Why is our star receiver even returning punts?

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Probably because he is really good at it. And we don’t know if he is out for the season yet. 

Desmond Howard returned punts in his Heisman year.  Charles Woodson returned punts in his Heisman year.  WTF are you talking about?

Because he is a football player 

Garret Wilson returns punts for OSU. DPJ returned punts for us and does so for Browns.

We once had a few stars here return punts—think their names are Woodson and Howard. 
 

It is the game of football, oddly. You cannot guess when or where a player will get hurt. You play the damn game to win. And you play to win all phases.

Because he was better at returning punts than anyone else on the team.  Punt returning isn’t all that much more dangerous than playing wr, since most of the time you’re fair catching or letting the ball go.   These takes are 100% hindsight bias.

The last thing I’m going to the accuse the coaches of is not being conservative enough.  This team isn’t an all star squad; they need to press every advantage they have this season (not to beat Western, sure, but to be competitive with real teams later in the season).

Look, Urban Meyer is a dipshit, but the dude is as successful as college coaches come and he has always been adamant that the best players play on special teams because it’s a great way to squeeze some extra advantage. I have no problem with this. 

Can you imagine if Ronnie Bell was hurt after catching a pass?
Why would we have good receivers catching passes?

This was NOT a Drew Stanton gets hurt as a gunner on punts injury.

Yeah, why is a receiver receiving punts? 

This is the dumbest fucking thread of all time. It must be your first day watching football  

Because the object of the game is to outscore your opponent.

Go Blue

It's just bad, shitty luck that Ronnie Bell was hurt on the punt return.  Seems like Michigan Football can write the book on bad luck.

Name a college football team that doesn’t use it’s better players as a punt returner? I’d say almost every team uses either a top 2-3 WR or CB as it’s primary Punt returner .  

This is the dumbest take of the season. So far, but I admit the season is young.

First, is returning punts more dangerous than his regular receiving role? The big danger is getting clobbered right after he catches the ball, and thanks to the ability to fair catch that's rarely a problem.

Second, have Michigan's best players over the years returned punts? Hell yes. I've seen Charles Woodson, Desmond Howard, Anthony Carter and Steve Breaston name-checked earlier in the thread, but I don't think I've seen Derrick Alexander (first round pick), Amani Toomer (second round) or Jabrill Peppers (first round) mentioned. I'm sure if we look around we can find more.

Third, was Bell's injury uniquely a result of returning punts, or was it the kind of injury that could have happened catching the ball? If you watch the play again, he was getting chased down from behind by special teams players. This is the kind of thing that could definitely happen to a receiver after a catch, especially if he's playing in the slot. So I'd have to say that this was the kind of injury that could have happened after a reception.

Yes, it sucks. But so does your take.