Return Man
Mike Ekeler is back at NU and special teams are about to get an aggressiveness infusion, starting with punt return.
Come to Mike Ekeler for the enthusiasm. That’s the most-cited feature here: This guy is crazy, but in the best way.
Stay with Mike Ekeler for the exactitude.
On Tuesday, Nebraska’s new special teams coach met with the media for the first time and provided a bunch of good quotes (“We’ll talk with our pads.”) because he’s a passionate dude. The moment that stuck with me was when Sam McKewon of the Omaha World-Herald asked him about Tennessee’s punt-return prowess, noting in the question the Vols had more than 1,000 return yards over Ekeler’s four seasons in Knoxville.
He interrupted the question to note it was “1,325,” slight pause, “and eight blocks.”
Just to make sure it was right, I checked that first number on three sites—NCAA.com, ESPN.com and CFBStats.com—and tallied three different numbers: 1,270, 1,312 and 1,320 yards.1 I have no choice but to believe that 1,325 is actually right. Ekeler said it with such confidence and pride that I cannot doubt that he’s the person who would know, given that the number differs depending upon where you look. It’s up there, anyway. The Huskers had 177 punt return yards over that same span.
But it was that Ekeler knew the number2 and had it ready, more than the number itself, that most added to the story of the guy tasked with fixing a persistent problem at Nebraska.
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