The Art Of Returning A Punt

Confidence is never an issue with Ryan Switzer. He knows he’s a really good football player and isn’t shy about saying it, though he’s not exactly boastful. He wisely exudes the right balance there.

Switzer recognizes the natural gifts he’s been blessed with and is quick to acknowledge that. He’s also happy to give credit where credit is due.

The Charleston, WV, native also knows that without his dedicated teammates, he wouldn’t be on the cusp of becoming the NCAA’s all-time leader in returning punts for touchdowns.

You see, the art of returning punts is fairly simple in theory, yet it’s difficult to pull off because of the many forces that must come together to make it work. Switzer, whose 7 punt career returns for scores place him one shy of the all-time record shared by Wes Welker (Texas Tech) and Anthony Perkins (Oklahoma), is fortunate to have the right people in front of him helping make a quest for such a record possible.

That’s not lost on him.

“You want the best athletes on the field no matter what,” the 5-11, 185-pound senior said. “So knowing I’ve got guys like Mack (Hollins), Des Lawrence, M.J. Stewart, Khris Francis, those guys are all – they play running back, safety, corner, receiver, those are athletes. Knowing I have those guys in front of me, and not just being athletic but they actually care and actually want to block…

“Those guys take pride in it and I’m fortunate to have them in front of me. I can’t make 11 guys miss, so I’ve got to have some help, obviously.”

Hollins, the Tar Heels’ best deep ball threat in the passing game, has also been a special teams captain for a few seasons. He takes as much pride in Switzer’s punt returns as he does his own bombs for touchdowns.

“It’s such a great feeling knowing we opened some lanes to spring him,” Hollins said. “He’s a great player, a great talent, which is obvious, so it makes our job easier. But it is still a collective objective, and we take a lot of pride in that.”

The talent Switzer has is immense. He’s super fast and cat quick. But there’s another element to his natural gifts, something that simply cannot be taught: Vision.

Ted Williams, who is probably the greatest hitter who ever lived, had a beautiful swing and hit with power and for average. He used to say his greatest gift was his vision, that he could see the seams rotating on a baseball as it was whistling toward home plate. Williams also anticipated well. Switzer also combines the two.

“Yeah, it’s very big and that’s something you can’t really teach,” Switzer said. “You’ve got to be blessed with it, and I’m fortunate enough to be blessed with good vision and good anticipation and knowing how to set my blocks up and read my blocks. And sometimes, you just guess, and you guess wrong. But a lot of the time I guess right where a guy might be.”

Switzer guessed wrong more regularly in his first two seasons than last fall. On several occasions as a freshman and sophomore, Switzer’s unrelenting confidence and supreme desire to make chicken salad out of crow led to a few returns in which it appeared for a second he was going in the other direction, the wrong direction.

But that element of his game was essentially in the past last season. Switzer was a smarter player.

“He's just being really smart and making really good decisions back there, which has made us a much better punt return unit,” Fedora said last December.

Of course, Switzer is also blessed with speed and ridiculous quickness. He can stop on a dime, change directions and be in full sprint mode in a millisecond. He might as well have a Porsche logo somewhere on his helmet along with UNC’s interlocking “NC.”

And you know what, Switzer knows that, too.

“I feel like I’m the quickest man in college football,” he said. “What I’m able to do in a short area is why I do what I can on the field. So, it bodes well for me to be able to do that on punt returns.”

Switzer has been on the field for just one kickoff return in his career, even though he keeps “begging” Fedora to let him return some. Perhaps he’d excel there, too. After all, he’s more than a return man, Switzer is a football player.

Switzer has certainly developed into a very good wide receiver hauling in 116 passes for 1,454 yards and 10 touchdowns over the last two seasons, but the Carolina star who got engaged this summer was born to return punts.

He has the gifts, he has developed the skills, and he has the devoted mates in front of him to make things happen. For Ryan Switzer, that’s the art of returning punts.