2021 College Kickoff Return Yards Allowed Leaders

Total return yards gained against a specialist's kickoffs. It reflects his kick and his coverage team.

Lower is better, but volume matters. In 2021, Jonathan Doerer (912) led college football kickoff specialists in kickoff return yards allowed, ahead of Ben Sauls (898) and Joseph Petrino (872). 217 kickoff specialists qualify.

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 2021 regular-season numbers, updated October 23, 2026.

Rk	Player	Team	Ret yds	Kickoffs	Avg dist	TB%	Returns	Points
1	Jonathan Doerer	Notre Dame	912	80	62.0	39%	48	+8.8
2	Ben Sauls	Pittsburgh	898	97	63.2	52%	47	+16.2
3	Joseph Petrino	Maryland	872	58	60.5	24%	44	−8.2
4	Caden Costa	Ole Miss	862	72	61.3	35%	44	+6.1
5	Owen Daffer	East Carolina	840	69	61.0	30%	48	+7.8
6	Camden Lewis	Oregon	801	77	62.9	51%	37	−0.2
7	Kieran Colahan	Coastal Carolina	782	65	59.9	28%	47	+6.5
8	Evan Staley	West Virginia	770	47	58.5	21%	37	−19.1
9	Michael Hughes	App State	768	85	61.7	35%	55	+15.0
10	Bubba Baxa	Houston	755	77	62.5	60%	31	+2.8
11	Nick Mihalic	Western Michigan	747	64	56.1	22%	50	−16.1
12	Hunter Duplessis	UTSA	739	87	62.4	45%	48	−0.7
13	Ivan Mora	Wake Forest	737	85	61.6	53%	39	+2.4
14	Cesar Silva	Fresno State	709	48	62.5	33%	32	−1.2
15	Thomas Cluckey	Toledo	701	77	62.1	47%	41	−0.2
16	Gabe Brkic	Oklahoma	701	82	63.0	57%	35	+2.7
17	Jonathan Terry	Colorado State	698	60	61.8	35%	39	+0.9
18	Nathanael Snyder	Louisiana	678	69	57.2	17%	57	+0.3
19	Elliott Nimrod	Utah State	641	84	58.1	42%	49	−8.9
20	Dominik Soos	Old Dominion	639	44	60.9	30%	31	−15.1
21	Tanner Brown	Oklahoma State	598	71	63.5	52%	32	+7.9
22	Cesar Barajas	Louisiana Tech	596	48	61.3	23%	37	−9.5
23	Mason Lawler	Bowling Green	589	58	58.1	29%	41	−6.4
24	Joel Velazquez	Boise State	589	68	62.1	53%	32	+8.1
25	Evan Warren	Navy	584	49	56.3	29%	34	−10.4
26	Andrew Glass	Kent State	583	68	46.4	13%	56	−36.4
27	Brock Travelstead	Louisville	578	69	62.3	48%	35	+1.2
28	Lucas Dunker Jr.	Washington State	574	58	62.2	40%	35	−3.7
29	Josh Rolston	Central Michigan	571	65	56.8	32%	44	−24.2
30	RJ Lopez	UCLA	566	81	62.9	63%	30	+6.0
31	Scott Payne	Middle Tennessee	549	42	58.0	7%	39	−12.8
32	Graham Nicholson	Miami (OH)	547	54	62.1	41%	32	+2.0
33	Tyler Tipton	Tulsa	542	37	60.4	30%	26	−2.2
34	Cory Munson	Western Kentucky	534	102	62.4	58%	43	+3.2
35	Parker Grothaus	Florida State	509	60	63.4	60%	24	−3.5
36	Andres Borregales	Miami	506	71	62.2	63%	26	+5.9
37	Andrew Sanders	Marshall	501	56	61.8	46%	30	−25.8
38	Alex Bales	Cincinnati	501	81	62.5	63%	29	+10.9
39	Joe McFadden	UConn	500	41	59.3	22%	32	−6.9
40	Aaron Shahriari	Florida Atlantic	496	58	61.5	47%	31	+5.3
41	Chad Ryland	Eastern Michigan	493	60	60.9	55%	27	−15.9
42	Diego Guajardo	South Alabama	491	49	61.4	45%	26	−0.4
43	Ethan Mooney	North Texas	481	59	60.7	32%	40	−29.4
44	John Richardson	Northern Illinois	478	67	57.1	42%	38	−4.9
45	Andre Szmyt	Syracuse	477	45	60.6	27%	33	+6.4
46	Ethan Albertson	New Mexico State	474	58	61.0	50%	27	+4.9
47	Alex McNulty	Buffalo	474	59	61.0	58%	25	−8.7
48	Kyler Halvorsen	Hawai'i	474	59	63.9	63%	22	+6.6
49	Tristan Mattson	Arkansas State	473	50	61.8	40%	30	+0.5
50	Dario Longhetto	California	466	53	60.8	36%	34	+3.8
51	Daniel Obarski	UCF	463	65	61.1	55%	29	−0.5
52	Jordan Noyes	Utah	458	59	62.7	54%	27	+6.6
53	Danny Longman	Boston College	455	56	59.6	43%	32	−4.9
54	Noel Ruiz	Georgia State	454	29	61.8	24%	22	−12.2
55	Rory Bell	Temple	452	44	59.4	25%	33	−10.3
56	Christian VanSickle	Rice	451	47	58.1	17%	39	−8.8
57	Ty Zentner	Kansas State	447	61	63.3	57%	25	+1.5
58	Brendan Hall	SMU	443	82	63.1	62%	30	+11.3
59	Brice Honaker	Air Force	440	45	62.1	44%	25	+2.4
60	Cole Becker	Colorado	432	49	63.9	61%	19	−3.0
61	Cameron Dicker	Texas	430	69	63.1	71%	20	+3.0
62	Reese Burkhardt	UAB	424	67	61.7	61%	26	−1.6
63	Griffin Kell	TCU	423	57	62.9	58%	24	−7.9
64	Spencer Shrader	South Florida	423	57	62.3	61%	22	+2.3
65	Julian Diaz	Nevada	422	80	64.3	68%	26	+13.1
66	Cole Talley	Army	419	61	58.9	34%	40	−16.8
67	Brendan Franke	Nebraska	417	63	63.6	63%	23	+3.7
68	Andrew Mevis	Iowa State	414	65	63.4	74%	17	+4.4
69	John Hoyland	Wyoming	406	57	59.6	47%	30	−15.8
70	Jared Smolar	Indiana	401	43	64.1	65%	15	−1.0
71	Noah Ruggles	Ohio State	391	92	60.0	67%	28	+19.3
72	Calum Sutherland	UL Monroe	386	51	61.8	45%	28	+4.1
73	John Parker Romo	Virginia Tech	385	54	63.6	54%	25	+1.6
74	Daniel Gutierrez	UNLV	380	35	52.9	11%	31	−9.5
75	Noah Grant	Memphis	376	68	60.3	51%	32	+0.3
76	Jerry Fitschen	Akron	375	42	58.9	40%	25	−21.4
77	Tristian Vandenberg	Ohio	373	45	62.7	49%	23	−13.4
78	Abraham Montano	Fresno State	371	24	60.4	21%	19	−0.9
79	Casey Glover	Tulane	369	40	62.5	57%	17	−1.1
80	CJ Kolodziey	Massachusetts	366	41	59.6	46%	22	−0.4
81	Trey Wolff	Texas Tech	362	62	63.0	65%	22	+9.0
82	Pierson Cooke	Vanderbilt	348	31	63.1	42%	18	+2.6
83	Taren Schive	San José State	344	44	61.8	52%	21	+3.5
84	Toby Wilson	Tennessee	338	71	60.8	49%	34	+13.4
85	Jace Christmann	Florida	338	45	59.9	47%	23	+6.7
86	Jake Oldroyd	BYU	338	56	61.8	64%	20	+3.4
87	B.T. Potter	Clemson	338	64	64.3	77%	15	+14.3
88	Trenton Gill	NC State	334	70	64.0	71%	20	+7.7
89	Logan Tyler	Arizona State	333	64	62.4	69%	19	−1.5
90	Lucas Matias	Florida International	332	27	61.8	52%	13	−11.4
91	Mitch Jeter	South Carolina	327	46	61.6	50%	23	−1.6
92	Charlie Kuhbander	Northwestern	326	36	59.4	22%	28	+4.7
93	Chris Howard	Florida	318	24	63.4	29%	17	+2.8
94	Jack Van Dyke	Wisconsin	313	40	62.1	50%	20	+6.4
95	Briggs Bourgeois	Southern Miss	313	42	63.1	67%	13	+9.4
96	Britton Williams	Georgia Southern	310	25	61.2	16%	20	−0.2
97	Jake Bates	Texas State	309	54	62.9	59%	22	+4.3
98	Jonathan Kim	North Carolina	309	79	63.5	80%	16	+4.4
99	Justen Smith	BYU	299	18	62.4	39%	11	−4.3
100	Charlie Ham	Duke	294	55	59.7	40%	33	+2.0
101	Will Reichard	Alabama	289	93	62.0	73%	24	+12.9
102	Everett Hayes	Oregon State	289	66	63.6	71%	17	+1.5
103	Scott Goodman	Mississippi State	283	44	63.1	59%	16	+6.9
104	Dragan Kesich	Minnesota	279	65	63.8	69%	20	+12.4
105	Brooks Buce	Troy	279	31	61.6	52%	15	−3.0
106	Alex Stadthaus	USC	279	31	63.9	65%	11	+5.4
107	Kyle Coale	Troy	267	22	51.0	9%	20	−1.8
108	Jacob Lewis	Ball State	262	37	60.3	30%	26	−5.2
109	Gavin Baechle	UTEP	259	60	63.3	72%	17	−12.9
110	Jonathan Cruz	Charlotte	234	60	62.1	73%	16	−10.1
111	Alex Barbir	Liberty	230	48	62.8	56%	21	+5.1
112	Matt Araiza	San Diego State	226	67	65.1	84%	11	+11.6
113	Chance Poore	Kentucky	221	69	62.1	75%	15	+2.4
114	Ben Freehill	Purdue	220	33	61.2	48%	17	+4.7
115	Gavin Stewart	Georgia Tech	220	47	63.6	70%	14	+7.2
116	Michael Hayes II	Georgia State	215	26	61.9	35%	17	+3.2
117	Anders Carlson	Auburn	211	69	62.9	65%	22	+6.1
118	Avery Musick	Marshall	209	13	59.9	23%	10	−1.1
119	Vito Calvaruso	Arkansas	206	74	64.8	86%	10	+11.5
120	Caleb Shudak	Iowa	200	69	63.1	64%	25	+11.3
121	Avery Atkins	LSU	196	61	64.7	85%	9	+9.1
122	Jake Camarda	Georgia	194	88	63.6	82%	15	+18.4
123	George Steinkamp	New Mexico	192	31	63.1	65%	11	+1.5
124	Matthew Dapore	Air Force	190	16	62.3	31%	11	−1.7
125	Brendan Farrell	Virginia	188	44	63.8	84%	7	+3.0
126	Caden Davis	Texas A&M	185	66	64.1	83%	11	+7.4
127	Lucas Havrisik	Arizona	184	52	65.5	87%	7	+4.4
128	Matt Coghlin	Michigan State	183	54	64.4	81%	10	+11.1
129	Nick Rice	Old Dominion	180	17	58.8	24%	13	+0.3
130	Stephen Rusnak	Michigan State	173	15	57.3	27%	10	+0.6
131	Peyton Henry	Washington	167	30	64.8	77%	7	+4.9
132	Alex Raynor	Georgia Southern	154	14	61.7	43%	8	+1.4
133	Quinn Maretzki	Army	153	8	61.0	13%	7	−8.8
134	Jake Moody	Michigan	144	97	62.6	81%	15	+20.3
135	Jacob Barnes	Louisiana Tech	143	19	44.4	0%	19	−4.9
136	Collin Larsh	Wisconsin	141	25	57.4	20%	20	−1.5
137	Stephen Ruiz	Boston College	134	4	62.3	25%	3	+0.8
138	Valentino Ambrosio	Rutgers	132	29	60.4	38%	16	+3.1
139	Marshall Meeder	Central Michigan	131	5	57.2	20%	4	−4.0
140	Chris Van Eekeren	Purdue	121	32	61.4	59%	13	+0.1
141	James McCourt	Illinois	119	47	64.6	85%	7	+10.2
142	Mitchell Fineran	Purdue	114	5	59.6	20%	4	−1.9
143	Tim Horn	Washington	113	19	63.1	42%	11	+3.4
144	Mac Brown	Ole Miss	112	6	61.0	17%	5	−0.1
145	Tommy Heatherly	Florida International	110	15	59.3	40%	9	−0.8
146	Parker Lewis	USC	110	27	64.4	78%	6	+3.4
147	Kanon Woodill	Northern Illinois	106	9	51.6	0%	9	+0.5
148	Zack Long	Tulsa	102	14	56.3	36%	8	+3.3
149	Dominic DiMaccio	Ohio State	100	8	58.1	38%	5	+0.6
150	Will Ferrin	Boise State	96	9	62.0	33%	6	+3.1
151	Tabor Allen	Kansas	93	51	62.3	73%	14	+10.7
152	Justin Duenkel	Virginia	91	35	63.0	69%	11	+6.7
153	Randy Bond	Texas A&M	90	8	63.8	50%	4	+1.3
154	Joseph Bulovas	Vanderbilt	90	6	63.2	50%	3	−1.7
155	Guy Fava	Rutgers	89	24	59.7	42%	14	+2.7
156	Jonathan Hagee	Ball State	88	22	59.3	23%	17	−5.8
157	Ben Fee	Navy	80	5	49.2	20%	4	−5.3
158	Jason Stricker	Liberty	78	25	63.0	68%	8	+4.4
159	Alex Herrera	South Carolina	78	9	59.0	33%	6	+0.7
160	Aidan Swanson	Clemson	76	3	64.3	67%	1	−3.1
161	Dalton Witherspoon	Houston	75	9	41.4	11%	8	−4.9
162	Andre Meono	Fresno State	74	6	58.5	0%	6	+1.0
163	Evan Morris	Michigan State	74	4	55.8	0%	4	+0.2
164	Dean Janikowski	Washington State	73	6	53.8	0%	6	−3.3
165	Trey Finison	Northwestern	73	3	59.0	33%	2	+1.1
166	Jack Browning	San Diego State	73	1	62.0	0%	1	−3.2
167	Joshua Karty	Stanford	69	43	62.7	77%	9	+4.9
168	Brandon Ruiz	Mississippi State	65	17	62.6	71%	5	+1.2
169	Zach Schmit	Oklahoma	64	9	61.6	67%	3	−0.2
170	Cole Smith	Cincinnati	63	7	61.6	0%	6	−0.3
171	Aaron Beckham	North Texas	63	6	63.5	50%	3	−5.4
172	Casey Legg	West Virginia	61	13	40.8	0%	13	−4.3
173	Stephen Johnson	Ohio	61	6	53.2	17%	5	−3.5
174	Ben Patton	Auburn	60	5	58.8	20%	4	−0.1
175	Cale Nation	Ole Miss	60	4	55.3	0%	4	+0.6
176	Jadon Redding	Utah	58	19	63.6	53%	9	+5.3
177	Sean Koetting	Missouri	58	60	64.8	92%	4	+0.7
178	Tucker Day	Mississippi State	58	5	62.4	40%	3	−0.8
179	Ryan Chalifoux	Louisville	56	4	44.5	0%	3	−0.6
180	Everett Ornstein	UTSA	52	10	63.7	50%	5	−2.0
181	Gavin Peddie	Western Michigan	52	4	54.0	25%	3	−1.1
182	Ben Falck	Hawai'i	51	3	64.0	33%	2	+0.7
183	Noah Rauschenberg	Baylor	46	79	64.5	89%	9	+10.0
184	Harrison Beattie	Maryland	46	4	62.0	25%	3	−1.4
185	Noah Seiden	Tulane	40	9	63.1	56%	4	−4.2
186	Andrew Boyle	Washington State	38	3	60.7	0%	3	−0.1
187	Jack Olsen	Northwestern	37	2	61.0	0%	2	−1.4
188	Kyle Ramsey	Houston	37	4	64.3	50%	2	+1.2
189	Taiten Winkel	Kansas State	37	2	62.5	50%	1	−1.2
190	Nick Sciba	Wake Forest	33	4	47.3	50%	2	−1.6
191	Jevon Bigelow	Fresno State	33	1	60.0	0%	1	−1.0
192	Anthony Beck II	Georgia Southern	31	2	56.5	0%	2	−1.2
193	Chase Gabriel	Florida International	31	3	64.3	33%	2	−5.5
194	Riley Riethman	Navy	29	1	63.0	0%	1	−1.7
195	Jordan Stout	Penn State	28	59	64.6	95%	3	+10.2
196	Aidan Martin	Mississippi State	27	2	58.5	0%	2	−0.9
197	Brent Cimaglia	Georgia Tech	27	2	58.5	0%	2	−1.7
198	Massimo Biscardi	Coastal Carolina	25	1	58.0	0%	1	−0.4
199	Caleb Griffin	Illinois	22	2	35.5	0%	2	+0.9
200	Parker White	South Carolina	22	1	55.0	0%	1	−0.4
201	Ryan Fitzgerald	Florida State	21	1	62.0	0%	1	+0.2
202	Brady Pohl	Oklahoma State	20	6	63.2	33%	4	+1.9
203	Kolton McGhee	West Virginia	18	4	64.5	75%	1	+0.9
204	Ryan O'Hara	UNLV	17	8	54.0	50%	4	+0.3
205	Jess Gmez	Eastern Michigan	16	3	64.0	67%	1	−6.7
206	Matt Quinn	UAB	16	1	44.0	0%	1	−0.9
207	Jack Brooks	South Alabama	15	3	46.7	0%	3	−2.0
208	Paxton Brooks	Tennessee	13	8	63.9	25%	6	+3.8
209	Cash Peterman	BYU	13	2	65.0	50%	1	+0.9
210	Evan McGuire	Auburn	13	3	64.3	67%	1	+1.3
211	Kirk Christodoulou	Pittsburgh	13	1	63.0	0%	1	−0.2
212	Will Hart	San José State	13	1	37.0	0%	1	−1.3
213	Charlie Mendes	Rice	12	1	47.0	0%	1	−1.2
214	Xavier Subotsch	App State	8	1	49.0	0%	1	−1.1
215	James Williams	Syracuse	6	4	62.0	50%	2	+1.5
216	Jack Podlesny	Georgia	2	4	63.3	75%	1	+1.5
217	Andrew Stokes	South Florida	1	1	39.0	0%	1	−1.4

All 2021 College kickoff specialist rankings

Kickoff Return Yards Allowed in other seasons: 2026 2025 2024 2023 2022 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011

More 2021 College kickoff specialist leaderboards

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