NFL
By: Brock Vierra
Having a game-changing returner could mean everything for the teams gearing up for the 2024 college football season. A player that has the courage, the confidence, the vision, the ability, and the desire to return to football is a player that is ready to fight hell with a squirt gun. The brazenness to see grown men running sub 4.4 40s straight at you while a football flies through the American sky and yet swallowing all fear to help his team is what the game is all about.
A good returner has the ability to change the storyline of a game at a moment’s notice. A great returner has the ability to rewrite the narrative of the season with a single kick. Here’s my list of college football’s best returners. I’m going to list a first team based on the conferences. One player per conference, both kick and punt return stats will be taken into consideration. This is FBS only and the teams that currently make up the last embers of the Pac-12 will qualify as independents for this list. Here’s who I think will be the best returners for their conference in 2024.
Brock’s College Football First Team Returners
AAC: Brashard Smith, SMU
ACC: Tucker Holloway, Virginia Tech
Big 12: LaJohntay Wester, Colorado
Big 10: Zachariah Branch, USC
Conference USA: Smoke Harris, Louisiana Tech
FBS Independents: Jayden Harrison, Notre Dame
MAC: Jacquez Stuart, Toledo
Mountain West: Jacob De Jesus, UNLV
SEC: Barion Brown, Kentucky
Sun Belt: Zylan Perry, University of Louisiana, Lafayette
For more college football content, watch The College Football Forecast.
