Top Kickoff Return Leaders

Chris Norcross

December 11, 2020 @ 12:10 PM

In an era of football where kickoff returns are not as effective, especially with plenty of rule changes, we wanted to take some time to recognize a few players who have not only had their fair share of success, but have led the state in kickoff return yards. To start, while there have been a solid amount of players have managed to cross the threshold of over 400 return yards, only 3 players throughout the state have managed to rack up more than 500. This includes that of Jerrel Baskins of Southwest Dekalb, [player_tooltip player_id="33754" first="Jordan" last="Favors"], who plays for Griffin, and Mossiah Carter who starts for Mountain view. What is most impressive about this list is the fact that the leader in return yards, Baskins, has managed to total 552 return yards in just 6 games. Favors, who has totaled 547, and Carter, who has had 515, each gained all of their yards over 10 games or more. Some other players who have also had success in the return game include players like Willie Rice, of East Coweta, [player_tooltip player_id="33834" first="Landon" last="Owens"], of Prince Avenue, and Lilvasco Winfrey of Thomson High. While each of these players have managed to total over 400 yards, Rice leads this group with 476 yards in total in just 11 attempts with the ball in his hands. Owens, who has totaled 466 yards, did so on just 11 attempts as well. Along with these three prospects, 9 other players managed to rack up more than 400 yards in returning, which, in this era, is very impressive. Along with this, there have been plenty of players who have had very impressive, and long returns this season. To start, Justin Thomas, of Benedictine, [player_tooltip player_id="33748" first="Jamal" last="Haynes"], who plays for Grayson, and Cherokee’s [player_tooltip player_id="33934" first="Adarrius" last="Harshaw"] each had 99 yard returns this season. With this, 3 other players throughout the state of Georgia also had returns of 98 yards. This includes that of Cameron Selders, of Calvary Day, Zion Alexander, who plays for Norcross, and [player_tooltip player_id="33693" first="Khalil" last="Anderson"] of Riverwood High. This isn’t all, because over 10 other players throughout the state managed to have returns of 90 yards plus as well. With this being said, maybe, just maybe, despite the rule changes, there could potentially be another Devin Hester one day after all.