AUSTIN, Texas — At the start of preseason camp, Texas Longhorns special teams coordinator Jeff Banks thought that his punt coverage unit would lean towards pressure after focusing on returns last year
with Silas Bolden posing an explosive threat.
Heck, Banks wasn’t even sure who would return punts for him this season as junior running back Quintrevion Wisner, junior wide receiver DeAndre Moore Jr., and redshirt sophomore running back/wide receiver Ryan Niblett battled for the job.
“I like all three of those guys. I like their skill set. I think they’ve all got home-run ability,” Banks said.
Eight games into the season, Niblett hasn’t just earned his role on punt returns, he’s become one of the breakout stars in college football with two touchdown returns in the last three games and two other big returns that set up scores in the overtime win over Kentucky in Lexington. Niblett leads the country with 408 return yards and a 25.5-yard average and is tied for second with those two touchdown returns.
Now the question is, why would teams even kick the ball to Niblett? After all, Mississippi State gave up the game-tying 79-yard touchdown return to Niblett with two minutes remaining in Saturday’s overtime loss.
“It’s easy to say, ‘Don’t punt it to him,‘ right?” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said on Monday.
Yup, coach, sure is.
But, as Sarkisian noted, trying to kick away from Niblett means assuming the risk of a 20-yard punt out of bounds on a poorly-struck ball. Even pinning Niblett against the sideline doesn’t always work, as Oklahoma found out in the Cotton Bowl thanks to some, um, questionable blocks by Texas.
The Texas head coach does believe that opponents are still trying to directional punt against Niblett, although Mississippi State punter Ethan Pulliam bombing the 57-yard punt down the middle of the field that Niblett returned for the touchdown against the Bulldogs seems to some refutation of that point in addition to demonstrating a glaring lack of concern by MSU for out-kicking its coverage.
Nonetheless, Banks is now fully committed to scheming returns for the nation’s leader in punt return yardage.
“We’re trying to be creative in how we’re rushing punters and how we’re blocking people and doing different things, and a credit to Coach Banks with that,” Sarkisian said.
Banks is getting consistently strong execution from his punt return unit, which is rapidly gaining confidence, with big blocks from redshirt senior linebacker Marshall Landwehr, sophomore linebacker Ty’Anthony Smith, and sophomore safety Jordon Johnson-Rubell on Niblett’s touchdown return against Mississippi State.
On the 45-yard return against Kentucky that set up the first Texas touchdown, Johnson-Rubell, oft-penalized junior cornerback Warren Roberson, and sophomore cornerback Kobe Black all made key blocks.
The second explosive return by Niblett in Lexington, a 43-yarder that set up the go-ahead field goal late in regulation, junior safety Jelani McDonald help spring Niblett, who found space behind the usual suspects, Johnson-Rubell and Landwehr.
Notice how Moore and redshirt senior safety Michael Taaffe both peeled out from the line of scrimmage to help block the gunners or anyone else in coverage who got a quick release from the line of scrimmage, one of the schemes by Banks to create seams for Niblett.
Coming on a 4th and 2, the touchdown return against Mississippi State featured a difficult balance to achieve — ensuring that Moore and junior safety Derek Williams were in position to stop a potential fake punt, but not conceding the potential for a return.
Landwehr’s growth into a core special teams contributor is particularly remarkable. The Highland Park product walked on at Texas and didn’t see his first action until his third season with one snap on defense and four snaps on special teams. Last year, however, Landwehr broke through on teams, playing the same number of snaps in that phase as McDonald did with a headline role on kickoff coverage and making four tackles. After earning a scholarship in preseason camp, Landwehr is now a contributor on four special teams units, recording three tackles and making key blocks late in returns.
Like Landwehr, Johnson-Rubell is focusing on special teams in his second season in the Texas program, drawing praise from Sarkisian for a tackle on kickoff coverage against Mississippi State and playing on four special teams units as well in addition to some early-season cameos on the field goal block unit.
Even Roberson has been more consistent since committing two penalties against UTEP after drawing seven flags last year on special teams (two penalties were declined).
“Confidence is a very powerful thing and that group is very confident — not just Ryan, all 11 guys are playing a very confident brand of football, and they’re maximizing their opportunities,” Sarkisian said.
Against Mississippi State, there were only two opportunities for returns on the seven punts by the Bulldogs, a testament to the directional kicking mentioned by the Longhorns head coach, who thought Niblett “might have had a better chance to score on” the first return, a 47-yard punt by Pulliam, also down the middle, that Niblett returned for 16 yards.
“You only had two shots, and one of them he was able to score on,” Sarkisian said. “So I don’t know. Maybe we’ll only get one this weekend. So we’ve got to execute at a high level to try to make it happen.”
