2020 College Return Yards Allowed per Punt Leaders

Total return yards allowed divided by every punt that was not blocked, so a fair catch or an out-of-bounds punt counts as zero. College punts whose play text records no outcome are left out. It is the fairest single measure of how much a returner gets to work with.

Lowest comes first. Coverage teams share the credit. In 2020, Nik Constantinou (-0.2) topped college football punters in return yards allowed per punt, ahead of Laine Wilkins (-0.1) and Oscar Bradburn (0.0). 73 punters qualify (minimum 30 punts). The median qualified punter had 1.8.

Final 2020 regular-season numbers, updated October 23, 2026.

Rk	Player	Team	Ret yds/punt	Punts	Avg	Net	In 20	In 20 %	TB %	FC %	Points
1	Nik Constantinou	Texas A&M	-0.2	31	40.3	39.2	14	45%	6%	55%	+6.0
2	Laine Wilkins	Houston	-0.1	31	41.2	40.0	15	48%	6%	31%	+0.2
3	Oscar Bradburn	Virginia Tech	0.0	37	43.0	39.8	11	30%	16%	39%	+5.8
4	Jake Camarda	Georgia	0.1	31	47.9	44.6	16	52%	16%	47%	+11.8
5	Tyler Sumpter	West Virginia	0.2	33	40.3	39.0	14	42%	6%	52%	−0.6
6	Paxton Brooks	Tennessee	0.2	49	43.6	41.8	22	45%	8%	38%	+12.0
7	Tom Hutton	Oklahoma State	0.3	54	40.5	39.2	27	51%	6%	62%	+5.3
8	Tommy Heatherly	Florida International	0.3	32	44.4	42.3	11	34%	9%	34%	+5.2
9	Adam Korsak	Rutgers	0.3	48	42.9	42.6	23	48%	0%	43%	+10.6
10	Stephen Kotsanlee	Utah State	0.3	37	40.7	40.4	18	49%	0%	36%	+2.3
11	Xavier Subotsch	App State	0.3	32	42.3	41.4	12	38%	3%	35%	+4.1
12	Haydon Whitehead	Indiana	0.4	36	42.4	40.4	10	28%	8%	61%	+5.4
13	Griffin Fleming	Southern Miss	0.5	36	39.5	39.1	10	28%	0%	65%	−3.0
14	Porter Wilson	Duke	0.5	53	42.9	41.1	20	40%	4%	24%	+5.5
15	Jay Bramblett	Notre Dame	0.5	39	42.2	41.2	12	31%	3%	36%	+5.2
16	Ivan Mora	Wake Forest	0.6	36	40.9	38.1	14	39%	11%	31%	+0.4
17	Derek Adams	Northwestern	0.6	40	41.5	38.9	15	38%	10%	49%	+0.5
18	Nickolas Null	Wyoming	0.7	29	38.7	36.1	6	20%	3%	26%	−8.1
19	Nash Griffin	Virginia	0.8	42	42.4	39.7	12	29%	10%	31%	+1.3
20	Tory Taylor	Iowa	0.9	40	44.1	42.9	20	50%	3%	35%	+10.4
21	Grant McKinniss	Missouri	0.9	39	43.1	40.3	14	37%	8%	43%	+4.7
22	Reeves Mundschau	Oklahoma	1.0	36	38.9	36.4	11	30%	3%	43%	−8.4
23	Kirk Christodoulou	Pittsburgh	1.0	53	44.5	43.1	23	43%	2%	55%	+14.3
24	Jordy Sandy	TCU	1.0	57	41.0	38.9	27	47%	5%	63%	+6.1
25	Ryan Hanson	Arkansas State	1.1	41	40.6	38.7	12	30%	3%	29%	−3.9
26	Jacob Barnes	Louisiana Tech	1.1	44	37.2	35.3	10	23%	5%	26%	−8.5
27	Luke Elzinga	Central Michigan	1.2	33	43.2	40.8	15	47%	6%	28%	+6.5
28	Adam Williams	Memphis	1.2	41	42.6	40.0	13	32%	7%	36%	+2.6
29	Michael Hayes II	Georgia State	1.2	47	40.4	38.1	10	21%	2%	18%	−4.2
30	Lou Hedley	Miami	1.3	46	47.3	45.4	15	34%	2%	55%	+17.4
31	Zach Von Rosenberg	LSU	1.4	59	43.9	42.0	29	49%	3%	39%	+10.6
32	Kyle Ulbrich	Middle Tennessee	1.5	43	43.8	40.0	15	35%	12%	26%	+3.7
33	Daniel Davies	Navy	1.5	44	37.1	34.7	9	20%	5%	36%	−19.6
34	Andrew Osteen	UCF	1.5	35	44.3	41.5	9	26%	6%	38%	+3.7
35	Zach Harding	Army	1.6	37	42.8	40.3	16	43%	5%	21%	+5.7
36	Bernardo Rodriguez	North Texas	1.6	32	43.8	39.7	9	28%	13%	10%	+4.1
37	Grant Carlson	Boston College	1.8	43	42.4	39.4	14	36%	8%	22%	−0.7
38	Pressley Harvin III	Georgia Tech	1.9	45	48.0	44.8	20	44%	7%	45%	+15.8
39	Seamus O'Kelly	Texas State	1.9	57	40.9	38.8	22	39%	2%	28%	+1.3
40	Issac Power	Baylor	1.9	54	40.6	36.6	16	29%	7%	41%	−7.3
41	Charles Ouverson	Coastal Carolina	2.0	33	40.2	37.2	19	59%	3%	32%	−0.4
42	Tyson Dyer	New Mexico	2.1	34	40.4	38.5	11	32%	0%	40%	−3.2
43	Jack Brooks	South Alabama	2.1	43	41.7	37.8	11	25%	5%	48%	−4.6
44	Kyle Greenwell	UAB	2.3	41	42.5	40.3	15	34%	2%	41%	+4.3
45	Jordan Stout	Penn State	2.3	33	41.5	38.8	10	30%	3%	39%	−0.5
46	James Smith	Cincinnati	2.3	32	43.8	40.7	20	65%	3%	48%	+8.7
47	Anthony Beck II	Georgia Southern	2.3	44	42.0	37.9	14	32%	9%	47%	+1.2
48	Matt Ference	Northern Illinois	2.3	30	43.0	40.1	12	38%	3%	31%	−3.0
49	Alex Mastromanno	Florida State	2.4	35	43.5	40.5	10	29%	3%	46%	−0.4
50	Will Spiers	Clemson	2.4	42	43.5	38.7	19	45%	7%	27%	0.0
51	Ryan Wright	Tulane	2.4	49	45.0	41.2	15	32%	6%	11%	+8.0
52	Nolan Cooney	Syracuse	2.5	74	44.8	41.5	25	34%	4%	26%	+12.0
53	Trenton Gill	NC State	2.5	49	44.8	39.8	18	37%	12%	31%	+7.4
54	Ben Kiernan	North Carolina	2.6	30	43.7	39.9	17	57%	0%	28%	+4.0
55	Blake Hayes	Illinois	2.7	42	43.8	40.6	16	38%	2%	29%	+2.2
56	Rhys Byrns	Louisiana	2.7	34	43.9	40.1	14	41%	6%	24%	+3.1
57	Matthew Hayball	Florida Atlantic	2.9	40	44.5	39.8	17	49%	3%	35%	−1.9
58	John Haggerty	Western Kentucky	2.9	53	46.0	41.7	20	38%	8%	18%	+1.7
59	Harrison Smith	Vanderbilt	3.0	46	41.0	37.4	19	42%	2%	34%	−6.0
60	Adam Barry	Temple	3.1	40	44.0	40.0	18	45%	5%	23%	−4.5
61	Austin McNamara	Texas Tech	3.2	41	46.3	40.0	13	32%	10%	41%	+5.9
62	Max Duffy	Kentucky	3.3	37	45.8	42.4	13	35%	3%	34%	+11.4
63	Joe Rivera	Iowa State	3.8	42	40.8	35.1	14	33%	10%	29%	−10.6
64	Ryan Bujcevski	Texas	4.2	39	43.3	37.1	16	39%	0%	23%	−8.1
65	Kai Kroeger	South Carolina	4.3	39	43.3	38.1	11	29%	5%	36%	−2.8
66	Reid Bauer	Arkansas	4.4	39	43.5	38.0	13	34%	8%	24%	−2.3
67	Lachlan Wilson	Tulsa	5.1	39	43.1	36.5	14	36%	8%	33%	−4.0
68	Lucas Dean	UTSA	5.3	55	46.3	40.3	25	53%	4%	16%	+4.4
69	Daniel Sparks	UL Monroe	5.4	30	44.6	36.0	6	19%	7%	26%	−11.8
70	Bryce Baringer	Michigan State	5.4	37	43.6	36.4	10	28%	8%	31%	−6.3
71	Reis Vernon	Kansas	5.7	38	37.8	31.6	7	18%	3%	29%	−23.4
72	Adam Stack	Hawai'i	5.8	37	43.8	38.1	10	27%	0%	33%	−4.8
73	Trent Schneider	South Florida	6.6	32	41.3	34.0	8	26%	6%	11%	−11.7

All 2020 College punter rankings

Return Yards Allowed per Punt in other seasons: 2026 2025 2024 2023 2022 2021 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011

More 2020 College punter leaderboards

Other 2020 College rankings

Loading the interactive stats…