Why Oklahoma State football's return game might be making a return

STILLWATER — Ask Drew Svoboda if he’s more interested in securing the football instead of returning it on kickoffs and punts, and the Oklahoma State special teams coach almost looks offended.

He shakes his head.

“No, no,” he says. “We’re going to try to make plays.”

Now, don’t misunderstand. Svoboda wants his Cowboy returners to catch the ball cleanly. Wants them to secure it and hold onto it, too.

But he also wants them to make things happen.

“If we can get a first down for the offense,” he says, “we want to do it.”

And if they can get more?

OSU football fans might throw a parade.

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Seeing an OSU return has become like catching a glimpse of a unicorn. And not just big returns. Any return. A season ago, the Cowboys returned only 19 punts and 16 kickoffs, and while those numbers are woefully low, that was actually a high mark for punt returns this decade.

The Cowboys’ return game has been getting dusty for a decade-plus.

It’s been four years since OSU football had a special teams return for a touchdown. Not since the days of Tyreek Hill, Justin Gilbert and Josh Stewart have the Cowboys had a return game that actually looked interested in, you know, returns.

That sounds like that’s about to change.

Why?

It starts with new head coach Eric Morris.

“Coach Morris is aggressive,” Svoboda explained. “He is not satisfied with somebody standing back there and just getting the ball back.”

Morris himself was a returner during his playing days. At Texas Tech, he was a punt returner in 2005, then a kick returner in 2006, then a punt returner again during his last two seasons.

He even housed a punt return as a senior.

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Morris spent some time early in his coaching career in charge of punt return, too.

Bottom line, the OSU head coach knows what a difference the return game can make, and that has trickled down to Svoboda, who has been Morris’ special teams coach since 2023.

Last season at North Texas, the Mean Green was modest in its returns.

Kickoffs: 25 returns for an average of 21.2 yards.

Punts: 18 for 4.3.

Some of that is situational — “Sometimes (just getting the ball back) is appropriate,” Svoboda admitted, “depending on how the game is going” — but some of it is personnel.

“Depending on who we have back there,” Svoboda said, “we want to make a play.”

And this season, the Cowboys would seem to have two returners who can do just that. Wake Forest transfer Chris Barnes is expected to be the kick returner while North Texas transfer Miles Coleman is in line for punt return duties. Neither stands taller than 5-foot-7, but both are fast and elusive.

A year ago, Barnes returned the opening kickoff against NC State for a touchdown.

“That was my first college touchdown, too,” Barnes said. “So it was real big.”

And it wasn’t designed to work the way it did.

“The return was really about to go to the right,” Barnes said. “It was a boundary return, and I was going that way … and I don’t know, something quick just happened.”

Barnes had caught the ball near the hashes at the 2-yard line, but by the time he got to the 15, he saw a hole open to his left. Instead of going right as planned, he cut left across the field.

“I stuck a foot in the ground and ran,” he said.

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Barnes zipped by several defenders for a 98-yard score.

Not since Jaden Nixon returned a kickoff in 2022 has OSU had a kickoff return for a touchdown. While the Cowboys also had a punt return for a touchdown that season, it wasn’t by conventional means; Trace Ford blocked a punt and returned it for a score.

The last time OSU had a conventional punt return for a touchdown: Tyreek Hill’s Bedlam stunner in 2014.

Had Bob Stoops not lost his head, that drought would be even longer.

Scoring in the return game is the goal this season, and it starts with Morris.

“His whole mentality is, if you have possession of the football, go try to score,” Svoboda said. “When guys catch 5-yard hitch routes, the first thing you hear is ‘Go score! Go score!’ Catch a punt return, ‘Go score!’ 

“He wants the ball crossing the goal line by whichever means necessary.”

It would be great if the Cowboys took a couple of returns back for touchdowns — they’re the most exciting plays in football — but in truth, OSU needs to be better on average with its returns. A year ago, it managed only 83 punt return yards for 4.4 yards per return, and maybe the mindset to go score leads to better overall results.

“It’s not gonna be so aggressive that we’re not making the right decisions,” Svoboda cautioned. “(Morris) still wants us to be able to play within what makes sense. But he wants the football advanced down the field.”

Sounds like a lot more fun than one fair catch after another.

Sounds like the return of the return game.

KICKOFF: 2:45 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 5 at T.A. Chapman Stadium in Tulsa (ESPNU)

Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at @jennicarlsonok.bsky.social and twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok, and support her work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Why Oklahoma State football’s return game might be making a return