two years of post-Rocket recovery before I realized kick return TDs are actually a rare football gift. 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. 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. NFL Kick Returns for Touchdown Single Game Leaders All-Time Kick Returns for Touchdown Leaders Build your own custom leaderboards with Stathead Football. Record: Four gamesRecord-holder: Barry Sanders, Oklahoma StateSeason: 1988. East Carolina's Bryson Worrell kicked off the first round of the DI baseball tournament with a bang, not once, but twice against Greenville Regional opponent Coppin State. Patterson somehow broke through the throng of tacklers and then it became a track meetand he won. 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. 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. 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. He is a former college linebacker, a longtime coach and a parent. Daynes record is safe. As a junior in '86, Brown averaged 27.9 yards per kickoff return, including two touchdowns and 37.5 yards per punt return. While his special teams coach may have been upset, Cobb rewarded him with a dazzling play, using his 4.46-second 40-yard dash time to blaze by the New Orleans Saints defense. + Indicates Hall of Famer, season age in parentheses, Every Sports Reference Social Media Account, Site Last Updated: Friday, March 3, 2:32PM. Please see our Contributors and Sources page for data source details. Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. Houston quarterback David Klinglers single-game FBS passing record of 716 yards stood for nearly 25 years before Halliday, a lesser-known quarterback and Air Raid product, eclipsed the mark last season. Hall started running backwards and crossed to the other side of the field, outrunning the entire Broncos unit before heading into the endzone untouched. Lions special teams coordinator Dave Fipp is open to the idea of incorporating Williams into a return role, and Williams himself has expressed . Recently, Oregon and Baylor have each topped the 700-yard mark with their no-huddle attacks, but hitting quadruple digits in a single game just seems unfathomable. It was reported that Georgia Tech coach John Heisman didnt let up after Cumberland Gap had beaten the Yellow Jackets in baseball, 22-0, earlier that year. He ran for 92 yards on the second touchdown. Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? Watch Newton go 49 yards against the LSU defense. Miami kick returner Jakeem Grant, in his fourth NFL season, had a 101-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in Week 11, his second career kick-return touchdown of at least . 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. Do you have a sports website? Do you have a blog? The return marked the longest punt return touchdown in NFL history. CLICK HERE````````````````````````, Titans Looking To Evolve Analytically: Changes in how the Titans view things are coming. 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. Making the play even more amazing: The Saints basically had Cobb wrapped up, but he was able to spin out, flipping nearly upside downbreaking multiple tackles along the way to the Packers win in his first-ever NFL game. Use without license or authorization is expressly prohibited. Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? Javier owns the SEC career record with seven punt-return touchdowns, averaging 14.0 yards per punt return and 24.1 yards per kickoff return. I expected him to score every time he touched the ball. One college player tops everybody in this category because he returned two kickoffs for touchdowns twice! We do not target any individuals under the age of 21. Officially, Arizona States Terrell Suggs holds the NCAAs single-season record with 24 sacks in 2002. Who holds it: Trevor Insley, 1996-99 You should have watched the Ohio Stadium crowd any time Ted Ginn Jr. went back to field a kick. It would take a dynamic talent like Randy Moss, who was interested in playing four seasons, to come close. SEC Women's Basketball Tournament action suspended due to weather delay, Alabama basketball adds commitment from 4-star forward, 2 SEC players named to late-season watch list for Oscar Robertson Player of the Year Trophy, Bruce Pearl tosses headset during radio interview after Auburn-Alabama game, Overrated? Of course, some records are literally unbreakable. Copyright 2000-2023 Sports Reference LLC. Division III Mount Union's Nate Kmic had 2,790 in 15 games in 2008, compared to Sanders' 12. Learn how your comment data is processed. Who holds it: Houston offense led by QB Andre Ware in 1990 See our list of forfeits and vacated games for more details. Do you have a sports website? 1990. I watched him do things in a USC uniform that Marcus Allen, O.J. It'd be like turning a demolition crew on the Apollo Theater. 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. We present them here for purely educational purposes. Twenty-five players in college football history have run two kickoffs back for touchdowns in the same game. 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. But we're putting these types of records off to the side, because they're unbreakable based on the size of the playing field and the rules of the game. 1 spot on this list? The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NCAA or its member institutions. Al Diaz/Miami Herald/TNS. Copyright 2000-2023 Sports Reference LLC. College Football at Sports-Reference.com Blog and Articles. So, Sanders' Heisman-winning season in '88 when he ran for 332 yards against Texas Tech, 320 yards against Kansas State, 312 yards against Kansas and 304 yards against Tulsa hasn't been matched by any other running back in their career, let alone a single season. One of the college football's best receivers in 2021, Williams. 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. In an interview with an Atlanta radio station. Lions' brass has a plan. As a freshman in just his second game for the Hurricanes, against rival Florida, Hester took the opening kickoff 98 yards to the house. That dipped last season with 13 returns for 270 yards and 20.8 yards. Over the past eight months, Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano has become the public face of a movement to eliminate the kickoff from college football. 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. He made everybody miss twice against Michigan. "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. In 1997 he totaled a Super Bowl-record 90 punt return yards and 154 kickoff return yards with one . You can't knock Schiano for wanting to make the game safer. In fact, he only scored two touchdowns in 2001, despite finishing the season with 53 receptions and 737 receiving yards. So well just see how it goes.". "I dont totally know the answer to it, only because he is just kind of coming back," Fipp said when asked if he's open to using Williams as a kick returner in 2023. As a senior, Keenum was spectacular, throwing 48 touchdowns passes to just five interceptions a ratio of nearly 10:1. "Hes done it. It is the most violent, video-friendly, terrifying, electrifying, dangerous and dramatic play in football. Jameis Winston led Florida State to 29 consecutive victories during his tenure, an impressive streak snapped in violent fashion by Oregon in last years first College Football Playoff semifinal at the Rose Bowl. The Detroit Lions are reportedly considering using wide receiver Jameson Williams as a returner for the 2023 NFL season. Perkins wasn't ridiculously fast, but he mastered the art of being elusive in tight spaces. 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. The team that would now be kicking off would have the option: They could punt the ball or they could go for it. Duke fans and players were absolutely stunned, and while after the fact it was ruled that the play should have been blown dead about 12 timesthe result stood. There have been 43 kickoffs returned for a touchdown since Patterson was drafted in 2013. Most rushing touchdowns, game [ edit] FBS: 8 - Howard Griffith, Illinois, 1990; Kalen Ballage, Arizona State, 2016; Jaret Patterson, Buffalo, 2020 FCS: 7 - Archie Amerson, Northern Arizona, 1996 Div II: 8 - Junior Wolf, Oklahoma Panhandle State, 1958 Div III: 8 - Donavan Henderson, Manchester, 2019; Carey Bender, Coe, 1994 Insane. Im going to go track that thing down. Check out The Game Before the Money: Voices of the Men Who Built the NFL available at Amazon.comBarnes and NobleUniversity of Nebraska Press. It takes speed to return kicks well, but it also takes field vision, anticipation, agility, and some video game-like juke moves. UTEP has been on the wrong end of several FBS records former Houston quarterback Case Keenum holds the record for the most career passing yards gained against one opponent (1,882 yards against UTEP) and former TCU running back LaDainian Tomlinson has the record for career rushing yards against one opponent (788 yards against UTEP) but the Miners are also in the FBS record book for positive reasons, too. NFL Kick Returns for Touchdown Single-Season Leaders | Pro-Football-Reference.com 1. Williams returned two kicks for touchdowns in his one season at Alabama, when he averaged 35.2 yards on 10 kick returns. He has been covering the NFL for various outlets since 2000. Why its untouchable: Klingler set several single-game and career passing records during his time at Houston (that were later broken), but this one could be his most notable. 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. That's why Dominique Davis' record for consecutive completions in a season is unbreakable, even as passing efficiency in college football has improved over the course of the last decade. It shouldn't include Jalen Ramsey. Could Top QB Fall To The Titans? The Game Before the Money Radio Showshared outstanding college football records. It was a challenging discussion, but in the end, the Titans 2005 class grabbed this position despite some of the antics of their first-round pick, Adam "Pacman" Jones. Some school's results have been altered by retroactive NCAA penalties. There have been some amazing kick and punt returns in football over the years, here are the best of the best. Kickoff Return Touchdowns Career Leaders and Records | College Football at Sports-Reference.com Kickoff Return Touchdowns Career Leaders and Records An asterisk (*) after a player's name indicates bowl stats are included. Do you have a blog? Thomas is a member of both the College Football and NFL Hall of Fame. 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. Kick return touchdown in the Super Bowldoes it get any more exciting than that? Punts are a much, much less physical play.". Who holds it: No. The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. A compilation of every kick return touchdown of the 2020 college football season. 44 touchdowns are tied with Kmic for the most ever and ahead of anyone else in NCAA history. Join our linker program. Do you have a sports website? Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. The raw video game-like numbers nearly 20,000 yards passing and 155 touchdowns jump off the page. Some might argue how much of a hit Jones really was, but he produced on the field, and if he had spent his off-field time as efficiently, who knows where he might rank with the all-time greats of the game. 2,850 rushing yards is more than anyone's ever gained at any level of college or pro 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. All rights reserved. As a senior in 1997, Rossum finished fourth nationally in kickoff-return average; as a junior he led the country in punt-return average. Watch our How-To Videos to Become a Stathead, Subscribe to Stathead and get access to more data than you can imagine. Consider what we've seen from the most electrifying kick-returners to mark the college football landscape over the past quarter-century. Ismail could dance away from contact when he had to, and he had the strength to break tackles, but his style was more like Eric Dickerson. Welker scored eight touchdowns on punt returns in his career ('00-03), tying the FBS record. As a West Coast resident and Pac-10 fan, I watched Reggie Bush do some incredible things. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Twenty-six players have one, five players have two, and Patterson has seven, a total that accounts for. But others, at least on the surface, appear untouchable. Still, he has breakaway. Leaders Since 1976 Share & Export Find out more. Cooper wouldve had to post last seasons jaw-dropping numbers three consecutive seasons to pass Insley. So why is "Rocket" holding down the No. As a receiver, Williams caught one pass for a 41-yard touchdown last season, had three drops on nine targets and had one carry for 40 yards. But scan through the FBS record book and you'll find other records in the highest level of college football that are likely so untouchable either due to rule changes and the evolution of the game, or due to a flash of brilliance (or the opposite of brilliance) that we think they'll stand in the history books forever. 20 college football teams we aren't sold on in 2023, SEC Basketball Power Rankings: Mizzou shocks Tennessee, Alabama downs Auburn and more, SEC Basketball Power Rankings: Alabama stays unbeaten in SEC play, Tennessee outlasts Auburn and more, SEC Basketball Power Rankings: A new top team emerges, Alabama loses in blowout fashion, Mizzou lights it up again. 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. All logos are the trademark & property of their owners and not Sports Reference LLC. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. Not only did Sanders win the Heisman in the 1988 season with his all-time great junior campaign 2,628 rushing yards, 7.6 yards per carry, 37 rushing touchdowns, one punt return touchdown and one kick return touchdown but his brother, Byron, also turned in a 1,000-yard season with Northwestern the fall of '88. Some school's results have been altered by retroactive NCAA penalties. Keenum was granted a medical hardship in 2010 after tearing a knee ligament, but his five touchdowns over three games prior to injury count.