2025 College Onside Kicks Attempted Leaders

Onside kicks are short kickoffs meant to be recovered by the kicking team. Teams try them when behind late.

Only specialists with at least one appear. In 2025, Andrew Nelms (5) led college football kickoff specialists in onside kicks attempted, ahead of Isaiah Hankins (4) and Philippe Laforge (4). 47 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 2025 regular-season numbers, updated October 23, 2026.

Rk	Player	Team	Onside	Kickoffs	Avg dist	TB%	Returns	Points
1	Andrew Nelms	Florida Atlantic	5	63	62.9	70%	18	+3.1
2	Isaiah Hankins	Colorado State	4	42	61.6	60%	17	−4.5
3	Philippe Laforge	Coastal Carolina	4	57	62.9	61%	19	+4.6
4	Liam Rickman	Georgia State	2	2	13.0	0%	2	−4.6
5	Nate Reed	Delaware	2	65	62.3	65%	18	−5.0
6	Aidan Birr	Georgia Tech	2	72	64.6	86%	9	+6.6
7	Baylen Woodman	Middle Tennessee	2	51	61.5	63%	13	+1.6
8	Brock Taylor	Vanderbilt	2	64	63.3	81%	12	−1.7
9	Buck Buchanan	Colorado	2	55	63.4	80%	8	+1.5
10	Carston Kieffer	Arizona State	2	4	43.0	0%	3	+0.3
11	J.Green	UL Monroe	2	15	48.4	0%	9	−1.7
12	Jadyn Oh	Syracuse	2	46	60.4	70%	13	−1.3
13	Max Gilbert	Tennessee	2	4	65.0	100%	0	+0.8
14	Max Walker	Oregon State	2	8	62.5	0%	8	+1.2
15	Nathan Dibert	Eastern Michigan	2	61	60.3	51%	26	−9.6
16	Rece Verhoff	North Carolina	2	51	64.4	75%	12	+5.1
17	Atticus Sappington	Oregon	1	50	63.4	66%	14	0.0
18	Kyle Lowe	Virginia Tech	1	48	61.3	75%	10	−1.1
19	Owen Simpson	UAB	1	57	58.7	46%	27	−26.3
20	Owen Wiley	Akron	1	50	51.5	20%	29	−11.9
21	Peyton Woodring	Georgia	1	76	63.8	78%	15	+8.6
22	Adam Zouagui	South Florida	1	75	63.9	77%	15	+4.5
23	Andrew Glass	Northern Illinois	1	47	56.6	32%	23	−8.0
24	Cash McVay	App State	1	56	63.8	70%	16	+0.2
25	Chase Allen	Rice	1	3	50.3	67%	1	−2.6
26	DC Pippin	Ball State	1	29	58.2	31%	18	+0.4
27	Dominic De Freitas	App State	1	5	53.8	40%	3	0.0
28	Emmet Kenney	Stanford	1	50	62.9	58%	20	+2.3
29	Enock Gota	Rice	1	43	63.3	81%	8	+2.0
30	Jake Weinberg	Florida State	1	60	62.8	93%	3	+2.7
31	John Cannon	Western Kentucky	1	3	65.0	67%	1	+0.6
32	Kanoah Vinesett	NC State	1	1	37.0	0%	1	+0.6
33	Kansei Matsuzawa	Hawai'i	1	47	59.6	32%	30	−2.7
34	Kellan McLaughlin	Miami (OH)	1	67	63.4	55%	27	−1.2
35	Lance Gossett	Navy	1	56	60.3	30%	26	−1.7
36	Martin Connington	Michigan State	1	37	62.0	51%	12	−2.2
37	Michael James	Texas State	1	83	62.0	57%	29	−1.6
38	Noah Grant	Florida International	1	70	60.3	24%	47	−2.3
39	Noah Perez	East Carolina	1	2	40.0	0%	1	−0.1
40	Patrick Durkin	Tulane	1	78	63.8	87%	7	+5.4
41	RJ Kocan	West Virginia	1	2	32.5	0%	2	−2.5
42	Reagan Tubbs	Air Force	1	67	59.7	55%	27	−4.7
43	Reed Harradine	Southern Miss	1	63	63.5	70%	16	+2.4
44	Ryan Capriotti	Maryland	1	17	55.6	6%	7	−6.7
45	Seth Morgan	Tulsa	1	59	60.5	56%	24	+5.9
46	Tripp Bryant	Georgia Southern	1	1	65.0	100%	0	+0.1
47	Will Hryszko	Kent State	1	51	62.3	53%	21	+2.2

All 2025 College kickoff specialist rankings

Onside Kicks Attempted in other seasons: 2026 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011

More 2025 College kickoff specialist leaderboards

Other 2025 College rankings

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