Ryan Switzer is, he’ll tell you, just trying to make something happen.
Switzer, a wide receiver on the North Carolina football team, returned five punts for touchdowns last season, which tied an NCAA record. This season? The 5-foot-10, 180-pound sophomore has zero punt return TDs.
That could change soon, he says.
“I feel like we are close,” Switzer said after Tuesday’s unseasonably warm practice. “We were one or two blocks away on Saturday from taking one to the house … A lot of things go into a punt return, and hopefully in the coming weeks we can get all of those things to work in our favor.”
There was, finally, some open space for Switzer to exploit in UNC’s 28-27 win at Virginia on Saturday. Switzer said teams have changed their special teams strategies against the Tar Heels, which in turn forced him to change his outlook on returning.
“I’ve had to be a lot more patient,” he said. “I started forcing things earlier in the season, but I didn’t make a lot of mistakes other than the (muffed punt) against Virginia Tech. I’ve had to be more prepared from a returners’ standpoint. I’ve had to watch more film and I’ve had to expect different things, because teams — they’ve changed their whole game plan when they’ve played us, so it’s kind of hard to come into the game when you don’t know what to expect.
“If I scale back a little bit that’s taking away what I do best, which is playing enthusiastic, playing 110 percent. I’ve just had to change up my decision making. Not necessarily scale it back or anything but just kind of make better decisions and on ones I do end up returning try to make something happen.”
Switzer said he’s still learning the nuances of one of the game’s most exciting plays. He’s altered his fair-catch philosophy, too.
“If I fair catch it, I wanna fair catch it at the last second,” he said. “I wanna leave absolutely no doubt that there’s not gonna be any space. Because if I fair catch it too early and there’s space, there’s one of the few opportunities I got to make something happen gone.
