Ranking the Big Ten: Return Specialist
As the 2024 college football season quickly approaches, it is time to look at the top players in the Big Ten Conference.
We continue our Ranking the Big Ten series with the league’s best-returning return men. USC and UCLA each have entrants while one player makes the rankings for a third consecutive year.
Ranking the Big Ten: QB | RB | WR | TE | OT | C | DT | OLB/EDGE | ILB | CB | S | K | P
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1. Zachariah Branch, USC
Very few players in college football had as good of a freshman season as Zachariah Branch did last year. Three separate outlets (USA Today, Pro Football Focus and Sporting News) named the former five-star recruit to their first-team All-American squads as a returner.
Branch is the first-ever true freshman first team All-American at USC.
The 5-foot-10, 175-pounder averaged 20.75 yards per return on punts with one touchdown of 75 yards. Branch averaged 18.42 yards per return on kickoffs with another touchdown of 96 yards. His punt-return average was the best in the country by nearly four full yards.
Adoree Jackson (2016) is the last Trojan to record a punt return, kickoff return and receiving touchdown in the same season. Dating back to 1971, Curtis Conway is the only other player in program history to cross that milestone.
Tack on 320 receiving yards (two touchdowns) and 70 rushing yards (one more score) and Branch sets up as a major all-purpose threat for the Big Ten in 2024.
2. A.J. Henning, Northwestern
Another year, another Big Ten returner ranking list featuring A.J. Henning who has made this list for three straight seasons.
His first year at Northwestern was a continuation of his production levels at Michigan in the two seasons prior. Henning reached a new career high with 333 total kickoff return yards and saw his average per return dip slightly to 22.2 yards per attempt. The now-graduate student from Frankfort, Illinois, returned 10 punts for an average of 6.9 yards per return.
He did not score a return touchdown last season and has not done so on a punt since 2022 or a kickoff since 2021. However, Henning did collect four receiving scores (including the first of his career against Duke) and set career highs in all receiving metrics.
Pro Football Focus graded him at a 60.8 for kick returns and a 69.1 on punt returns last year.
3. Braeden Wisloski, Maryland
Braeden Wisloski made an early impact throughout his freshman campaign in College Park. The 5-foot-9, 181-pounder won the primary kick return job during the offseason and finished the year with 16 returns for 380 total yards for an average of 19.3 yards per return.
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In the third week of the season, he took a first-quarter kickoff 98 yards to the house against Virginia. That earned him Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week honors and honorable mention All-Big Ten recognition at the end of the season.
Wisloski’s touchdown return was the longest by any Maryland freshman since Stefon Diggs in 2012 and the program’s first since 2019. The former high school 100m dash state champion in Pennsylvania scored a 66.4 season kickoff-return grade according to PFF.
4. Nick Singleton, Penn State
Nick Singleton is one of the more recognizable running backs in the Big Ten. As a sophomore, he earned third-team All-Big Ten recognition for a season in which he ran for 752 yards and eight touchdowns.
Singleton also picked up honorable mention All-Big Ten honors for his ability as a kick returner. The Shillington, Pennsylvania, native finished with an average of 24.1 yards per return and 313 total return yards. Only two other players in the conference averaged more all-purpose yards per game than Singleton (105.4).
PFF gave the now-junior a 59.3 grade for his return efforts last year.
5. Logan Loya, UCLA
Logan Loya has grown into a valuable weapon for UCLA over the last four years and now the redshirt senior is back for one final season of college football.
In 2023, he set career highs in receptions (59), yards (655) and touchdowns (five). Loya also made an impact as the Bruin’s primary punt returner. He totaled 123 punt return yards on 17 attempts for an average of 7.2 yards per return. Loya’s longest return went for 31 yards.
PFF was particularly bullish on his progress handing down a 76.0 return grade. That’s roughly a 16-point improvement from the year prior and he scored a 85.8 punt-return grade. Loya has muffed one punt in his career.
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