The list of great Maryland punt returners: Steve Suter. Bob Smith. Tony Logan. And that's the list.
Okay, maybe it's a tad premature to put Logan in that group (and if you know who Smith is, props to you, because I don't, but he's #2), but through the first five games of his junior year, he's putting up some amazing numbers. Just how amazing? Arguably-best-punt-returner-in-the-nation amazing.
No one's within 100 total punt return yardage of Logan this season, as his 415 is above-and-beyond anyone else. He's less than a yard behind Oregon's Cliff Harris in punt return average, but Harris has less than half the number of returns Logan has and over 200 fewer yards. The sizable difference in number of returns means the difference is within the margin of error. For the record, Logan is also tied for the nation's lead in punt return TDs.
He's also looking pretty good in the history books, too. He's on pace for 996 yards, a number that would top Suter's all-time best by more than 200 yards and would give him the top spot for Maryland in terms of all-time yardage, too. He's already 187 yards ahead of where Suter was through the fifth game of his best season, and even though Logan will play in one fewer game, the record looks very much in danger right now. All of that is even more impressive when you consider all the people that have seen limited success under Friedgen at punt returner.
Maryland's occasionally stagnant offense, of course, isn't going to turn any of that down. The same way Torrey Smith occasionally helped out a young Jamarr Robinson last year, Logan's helping out a young Danny O'Brien this year. And hey, I don't think anyone would mind Maryland starting to make a concentrated effort to get him the ball in space more often, like the Wild Turtle or wide receiver screens.
And even though Logan's been the primary punt returner for fewer than 20 games, he's already racked up 564 yards, a total good for 5th all-time for Maryland in punt return yardage. And his two TDs, which he just racked up the past two weeks, are already good for 3rd all-time (hint: only four players have ever run back more than one punt for a TD at Maryland). If he keeps this current pace, he'll own literally every punt-return record in the book for Maryland.
I never would've thought heading into this year that Logan has a legitimate NFL career ahead of him. Now, maybe he's the next Devin Hester.