Rookie kick returners are learning the right moves

Look up. Way up.

You're Marcus Thigpen, an American punt returner learning the Canadian game, and here comes the ball.  

You are used to making just one of three decisions — catch it and maybe get your head taken off, call for a fair catch or let it go to be downed by the other team.  

But here in the Canadian Football League, that ball coming your way brings a dozen possibilities — many of them you'd never heard of before.

Do you catch it and run? Let it hit the ground and hope to suck the cover team inside the five-yard restraining zone to draw a no-yards call? And if you do that are you sure the guy racing into the zone isn't actually the punter and thus eligible to jump on the ball?

Or maybe it's someone else who was onside when the ball was kicked and he can pick the thing up?

Worse, you could be in the end zone, where you have to make all the above calls plus decide if you are going to give up a single point by downing the ball, or field it and try to get back over the goal-line. 

Yep, there's a lot to work out up here, especially in a league where you often get twice or even three times the opportunities to return the ball as they do down south. 

"I'm still learning," says Hamilton's Thigpen, relaxing after practice on a sizzling Thursday afternoon at Ivor Wynne Stadium.

"Coach is still teaching me each day, because I'm still not familiar with all the rules. It's something I've got to work on so it comes with experience and time." 

Things seem to be working out fine so far for Thigpen, a Detroit native who signed in Regina last fall and was a final cut by the Saskatchewan Roughriders this year. The Tiger-Cats picked him up, sent him out to return punts and kicks and hoped for the best.

Thigpen has run a missed field goal, a kickoff and a punt back for touchdowns in just a pair of games. And he's not the only one in what's already turning out to be the year of the runback. 

Through Week 2, six balls have been taken back for touchdowns (all by rookies), including two punts, a kickoff and three missed field goals. That's just one less than all of last season, and there are still 16 weeks to go. 

Punts are toughest 

There's no doubt in Thigpen's mind which of the three types of kick returns is the biggest headache.

"Definitely, punts are … the hardest thing to catch out on the field," he says. "Sometimes, they are going over your head. Or they drop short. Sometimes it looks like it's going short, but they go far." 

Doing it right, says the rookie, is a matter of the right feel. And right now Thigpen is really feeling it. 

So is Chad Owens of the Toronto Argonauts, who bounced around NFL practice rosters for four seasons before coming to the CFL.

He has two returns for touchdowns, one of which was the key play in a win over Winnipeg in Week 2. (Tim Maypray, of Montreal, also has a major on a 125-yard runback). 

"I'm playing within myself," Owens told the Toronto Star. "I'm not trying to do too much, but at the same time you've got to go out there with a mentality that you're going to score, make a big play." 

Deon Murphy has that mentality. 

Another rookie, he's picked up 77 yards on 10 punt returns and 188 on seven kick offs for the Calgary Stampeders. Most important was a 105-yard scamper on a missed Hamilton field goal that set up a big touchdown.  

Murphy has also learned quickly there is a lot to learn, especially on those punts. 

"The first thing that comes to my mind [as most important] is possession of the ball," he says. "Then keep my feet moving, my feet high, always moving and catch the ball, that's step one." 

And make the first man miss? Not in Canada. Here, it's leave the second guy grasping for air because the five-yard restraining zone pretty much means avoiding the first tackler is a given. 

No peeking when it's coming down 

You also don't look up field until that ball is in your hands. But you can peek earlier than that. 

"When I see the ball coming off the foot and it is in the air, that's when I'm looking at the line at first," says Murphy, who credits natural instincts for his success. "And then I track the ball down and I already know where they are coming." 

And where the holes might be so that after the ball and the tacklers arrive, it's off to the races. 

That's where the biggest difference between the American and Canadian games comes in, Murphy says. 

Here, "they give you five yards, so that really gives you a chance to expose yourself," he says. "So you open your speed up and the field is wider and that really gives you a chance to make a lot of moves." 

Ever catch the ball, look up field and see your life flash in front of your eyes?

"Yeah, there has been times," Murphy says. "I've been there before, especially when we call the all-out block and we don't block the punt.

"You are out there on your own, so you really just feel like 'Oh s--t, let me just get somewhere to get up field and get positive yards.' "

Asked this week what he's looking for a in a punt returner, Hamilton coach Marcel Bellefeuille listed off intelligence, speed and good hands.

"And he has to be courageous," he said.

So far this CFL season, fans have been seeing all of that in abundance.