USD Football 1992

SEEKING A FAVORABLE RETURN The ability of teams to score on punt BY RON REID

returns is a point of, and something that can keep teams in, contentio~-

College football may be the ultimate team sport, demanding individual sacrifice for the greater good at almost every level, but it also offers one glorious window of opportunity for showcasing individual brilliance. Fans can look into it on any autumn Saturday, during those thrilling occasions when the football travels its hyperbolic path into the hands of the punt return specialist- as prelude to a spec– tacular run, a horrible mistake or something in between. Whatever the case, a major change in field position invariably rides on a punt return, along with the prospect of the most emo– tional mood swing, for better or worse, that any team may ever remember. Consider last season, when Ohio State went into its traditional rivalry with Michigan fervently intent on keeping the ball away from Desmond Howard, the Wolverines' all-purpose scoring machine who went on to win the 1991 Heisman Trophy. Thrashing the Buckeyes' game plan, Howard scored what may have been the most memorable touchdown of his storied career on a 93-yard punt return, the longest in Wolverines' history, as Michigan clinched the Big 10 championship with a 31-3 victory. The record came after Howard caught a 41-yard punt, split two tacklers at the I0-yard line, and broke a tackle at the 18. Moving to the Ohio State sideline, Howard picked up a block at the 30, and went the rest of the way unhassled. "You need a guy "We intended to punt the ball out of bounds all day," Ohio State Coach John Cooper said later. "Now you can see why. That punt return was the play that really broke our backs. Desmond Howard is a phenomenal athlete."

with the same mentality as a receiver who goes across the middle."

Phenomenal seems to be the first of several requisites for a punt returner, whose specialized calling is at once daring and disciplined, courageous and careful and hardly unencumbered by tension. Don James, the head coach of the

Don James

national champion Washington Huskies, called the punt returner, "One of the most overexposed positions in football. You need a guy with the same mentality as a receiver who goes across the middle." Dave Arnold, the special teams coach of the national champion Ron Reid has covered collegefootball and a variety ofother spons for the Philadelphia Inquirerfor the past /0 years. He has also writ– ten for the San Mateo (Calif.) Times and Sports Illustrated He is currently president ofthe Track and Field Writers ofAmerica.

The most recent of celebrated returnmen, Michigan's Desmond Howard exhibited all the skills needed for greatness.

TOUCHDOWN ILLUSTRATED