‘It comes to you as it happens’: Speed, vision and creating an opening paces punt return

You can’t really teach what Luke Doyle has.

“No, not at all,” said Benet Academy football coach Pat New.

That’s speed and vision.

In about a 3-minute span of the third and fourth quarters last Friday against St. Viator, the Redwings’ senior punt and kick returner broke open a tie game on a 67-yard punt return for touchdown and set up another score with a 38-yard return to the 6-yard line.

“Definitely got the momentum going. And then we ended up getting another score to make it 21-7, so it really flipped the game on its head, I think,” Doyle said about his touchdown return, after Monday’s practice in Lisle.

That downfield and peripheral vision, when he’s not working on the sport’s third phase Doyle employs it playing slot receiver and cornerback for the Redwings.

“It’s just kind of second nature, almost. It comes to you as it happens,” he said.

Same with the speed — at a North Central College camp Doyle was clocked in the 40-yard dash at 4.34 seconds, hand-timed. He’s also run in the 6.5-second range over 60 meters, he said.

Vision and speed may be second nature, but quality punt returns don’t just happen. They’re the product of thorough coaching and daily repetition, teamwork and as one Redwings special-teamer said, commitment.

“You’ve got to want to block. That’s kind of the hardest part — if you want to do it, you’ll do it,” said senior running back and safety Dom Tomala, part of Benet’s punt return unit.

In film review of all Benet’s special teams plays against St. Viator, Tomala said the execution was sharp on that touchdown return.

“We all did our assignment individually,” he said.

“If one kid maybe blocked the wrong guy it could have thrown everything off. But every kid did their job and that’s all we needed to score a touchdown, get our sideline hyped, everybody hyped.”

A unit directed by Benet special teams coordinator Andrew Gawlik and overseen by defensive coordinator Jason Berry, the Redwings punt return goes for a more freelance approach than the standard “return right/left” with blockers forming a wall to protect the return man.

Each player on the line of scrimmage is assigned a man to block, the most important opponents being the “gunners” on the perimeter, the punting team’s fastest players who sprint downfield to try to make the tackle.

It’s hard to shield off any would-be tacklers on the run without grabbing and holding.

If a Benet returner can get by the gunners, and make a man miss a tackle, he’ll then look for “open space you can run to,“ Doyle said.

The Redwings senior cited teammates Gio Sanderlin and Luke Crowder for handling the gunners on his 67-yarder, and recalled Tomala and Patrick Porcelli making key downfield blocks. A deep man on Benet’s kickoff return team with Luca Diomede, Doyle also returned a first-half kickoff 55 yards.

“I think first and foremost it was Luke’s athletic ability,” New said of the long punt return. “They gave him some space and he was able to outrun people and then made a nice cutback toward the end of the play.”

New knows all about this stuff. A 1987 Benet graduate, he was an all-state receiver and cornerback who went on to play at Northwestern University. New remembered returning 3 punts and 3 kickoffs for touchdown his senior year at Benet.

A good punt return naturally starts by fielding the football. Doyle initially had trouble gauging the depth of the St. Viator punter’s kicks, one landing behind him, one in front.

When he was able to get a bead on the football, it came at him like a knuckleball. Doyle said high school punters often produce those wobbly kicks rather than spirals that are easier to catch.

“The ball was shaking back and forth, but I ended up making a play,” Doyle said.

Yes, he did, and it flipped the game on its head.

“It’s satisfying seeing one of those plays,” Tomala said, “like a big punt return, or a kick return, just because you know you did something right.”