2026 College Kickoff Touchbacks Leaders

Kickoffs that reached the end zone and were kept there, giving the receiving team the ball at its own 25, 30 or 35, depending on the league and the rule that season. A touchback avoids a return but gives up field position.

More is better under this season's rules: a touchback ends the play with no return. Read with touchback percentage. In 2026, Lorcan Quinn (41) led college football kickoff specialists in kickoff touchbacks, ahead of Nick Keller (41) and Patrick Durkin (41). 217 kickoff specialists qualify. This season is in progress (through Week 7), so the numbers change each week.

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.

Data through Week 7 of the 2026 season, updated October 24, 2026.

Rk	Player	Team	TB	Kickoffs	Avg dist	TB%	Returns	Points
1	Lorcan Quinn	Alabama	41	47	64.8	87%	5	+5.1
2	Nick Keller	Louisville	41	48	64.4	85%	6	+5.3
3	Patrick Durkin	Florida	41	49	63.7	84%	8	+2.3
4	Scott Starzyk	LSU	39	46	64.8	85%	6	+1.8
5	Marcello Diomede	Ohio State	38	48	63.1	79%	5	+1.0
6	James London	App State	37	41	64.9	90%	3	−0.6
7	Cole Byrd	Virginia Tech	37	46	64.3	80%	4	+4.7
8	Carter Cremascoli	Air Force	36	37	64.9	97%	0	+2.7
9	Tarik Ahmetbasic	Memphis	36	43	64.1	84%	5	+1.8
10	Derek Morris	Massachusetts	36	45	64.4	80%	8	+0.1
11	Peyton Woodring	Georgia	36	49	64.2	73%	6	+2.7
12	Jack Cassidy	West Virginia	35	46	62.5	76%	5	+1.4
13	Jadyn Oh	Oregon State	35	55	62.6	64%	16	−6.4
14	Conor McAneney	Florida State	34	41	64.8	83%	7	+0.5
15	Paddy McAteer	Indiana	33	37	64.9	89%	3	+3.1
16	Jake Weinberg	Miami	33	38	64.5	87%	4	+0.1
17	Josh Turbyville	Tennessee	33	39	64.7	85%	5	+0.4
18	Joseph Kim	Oklahoma State	33	45	63.4	73%	5	−1.4
19	Caleb Carlson	Wake Forest	33	48	62.9	69%	11	+0.9
20	Brunno Reus	Missouri	32	39	64.8	82%	6	−3.4
21	Adam Zouagui	Kentucky	32	40	64.7	80%	1	+2.6
22	Kyle Konrardy	Iowa State	31	35	64.9	89%	4	0.0
23	Dillon Curtis	Utah	31	40	64.1	78%	6	+3.9
24	Elijah Slibeck	Virginia	31	43	64.2	72%	11	+4.3
25	Zac Yoakam	Houston	31	49	63.0	63%	15	+4.9
26	Collin Rogers	Florida Atlantic	30	37	64.3	81%	6	+0.6
27	Ian French	Arizona	30	39	62.4	77%	4	−0.5
28	Mateen Bhaghani	UCLA	30	40	63.3	75%	6	−0.2
29	Mike Baker	UConn	30	42	63.5	71%	7	+0.2
30	Baylen Woodman	James Madison	30	49	62.7	61%	11	+1.2
31	Aidan Birr	Georgia Tech	29	31	65.0	94%	2	+1.2
32	Beckham Sunderland	Minnesota	28	36	64.5	78%	8	+3.4
33	Drew Klein	North Dakota State	28	37	63.4	76%	6	+0.4
34	Nathan Dibert	Eastern Michigan	28	37	64.2	76%	8	+5.0
35	Michael James	Texas State	28	38	63.0	74%	7	+1.0
36	Ryon Sayeri	USC	28	46	63.3	61%	8	−1.9
37	Owen Simpson	UAB	27	35	64.0	77%	4	+0.7
38	John Hoyet Chance	TCU	26	29	65.3	90%	2	−0.9
39	David Olano	Texas A&M	26	30	64.8	87%	3	−1.6
40	Will Stone	UCF	26	33	62.8	79%	7	+0.2
41	Hunter Rioux	Louisiana Tech	26	34	62.6	76%	3	−1.5
42	Connor Gibbs	Auburn	25	28	63.9	89%	2	+1.5
43	Micah Drescher	Notre Dame	25	39	63.4	64%	13	−2.6
44	Colton Boomer	Boise State	25	42	61.1	60%	12	−3.9
45	Stone Harrington	Texas Tech	24	27	64.9	89%	3	+3.4
46	Ethan Moczulski	Illinois	24	32	63.5	75%	7	+2.2
47	Blake Ford	Georgia Southern	24	34	63.8	71%	10	+1.1
48	Garrison Rippa	Jacksonville State	24	38	63.1	63%	12	+0.6
49	Kellan McLaughlin	Miami (OH)	24	39	63.9	62%	13	−3.2
50	Will Hryszko	Ohio	24	40	63.8	60%	8	+3.9
51	Michael Taylor II	North Texas	24	43	61.9	56%	15	−4.3
52	Liam Boyd	Michigan State	23	31	64.0	74%	7	+3.0
53	Jack Scullion	Rutgers	23	33	61.6	70%	5	+3.6
54	Brody Laga	BYU	22	23	65.0	96%	1	−0.3
55	Max Gilbert	Arkansas	22	25	65.2	88%	3	+1.6
56	Carson Smith	Arizona State	22	32	63.7	69%	6	+3.3
57	Dane Efird	Kansas	22	37	62.3	59%	8	−4.4
58	Gianni Spetic	Texas	22	37	62.7	59%	12	−1.8
59	Seth Turner	Purdue	22	43	62.5	51%	15	+4.8
60	Tate Sandell	Oklahoma	21	25	64.2	84%	3	+0.7
61	Max Kelley	South Carolina	21	34	63.2	62%	9	+2.2
62	Riley Sullivan	Baylor	21	37	63.8	57%	8	+1.0
63	Clayton Amaya	Arkansas State	21	39	60.4	54%	12	−1.6
64	Andrew Conrad	East Carolina	20	24	64.5	83%	3	+1.7
65	Andrew Nelms	Old Dominion	20	27	63.8	74%	7	−1.2
66	Cooper DiLeva	San Diego State	20	31	63.2	65%	9	+2.8
67	Robert Gunn III	Clemson	20	31	64.4	65%	8	+0.6
68	Carl Hardin	Temple	20	36	62.5	56%	11	−2.0
69	Ryan Kobzeff	Fresno State	20	37	63.1	54%	10	+3.8
70	Stephen Rusnak	Cincinnati	20	38	61.8	53%	12	−3.8
71	Braydon Doane	UTSA	20	44	60.3	45%	13	+0.8
72	Reice Griffith	Toledo	20	44	61.1	45%	19	−5.2
73	Robert Hammond III	Kansas State	19	29	63.5	66%	8	+2.1
74	Mathias Brown	San José State	19	33	63.8	58%	11	−0.5
75	Emmet Kenney	Stanford	19	34	63.2	56%	14	+2.7
76	John Hohl	Nebraska	19	45	59.8	42%	13	−0.8
77	Nick Reed	SMU	18	19	65.3	95%	1	−1.2
78	Erik Sandvik	Wyoming	18	24	64.5	75%	4	+2.0
79	Cooper Helmke	Tulane	18	26	63.3	69%	1	+1.3
80	Gage Hurych	Oregon	18	34	61.4	53%	8	+1.4
81	Eli Ozick	Iowa	18	37	61.9	49%	10	+0.4
82	Marlon Hauck	Tulsa	18	44	61.6	41%	16	+3.0
83	Zechariah Duke	Kennesaw State	17	19	64.9	89%	2	+1.6
84	Charles Steinkamp	New Mexico	17	20	64.3	85%	3	+1.8
85	Cosme Salas	Duke	17	21	63.8	81%	4	−3.4
86	Abram Murray	UL Monroe	17	24	63.5	71%	6	+2.6
87	Jacob Baggett	Michigan	17	26	63.6	65%	7	−1.4
88	Tyler Black	Liberty	17	32	61.3	53%	12	−1.1
89	Brendan Baird	SMU	16	17	64.7	94%	1	+0.9
90	Brock Taylor	Vanderbilt	16	18	64.9	89%	1	+1.2
91	Ian Kelly	Charlotte	16	19	63.8	84%	3	+0.9
92	Carlos Arreola	UTEP	16	22	64.3	73%	6	+1.4
93	Aeron Burrell	North Carolina	16	27	63.7	59%	10	+3.4
94	Noah Sur	Northwestern	16	38	61.7	42%	18	+0.2
95	Landon Rehkow	Utah State	15	18	64.1	83%	1	+0.4
96	Grant Glasgow	New Mexico	15	22	64.2	68%	4	+3.5
97	Lucas Carneiro	Ole Miss	15	25	62.4	60%	8	−6.3
98	Joe McFadden	Nevada	15	27	62.9	56%	9	+4.0
99	Gavin Lahm	Wisconsin	15	33	63.1	45%	12	+3.6
100	Cavan Craig	Colorado State	15	35	63.0	43%	16	−7.7
101	Balint Vorosmarty	Georgia State	15	39	63.2	38%	20	−3.9
102	Justin Dewers	Vanderbilt	14	16	64.8	88%	1	+1.4
103	Enock Gota	Rice	14	17	64.2	82%	3	+1.9
104	Oliver Hautanen	Buffalo	14	18	59.1	78%	3	+0.2
105	Tripp Woody	Syracuse	14	23	61.3	61%	7	−3.5
106	Brody Boehm	Ball State	14	28	62.4	50%	11	−1.4
107	Brayden Baker	UNLV	14	32	63.0	44%	14	−3.4
108	Ryan Short	Northern Illinois	13	19	63.6	68%	4	+0.1
109	Lucas Tenbrock	Penn State	13	23	62.0	57%	8	−0.9
110	Oisin Flynn	Mississippi State	13	29	63.5	45%	8	−0.5
111	Robert Czeremcha	Florida International	13	33	61.3	39%	14	+1.5
112	Antonio Chadha	Pittsburgh	12	16	64.9	75%	3	−2.6
113	Elliot Arnold	Colorado	12	18	64.8	67%	6	+0.1
114	Kanoah Vinesett	NC State	12	29	59.6	41%	14	+1.3
115	Towns McGough	California	12	30	60.3	40%	13	−11.4
116	Zach McGowan	Buffalo	11	14	61.9	79%	2	+0.1
117	Jordan Westrich	Akron	11	15	64.7	73%	3	+0.9
118	Samuel Guiden Krebs	Marshall	11	24	62.0	46%	12	−7.2
119	Sam Hunsaker	Pittsburgh	11	25	63.6	44%	11	−1.2
120	Karl Campbell	Western Kentucky	11	26	59.4	42%	10	−0.3
121	Ethan Head	Troy	11	31	61.8	35%	13	+5.0
122	Sean Olvera-Harle	Hawai'i	11	31	60.5	35%	15	+0.4
123	Matthias Dunn	BYU	10	13	64.4	77%	0	−1.3
124	Cristiano Rosa	Penn State	10	14	64.4	71%	1	+1.1
125	Ian Hershey	Texas Tech	10	14	63.1	71%	4	+1.5
126	Hunter McKee	Washington	10	19	61.9	53%	4	−1.0
127	Zak Zeman	Western Michigan	10	22	60.3	45%	6	+3.6
128	Dawson Jones	Army	10	39	58.4	26%	24	−9.5
129	Logan Klotz	Louisiana	10	40	60.3	25%	22	−1.1
130	Peter McStravick	Ole Miss	9	15	64.4	60%	4	0.0
131	Nico Gramatica	South Florida	9	19	56.9	47%	9	+1.6
132	Andy Quinn	Boston College	9	20	63.0	45%	8	+2.4
133	Tucker Smack	Delaware	9	26	60.6	35%	15	+1.5
134	Lance Gossett	Navy	9	30	62.0	30%	10	+2.4
135	Hunter Green	Washington	8	9	65.0	89%	1	+1.5
136	B.J. Carter	Marshall	7	7	65.0	100%	0	+0.3
137	Philippe Laforge	Memphis	7	7	65.0	100%	0	+0.8
138	Colton Chmelar	Texas A&M	7	10	63.3	70%	3	+0.2
139	Daniel Kinney	Kennesaw State	7	11	59.6	64%	3	−0.8
140	Morgan Suarez	James Madison	7	11	64.5	64%	4	+2.0
141	Quinn Warren	Indiana	7	11	64.2	64%	3	+1.2
142	Shay Barker	Syracuse	7	13	61.2	54%	4	+1.2
143	Lawson Thorn	South Florida	7	17	63.4	41%	6	+3.6
144	Wyatt Joyce	Middle Tennessee	7	17	60.8	41%	8	+0.5
145	Daniel Leahy	Maryland	7	21	61.4	33%	9	−2.5
146	Miguel Arenas	Washington State	7	21	61.6	33%	7	+1.1
147	Daniel Porto	Coastal Carolina	7	27	59.9	26%	17	+1.0
148	Reed Harradine	Southern Miss	7	27	60.6	26%	15	+0.3
149	Will Rocha	Miami	6	8	63.1	75%	0	+0.3
150	Treyton McKee	Bowling Green	6	9	64.2	67%	3	+0.8
151	G.Gross	Washington	6	10	63.8	60%	3	−0.1
152	Erik Schmidt	Notre Dame	6	15	62.5	40%	1	−0.2
153	Dominic Bourgeois	Middle Tennessee	6	16	60.6	38%	7	+0.1
154	Eli Fulcher	Maryland	6	17	59.6	35%	10	−1.5
155	Gavin Strange	Duke	6	19	62.3	32%	7	+1.7
156	Kyah Francone	New Mexico State	6	22	62.5	27%	16	+2.7
157	Stewart McDonald	Missouri State	6	31	61.7	19%	17	−9.6
158	Braeden McAlister	Arkansas	5	6	64.2	83%	1	+0.5
159	Rocco Graziano	Oregon	5	8	63.5	63%	1	+0.9
160	Bart Edmiston	Wyoming	5	9	62.6	56%	1	−3.6
161	Kason Mullis	Delaware	5	9	63.6	56%	3	−0.7
162	Sean Leonard	Kent State	5	21	59.0	24%	9	−1.4
163	Grady Dangerfield	Tennessee	4	6	64.0	67%	2	+1.8
164	Leo Liptak	Coastal Carolina	4	6	61.0	67%	2	+0.7
165	Simon McClannan	Kansas State	4	6	63.2	67%	0	−0.6
166	Zac Chapeau	Central Michigan	4	6	61.2	67%	2	−1.6
167	Kyle Ferrie	Mississippi State	4	8	64.9	50%	4	−2.0
168	Saul Marks	Sacramento State	4	9	62.8	44%	3	+0.6
169	Tate Ryan	Sam Houston	4	11	62.5	36%	5	−2.5
170	Aidan Stire	Akron	4	12	63.1	33%	6	+0.4
171	Ilya Uvaydov	New Mexico State	4	13	57.1	31%	8	−5.9
172	Jacob Hand	Texas Tech	3	3	65.0	100%	0	+0.1
173	Jayden Onuonga	North Dakota State	3	3	65.0	100%	0	+0.1
174	Oliver Robbins	Missouri	3	3	65.0	100%	0	+0.1
175	Tanner Cragun	Utah	3	3	65.0	100%	0	+0.1
176	Trace Rudd	Oklahoma	3	3	65.0	100%	0	+0.1
177	Brandon Rabasco	Florida	3	4	63.0	75%	1	−0.1
178	Harran Zureikat	Georgia	3	4	63.3	75%	0	+0.2
179	Malik Orsan	South Carolina	3	5	64.2	60%	0	+0.2
180	Sam Carpenter	Sam Houston	3	7	63.0	43%	1	−0.6
181	Jack Stevens	Washington State	3	8	61.4	38%	2	+1.0
182	Nico Ottomanelli	Sam Houston	3	9	63.0	33%	6	−0.7
183	Caden VanHuis	Central Michigan	3	10	56.7	30%	5	−2.7
184	Ethan Warner	Bowling Green	3	11	61.6	27%	7	+0.1
185	Peyton Argent	South Alabama	3	15	61.2	20%	8	−0.2
186	Dylan Freebury	South Alabama	3	18	60.1	17%	8	−2.2
187	Bode Shoaps	Louisville	2	2	65.0	100%	0	+0.1
188	Luca Lombardo	Boston College	2	2	65.0	100%	0	+0.1
189	Nathan Totten	Virginia Tech	2	2	65.0	100%	0	+0.6
190	Gavin Higgins	LSU	2	3	63.3	67%	0	+0.1
191	Noah McGough	UCF	2	3	65.0	67%	1	+0.4
192	Charlie Birtwistle	Charlotte	2	7	59.7	29%	3	+0.8
193	Michael Smith	Western Kentucky	2	7	59.4	29%	5	−6.2
194	Chase Reeves	Liberty	2	10	56.6	20%	6	−0.7
195	Everett Scott	East Carolina	2	10	58.5	20%	6	−0.9
196	Palmer Domschke	Western Michigan	2	11	54.2	18%	6	−1.0
197	Connor Tripp	Fresno State	1	1	65.0	100%	0	0.0
198	Jacob Bonilla	Texas State	1	1	65.0	100%	0	−1.2
199	John Love	Virginia Tech	1	1	65.0	100%	0	0.0
200	Kaegan Kent	Louisiana Tech	1	1	65.0	100%	0	0.0
201	Michael Salgado-Medina	Arizona	1	1	65.0	100%	0	0.0
202	Nate Flower	West Virginia	1	1	65.0	100%	0	0.0
203	Nick Konieczynski	NC State	1	1	65.0	100%	0	0.0
204	Parker Cushing	UTEP	1	1	65.0	100%	0	0.0
205	Rece Verhoff	North Carolina	1	1	65.0	100%	0	0.0
206	Asher Murray	Texas A&M	1	2	63.5	50%	1	−1.7
207	Conor Talty	Alabama	1	2	44.5	50%	1	+0.2
208	Daniel Gerlach	Colorado	1	2	65.0	50%	1	+0.4
209	Manaki Watanabe	Fresno State	1	2	65.0	50%	1	+0.7
210	Yousef Obeid	Missouri State	1	2	59.5	50%	1	−1.9
211	Carston Kieffer	Arizona State	1	3	64.0	33%	2	+1.2
212	Henry Helms	Northwestern	1	3	56.0	33%	2	−1.0
213	Jonah Delange	UAB	1	3	65.0	33%	2	+0.6
214	Jacob Fernandez	Nevada	1	5	64.4	20%	4	+0.4
215	Tommy Bauchiero	Rice	1	7	57.3	14%	5	+0.4
216	D.Lovelace	NC State	1	11	57.9	9%	1	+0.6
217	Grant Meadors	Sacramento State	1	15	50.9	7%	8	−2.9

All 2026 College kickoff specialist rankings

Kickoff Touchbacks in other seasons: 2025 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011

More 2026 College kickoff specialist leaderboards

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