Reaves' KO return was huge. There are some reasons he wasn't touched besides the move that made the kicker fall down.
Their names are Ra'Shawde Myers, Cortez Carter, Remi Watson, Justin Hunt, Raheem Waiters, Josh Knight, Ryan Yurachek and Eric Frohnapfel.
They were the blockers in front of Reaves along the right sideline, and each of them took out a NIU player to open the path. Watson especially knocked down #38 (Skyler Monaghan) at the 25 yard line at the 12 second mark of ESPN's video of the return. Monaghan came the closest to Reaves.
We're critical of announcers on here a lot, but I thought Desmond Howard had a good comment on Reaves' move against NIU kicker Tyler Wedel. Howard mentioned that a lot of returners stay close to the sideline giving the kickers an easier chance to push them out of bounds. Howard said Reaves move to the inside took away any chance Wedel had of getting to the sideline and getting Reaves out of bounds.
Before the game NIU had kicked off 83 times and had only 13 touchbacks. Wedel had only 2 touchbacks in his 33 kickoffs. NIU had covered kickoffs pretty well, with opponents only averaging 18.3 yards per return. The Huskies had allowed 1 KO return for a touchdown; Arkansas opened the game with a 97 yard TD return.
Their names are Ra'Shawde Myers, Cortez Carter, Remi Watson, Justin Hunt, Raheem Waiters, Josh Knight, Ryan Yurachek and Eric Frohnapfel.
They were the blockers in front of Reaves along the right sideline, and each of them took out a NIU player to open the path. Watson especially knocked down #38 (Skyler Monaghan) at the 25 yard line at the 12 second mark of ESPN's video of the return. Monaghan came the closest to Reaves.
We're critical of announcers on here a lot, but I thought Desmond Howard had a good comment on Reaves' move against NIU kicker Tyler Wedel. Howard mentioned that a lot of returners stay close to the sideline giving the kickers an easier chance to push them out of bounds. Howard said Reaves move to the inside took away any chance Wedel had of getting to the sideline and getting Reaves out of bounds.
Before the game NIU had kicked off 83 times and had only 13 touchbacks. Wedel had only 2 touchbacks in his 33 kickoffs. NIU had covered kickoffs pretty well, with opponents only averaging 18.3 yards per return. The Huskies had allowed 1 KO return for a touchdown; Arkansas opened the game with a 97 yard TD return.
