Friday, October 22, 2004

Miami's Hester Killing Opponents

...but GT had the right plan to stop him - link here.

Georgia Tech was the only team that kept Hester from finding that daylight. Hester returned two punts for 12 yards in UM's 27-3 victory on Oct. 2. Four of Georgia Tech's eight punts were kicked out of bounds.

"Not kicking it to him is the only way to contain him," Georgia Tech coach Chan Gailey said. "If you kick it to him enough times, he's going to return one. He's that good.

"What you have to be willing to do as a football coach is say, 'I'll take a 30-yard punt that's out of bounds because I'm not going to take the chance of him returning one 60 yards. It's worth it to give up 10 to 12 yards of punting average."