COLUMBIA - Missouri head coach Barry Odom and special teams coordinator Andy Hill haven't yet made up their minds, at least publicly, on who will be returning kickoffs this season.
Their hands have been forced when it comes to punt returns.
Richaud Floyd, the redshirt junior wide receiver who took over for Johnathon Johnson as punt returner midway through the 2017 season, will miss four to six weeks with a non weight-bearing bone break in his lower right leg. The injury happened in practice Wednesday. Floyd was one of nine players in the nation last season with two or more punts returned for touchdowns, and along with LSU's DJ Chark, one of two in the Southeastern Conference.
CBSSports.com named Floyd to its Preseason All-American second team Wednesday as a punt returner behind Texas Christian's KaVonte Turpin. Albert Okwuegbunam was its second-team tight end and Corey Fatony was second-team punter as Missouri's other representatives.
"The good thing for all of us is we expect him to be back fairly quickly from that," Odom said of Floyd's injury. "(Head athletic trainer) Rex (Sharp) has had experience with those over the last couple years. Aubrey Miller had one last year and then years ago Aldon Smith, both came back and got the time frame down. We just kind of know when to expect it (to heal), and everybody's different, we know that. Richaud told me this morning he's going to drink lots of milk, I don't know if that'll help, but we'll try it and get him back and get ready to go."
Floyd was one reason the Tigers had success on special teams last season. He returned 11 punts in 13 games for 218 total yards, and his average return of 19.82 yards would have been a top-10 mark nationally in the cfbstats database, but it excludes players that didn't play in 75 percent of the team's games and reach a minimum threshold of 1.2 punts returned per game played. Washington's Dante Pettis led the nation in total return yards (428), average (20.38), return yards per game (32.9) and touchdowns (four), numbers Floyd would have had a chance to approximate with more return chances.
More chances also would have made Missouri one of three programs a season ago - along with Georgia and Pittsburgh - to have both a punter and punt returner in the top-15 of national averages, as Fatony hit his 58 punts an average of 44.31 yards, good for 13th nationally.
"Truthfully, it was punted a bunch of times to us, but we had 14 returns," Hill said Wednesday. "So on 70 kicks, 14 returns, there's a lot of balls bouncing around or kicked out of bounds or fair catches that we can take some slack out of that, I think. Hopefully we can get more returns and keep the same averages. If you look at the national average we were in good shape, 14 returns, you'd like to maybe double that."
Jalen Knox and Dominic Gicinto, both true freshmen, are options for the team in the punt return game, and Johnson has game experience returning punts. Missouri's special teams group has made the effort in spring practices and fall camp under Hill to rotate kick returns between those three and Floyd.