Who Could be Returning Punts and Kicks for Alabama This Season

Originally posted on Alabama Crimson Tide on SI
By Will Miller | Last updated Aug 16, 2025 5:36 PM ET

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— The Alabama football team held its second scrimmage of fall camp on Saturday afternoon. Quarterback is a question that has now been answered (it was not at the time of last weekend's scrimmage), but the Crimson Tide's punt and kickoff return roles are undecided.

"We haven't decided on who the starter will be back there," head coach Kalen DeBoer said Saturday. "Guys that did a good job a year ago, we got Cole [Adams] back there, really in both. He started out as our punt returner a year ago and he did a nice job just being steady."

Adams, who is also involved in the competition to determine who will become the fourth wide receiver on the depth chart, was limited to seven games last season because of a leg injury he sustained early in the Missouri game last October 26.

DeBoer said redshirt freshman wideout Rico Scott, who has turned heads with his speed, blocking and overall development in camp, "can probably do some things back there" as a kickoff returner. He mentioned converted defensive back Jaylen Mbakwe, now a wide receiver, as another player who can return kickoffs and punts.

"He and Cole really, I think, can do both and provide a combination of just consistency with fielding it, and then some explosiveness there," DeBoer said. "I would start with those guys. There's more."

Star sophomore Ryan Williams has special teams experience from his freshman season, making him a possibility if someone regularly in those roles were to go down again. He and Germie Bernard are the leaders in the wide receiver room.

"Ryan had great experience there last year, had a couple explosive plays, got thrown into action there when [Mbakwe] went down through the season," DeBoer said. "I would [be] 100 percent confident having Germie Bernard step back there to field punts and things like that."

Kickoff returns have been impacted by rule changes in recent years, but it helps to have a playmaker there for such occasions when something opens up. With a top speed of 23.5 miles per hour recorded this summer (according to Bernard), such a role seems tailor-made for a player like Scott.

It's also not a given that an expanded presence in the wide receiver room would reduce the likelihood of Adams reassuming his old role as the primary punt returner. Based on DeBoer's statements Saturday, things appear to be trending in that direction. Adams had 73 combined return yards on 16 returns (15 punt, one kickoff) in 2024.

Williams and Bernard are probably contingency options. The latter didn't have any returns last season. Williams had 14, 12 on punts and two on kickoffs, for a total of 134 yards. Mbakwe logged three returns for 61 yards. Scott only appeared in four games, not making a return.