The Game Before the Money Radio Show shared outstanding college football records. In this post, we talk about kickoff returns for touchdowns.
Running Two Kickoff Returns for Touchdowns in Single Game
A kickoff return for a touchdown is one of the most exciting plays in football. Twenty-five players in college football history have run two kickoffs back for touchdowns in the same game. Ten players have done that in NFL history.
Raghib “Rocket” Ismail Holds Record for Most Games With Two Kickoff Returns for Touchdowns
One college player tops everybody in this category because he returned two kickoffs for touchdowns twice!
Raghib “Rocket” Ismail from Notre Dame returned two kickoffs for touchdowns in a 1988 game against Rice. The next year, in 1989, he returned to kickoffs for touchdowns against Michigan at Michigan in the Big House. Notre Dame beat Michigan 24-19 on that day in a battle of the nation’s top two ranked teams. Rocket Ismail’s record of most games with two kickoff returns for touchdowns set in 1989 still stands today.
Rocket Ismail Touchdowns vs. Michigan
Ismail’s first touchdown return against Michigan was the first kickoff returned for a touchdown against the Wolverines since 1957 — over 30 years before Rocket’s epic launch. Both of Ismail’s kickoffs returned for touchdowns were in the second half, the first coming on the second-half kickoff. Ismail dashed for 88 yards on that kickoff. He ran for 92 yards on the second touchdown.
Michigan had narrowed Notre Dame’s lead to a single point right before halftime, but Rocket’s first touchdown returned stretched the Irish’s lead to 14-6.
After the game, Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz told reporters he simply told Ismail to run to middle. Ismail said his job was to find a crease, run through it, and make somebody miss. He made everybody miss twice against Michigan.
The Irish victory at Michigan in front of over 105,000 fans made Norte Dame the first school to defeat Michigan head coach Bo Schembechler in three straight seasons.
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