TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Every time Kool-Aid McKinstry drops back to receive a punt, an audience is watching.

Along with the 101,821 watching at Bryant-Denny Stadium at the edge of their seats, McKinstry's teammates make sure they are up on the sidelines to watch the cornerback do his thing.

"Everybody gets up and goes looks like, ‘Let’s see what Kool-Aid is going to do on this drive,'" Will Anderson said. "He actually has a little shake and bake to him believe it or not, so when we watch him, everybody is on the sideline laughing all the time. He actually gets out and he actually can move very well. He’s very athletic."

McKinstry assumed the role of the team's main punt-returner during fall camp after the presumed starter, JoJo Earle, suffered a Jones Fracture in August. Since the start of the season, the sophomore has thrived in the role, tallying 244 yards on 14 attempts. That averages out to more than 17 yards per return.

Sometimes, the cornerback can hear his teammates whooping and hollering as he sashays by a defender en route to a big return. Against ULM, McKinstry heard plenty of cheers as he dashed up and down the field, tallying 136 punt return yards, the third-most in Alabama single-game history.

"The blockers that I have do a good job all week of working hard and making sure that I have the lanes that I have," McKinstry said. "I just take them and do the best that I can for the team."

While McKinstry was able to put a few of those returns on a highlight reel, his job isn't to just make people miss and show off his speed, it's to give the offense better field position and he has done that consistently.

On half of his returns, McKinstry set the Alabama offense up at least to its own 40-yard line. Bryce Young surely appreciates the short field which he said changes the offensive play-calling to be a bit more aggressive as the team is so much closer to the end zone.

"It gives us that momentum, it gives us that juice as an offense. When you see something like that, the whole momentum changes," Young said. "We're always in attack mode, but it just raises it even more. We know we're just that much closer than we thought we were going to be to the end zone. So I think it's really just that momentum, that confidence boost that he's been able to give us on multiple occasions that really sparks us as an offense."

This week, McKinstry has another chance to show off his moves in the open field as Arkansas averages more than 18 yards per return this season, good for 11th in the conference.

With the Razorbacks struggling to bring down returners so far this season, you can bet McKinstry's teammates will be attentive when No. 1 drops back to field a punt.

"For us as an offense that changes everything," Young said. "It gives us a way better chance of scoring, puts in a great situation. So being able to watch them from the sidelines has been a lot of fun."