TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Isaiah Bond doesn’t typically let things slip as a receiver. However, speaking in front of reporters for the first time Wednesday afternoon, the sophomore might have revealed a bit of Alabama’s special teams plans moving forward.
Bond served as a punt returner during his time at Georgia Class 7A powerhouse Buford High School. When asked Wednesday, he said he has continued to work on punt returning at Alabama, finishing his response with an interesting statement.
“Should be seeing me soon,” he said confidently.
Kool-Aid McKinstry serves as Alabama’s primary punt returner, averaging 5.27 yards on 11 attempts this season. Bond is the only other Crimson Tide player to record a return, netting 1 yard on an attempt against Middle Tennessee in the season opener.
In his lone attempt last season, Bond returned a punt 34 yards against Louisiana Monroe. The speedy receiver also has a penchant for big plays on offense, recording five catches of 20 yards or more this season, including three that went for touchdowns this season.
Bond’s latest big play came over the weekend on the second play of Alabama’s opening drive of the third quarter when he got open for a 46-yard touchdown reception against Tennessee.
“My mom always told me when I was young, ‘Big-time players make big-time plays,’” Bond said. “So just going in there and believing in my training I’ve done my whole life and just knowing I’m capable of going in there and making big plays and changing the game.”
So could we see Bond’s game-changing ability on special teams? The former track star boasts 10.48 speed in the 100-meter dash and claims he’s the fastest player on Alabama’s roster. However, earlier Wednesday Nick Saban expressed confidence in McKinstry, despite the junior’s recent struggles as a punt returner.
McKinstry ranked second in the nation last year, averaging 15.86 yards on 21 punt returns. This year, he hasn’t been able to maintain the same level of success, misjudging several punts while letting them land on the ground and bounce for extra yardage.
Through eight weeks, Alabama has allowed its opponents to average 47.28 yards per punt. Last week, McKinstry misjudged a pair of punts, including one that bounced inside the Alabama five for a net of 71 yards.
Still, speaking on the SEC teleconference earlier Wednesday, Saban didn’t sound like he was close to making a change.
“First of all, Kool-Aid’s done a great job for us back there,” Saban said. “And I think that a lot of people are kicking the ball away from him because we had a lot of success on punt return last year. So he’s had a lot of difficult balls to field.”
As for the two recent mistakes, Saban said McKinstry’s first misjudged punt against Tennessee should have been caught but noted that Volunteers punter Jackson Ross put a difficult spin on the second one which made it difficult to field.
“These guys that are rugby punters, the ball doesn’t travel exactly like a normal punt, so this ball flew on him a little bit,” Saban said. “You can see on the film when you watch it that the ball was going to go over his head and he was going to have to catch it outside his body and make a tough catch, and rather than take a chance on doing that, he let the ball go, and unfortunately for us, it rolled to the one-yard line.”
Saban went on to say that he has “total confidence” confidence in McKinstry as the team’s returner, stating “I don’t think he has an issue.”
So what does that make of Bond’s comment? It could be that the sophomore is just confident of his development and plans on eventually taking over McKinstry’s role after the junior moves on to the NFL. On the other hand, maybe a secret switch is in the works.
We’ll find out more next week as No. 9 Alabama hosts No. 15 LSU on Nov. 4.
