2019 College Kickoff Touchback Percentage Leaders

The share of a kickoff specialist's kickoffs that were touchbacks. High means power; whether it is good depends on the rules and the coach's plan.

More is better under this season's rules: a touchback ends the play with no return. Only specialists with enough kickoffs are ranked. In 2019, Tucker McCann (91%) led college football kickoff specialists in kickoff touchback percentage, ahead of JJ Molson (87%) and Avery Atkins (86%). 128 kickoff specialists qualify (minimum 30 kickoffs). The median qualified kickoff specialist had 49%.

College rule: a kickoff touchback, or a fair catch inside the 25, starts the receiving team at its 25, so a touchback is a good result for the kicking team. Kickoff Points Added accounts for the rule, so it is the fair way to compare kickoff specialists across leagues and seasons.

Final 2019 regular-season numbers, updated October 23, 2026.

Rk	Player	Team	TB%	Kickoffs	Avg dist	Returns	Points
1	Tucker McCann	Missouri	91%	64	64.6	6	+4.2
2	JJ Molson	UCLA	87%	60	65.0	8	+5.7
3	Avery Atkins	LSU	86%	112	63.9	14	+8.7
4	Jordan Stout	Penn State	81%	73	63.6	13	+9.3
5	B.T. Potter	Clemson	80%	87	64.6	14	+13.4
6	Zach Hintze	Wisconsin	80%	83	64.4	17	+16.7
7	Lucas Havrisik	Arizona	79%	61	62.0	13	−4.3
8	Rodrigo Blankenship	Georgia	78%	79	63.7	13	+9.8
9	Tyler Bass	Georgia Southern	78%	67	62.1	15	+0.5
10	Will Reichard	Alabama	77%	30	63.2	7	+1.4
11	Matt Araiza	San Diego State	75%	56	60.0	14	+5.9
12	Jake Moody	Michigan	73%	71	62.1	19	+6.5
13	Paxton Brooks	Tennessee	73%	59	63.5	15	+10.9
14	Joseph Bulovas	Alabama	72%	71	58.9	18	+9.1
15	Nick Vogel	UAB	71%	65	63.8	19	+4.8
16	Sam Sloman	Miami (OH)	70%	71	63.4	21	+5.0
17	Parker Grothaus	Florida State	70%	57	63.4	17	+2.4
18	Grant McKinniss	Kentucky	70%	60	62.6	18	+10.2
19	James McCourt	Illinois	69%	62	63.8	19	+10.6
20	John Parker Romo	Virginia Tech	69%	39	64.4	12	+8.5
21	Evan McPherson	Florida	69%	71	63.1	22	+8.1
22	Cameron Dicker	Texas	68%	69	62.5	22	+9.2
23	J.D. Dellinger	Purdue	68%	59	62.8	19	+0.4
24	Brian Delaney	Virginia	68%	80	62.3	26	+1.7
25	Sterling Hofrichter	Syracuse	67%	63	64.0	21	−0.5
26	Cooper Rothe	Wyoming	67%	60	63.8	20	+7.4
27	Jack Crane	Washington State	66%	85	61.3	29	+1.9
28	Jake Verity	East Carolina	66%	67	63.2	23	−6.8
29	Julian Diaz	Nevada	65%	49	63.9	17	0.0
30	Alex Probert	Liberty	64%	74	62.9	27	+3.8
31	Will Tommie	South Carolina	63%	52	64.2	19	+3.9
32	Joel Velazquez	Boise State	63%	84	62.3	30	+6.1
33	Riley Patterson	Memphis	63%	94	63.8	35	+18.2
34	Braxton Davis	Colorado State	62%	58	60.4	22	+0.7
35	Gabe Brkic	Oklahoma	62%	100	62.3	38	+5.1
36	Braden Mann	Texas A&M	61%	62	64.2	24	+3.5
37	Tim Horn	Washington	60%	73	63.9	29	−19.6
38	Noah Rauschenberg	Baylor	60%	52	63.1	21	+11.7
39	James Stefanou	Colorado	59%	37	62.8	15	+2.7
40	Jose Borregales	Florida International	59%	49	61.4	20	+0.3
41	Anders Carlson	Auburn	59%	73	62.7	27	+1.8
42	Blake Haubeil	Ohio State	58%	105	60.2	44	+5.7
43	Dylan Brown	New Mexico State	58%	50	61.1	21	−0.1
44	Alex Kessman	Pittsburgh	57%	56	63.0	24	+8.4
45	Brandon Wright	Georgia State	56%	66	63.3	29	−3.4
46	Connor Limpert	Arkansas	56%	54	60.0	24	+5.5
47	Daniel Obarski	UCF	55%	87	61.9	35	+3.8
48	Jacob Meeks	UL Monroe	55%	69	63.6	31	+6.1
49	Bubba Baxa	Miami	55%	64	63.6	29	+2.3
50	Dominik Eberle	Utah State	54%	67	61.3	31	+4.1
51	Donovan Murphree	New Mexico	54%	54	60.9	25	−0.9
52	Evan Staley	West Virginia	53%	32	60.5	14	+0.4
53	Cory Munson	Western Kentucky	53%	59	62.3	28	+11.0
54	Andrew Strauch	Utah	52%	82	62.3	39	+10.2
55	Ryan Meskell	Hawai'i	52%	84	63.6	40	+0.6
56	Trey Wolff	Texas Tech	51%	70	62.0	34	0.0
57	Jake McClure	Oklahoma State	51%	72	62.7	34	+11.3
58	Gavin Baechle	UTEP	51%	43	59.7	21	−10.3
59	Justin Rohrwasser	Marshall	51%	57	62.6	28	−13.6
60	Jonathan Doerer	Notre Dame	51%	79	61.8	37	+10.5
61	Merek Glover	Tulane	50%	62	61.0	31	−1.1
62	Thomas Cluckey	Toledo	50%	62	62.8	31	+3.3
63	Trenton Gill	NC State	50%	58	62.7	28	+1.1
64	Kenneth Almendares	Louisiana	49%	89	61.8	45	+8.8
65	Jacob LaFree	Temple	49%	61	62.7	31	−0.5
66	Michael Rubino	North Carolina	47%	36	61.3	19	−3.3
67	Chad Ryland	Eastern Michigan	46%	63	60.9	34	−3.1
68	Matthew Cluck	UTSA	45%	44	62.7	24	+1.4
69	Danny Longman	Boston College	45%	69	62.2	38	−7.0
70	Nathanael Snyder	Indiana	44%	52	62.2	29	+3.1
71	Alex Stadthaus	USC	44%	59	63.4	33	−3.3
72	Grant Ryerse	Minnesota	44%	71	62.3	40	+5.1
73	Kyle Ramsey	Houston	44%	55	58.8	31	−5.1
74	Jerry Fitschen	Akron	43%	30	57.8	17	−1.2
75	Caleb Shudak	Iowa	43%	65	62.2	37	+10.6
76	Matthew Trickett	Kent State	42%	66	58.0	36	−6.5
77	Zach Hoban	Rice	42%	33	59.5	19	+3.9
78	Jonathan Cruz	Charlotte	41%	59	55.3	34	−5.6
79	Griffin Kell	TCU	39%	33	63.6	20	−1.3
80	Gabe Siemieniec	California	39%	51	60.5	31	+0.2
81	Jake Koehnke	Air Force	39%	46	61.5	28	−2.6
82	Jordan Choukair	Oregon State	38%	55	61.8	34	−4.6
83	John Richardson	Northern Illinois	37%	51	59.5	32	−10.0
84	Camden Lewis	Oregon	36%	83	62.9	51	+4.4
85	Andrew Stein	Southern Miss	34%	64	60.3	42	+3.4
86	Aaron Shahriari	Florida Atlantic	34%	53	61.5	35	+6.9
87	Jack Martin	Troy	34%	68	56.3	45	−5.6
88	Chandler Staton	App State	33%	91	60.2	61	+6.6
89	Asa Fuller	Fresno State	33%	67	59.3	45	−5.1
90	Skyler Southam	BYU	32%	62	61.4	42	+8.9
91	Michael Farkas	Ohio	32%	76	58.6	52	+6.7
92	Blanton Creque	Louisville	31%	48	61.6	33	−3.0
93	Scott Goodman	Mississippi State	31%	48	59.6	32	−3.0
94	Trey Finison	Northwestern	30%	33	59.9	23	+0.6
95	William Przystup	Nebraska	30%	33	60.6	23	−2.1
96	Nick McLellan	Kansas State	30%	37	57.5	26	−4.4
97	Diego Guajardo	South Alabama	30%	44	59.8	30	−14.1
98	Spencer Shrader	South Florida	29%	51	56.3	36	−12.4
99	Ryan Tice	Central Michigan	29%	65	58.9	46	−13.2
100	Ryan Jones	Cincinnati	29%	72	60.6	50	+6.1
101	Liam Jones	Kansas	29%	52	60.4	37	+2.8
102	Vladimir Rivas	Florida Atlantic	28%	32	58.1	23	+0.4
103	Massimo Biscardi	Coastal Carolina	27%	55	59.6	39	−6.9
104	J.R. Osborn	Navy	27%	33	59.9	24	−1.1
105	Joshua Rowland	Texas State	27%	37	60.9	27	−2.1
106	Alex McNulty	Buffalo	27%	60	58.2	44	−15.2
107	AJ Reed	Duke	26%	57	59.5	41	+3.5
108	Justin Davidovicz	Rutgers	26%	31	58.6	23	+0.7
109	Chris Wood	San José State	25%	69	54.4	52	−0.9
110	Cooper Garcia	Massachusetts	24%	41	57.8	31	−7.4
111	Ethan Mooney	North Texas	24%	41	55.7	31	−1.5
112	Nick Rice	Old Dominion	24%	33	59.3	25	+0.7
113	Nick Sciba	Wake Forest	24%	71	59.5	54	−6.0
114	Cole Hahn	Michigan State	24%	46	59.3	34	−1.0
115	Nick Mihalic	Western Michigan	23%	57	60.1	44	+4.1
116	Daniel Gutierrez	UNLV	21%	58	54.3	46	−10.8
117	Peyton Paddock	Iowa State	20%	70	58.8	56	+5.8
118	Patrick LeCorre	Ball State	20%	40	60.8	32	+2.6
119	Josh Plaster	Arizona State	20%	30	61.3	23	−1.5
120	Russell Roberts	SMU	17%	70	54.3	58	−11.2
121	Joseph Petrino	Maryland	16%	50	59.7	42	−1.3
122	Crews Holt	Middle Tennessee	15%	61	57.5	52	−5.5
123	Mason Lawler	Bowling Green	14%	35	56.1	30	−13.7
124	Landon Salyers	Army	14%	44	56.0	38	−6.4
125	Bailey Hale	Louisiana Tech	12%	74	57.9	65	−1.2
126	Damon Foncham	Arkansas State	12%	52	52.7	46	−8.3
127	Zack Long	Tulsa	9%	56	57.8	50	+0.1
128	Ryan Rimmler	Ball State	0%	36	57.3	36	−3.8

All 2019 College kickoff specialist rankings

Kickoff Touchback Percentage in other seasons: 2026 2025 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011

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