Field the ball or hope it bounces into the end zone. Fair catch the ball or try to run for a return. So much to think about, so little time.
Welcome to the mind of a punt returner, where the outcome of countless split-second decisions leads to teams winning or losing the field position battle.
For the No. 2 Michigan football team, two players have been rotating to share the high-stakes role this season: wide receivers senior Jake Thaw and sophomore Tyler Morris. Neither have been perfect, with the returning unit ranking seventh in returning yards in the Big Ten. Thaw has made a couple blunders that pinned the Wolverines deep, and Morris has yet to consistently break out big returns to boost the average. But to even earn the right to stand back there and return punts, they both have to display an instinct that goes beyond coaching.
“I’ll be honest, you either have a knack for being able to do it or you don’t,” linebackers and special teams coach Chris Partridge said Wednesday. “It’s really hard to get somebody and teach them and develop them when they just don’t have a knack for it. … There’s a lot that goes into it, so those guys that are back there, it’s truly one of the hardest things to do, so you have to have a true respect for them.”
Having a knack for returning punts is hard to quantify, but easy to see. It’s in the improvising, the juking and even the last-second decision to wave a hand up for a fair catch that shows just who has it and who doesn’t.
While Michigan’s punt return hasn’t popped off the page by any means, Morris has started showing real signs of the hard-to-teach punt returning that separates good units from great ones. It all comes down to feeling out the specific situation and then making those quick decisions, one-by-one.
Late in the second quarter against Indiana, the Hoosiers sent a punt Morris’ way around the sideline of the Wolverines’ 40-yard line, and he ended up making three key decisions.
Decision one: figure out how to field the ball. Will the short kick go out of bounds, will Indiana harmlessly down it — all yet to be known at that point. But Morris couldn’t get under the ball and it bounced over his head, spiraling deeper into Michigan’s territory. Decision two: Improvise. Don’t give up more field position. Run back, catch it over the head and try to play it out. But after going back to field the ball, he was running in the wrong direction as the Hoosiers closed in.
That led to decision three: get creative.
Instead of trying to knife it right up field, he took a slight risk. He continued running the wrong way momentarily before stopping on a dime, faking to his right then running straight to split two defenders. From there, he turned on the jets, shifting his away around hosts of Hoosiers for an electrifying 27-yard return.
Decision after decision after decision. If you have the instincts for it as a punt returner, you can make the right ones quickly, keeping game-shifting errors at bay and producing big-play potential.
It also keeps decision makers like Morris away from second guessing themselves.
“I feel like I’m definitely getting more comfortable,” Morris said Tuesday. “Just as time goes on and (I’m) getting more reps, I’m definitely feeling better about (punt returning). … You are (looking at the coverage), but at the same time you got to watch the ball. So it’s difficult, it’s hard to do, but with more reps at practice it gets easier every time.”
No matter how easy it gets, or how effortless the best returners make it look, nothing about returning punts is easy. Offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore played offensive line in college and never got a taste of punt returns outside of “in the backyard,” but from his vantage point, it’s clear what makes returning punts so hard.
“You’re sitting back there, you don’t know where any defenders are, and you got to catch the ball and then run full speed or make a decision,” Moore said. “… It takes a special dude back there that’s fearless to do that.”
Quick decisions, fearlessness and ample speed. It’s hard to find the complete package, and the Wolverines are still looking for that consistently as they search for improved returning yards. But Partridge believes Michigan is “ready to explode” on the returning unit as it continues honing in on the craft and getting its group comfortable.
In order to explode, lots of tough decisions have to be made quickly and accurately. If that happens, it leaves one last decision for the returner: Which touchdown dance to bust out.