Hosley makes a big impact on Tech's return game

BLACKSBURG — A decision Ryan Williams made in the first quarter of No. 16 Virginia Tech’s first game turned out to be the best thing that could have happened for Jayron Hosley. It turned out to be a pretty good thing for the Hokies football team, too.

Who knows how much Hosley would have played this season if Williams, Tech’s starting tailback, hadn’t asked out of return duties after muffing a first-quarter punt against No. 2 Alabama? That would have been a shame, because Hosley has been a valuable performer for the Hokies.

Though he has played sparingly at cornerback, Hosley, a 5-foot-11, 180-pound freshman from Delray Beach, Fla., is making a name for himself as one of the ACC’s top punt returners.

“He knows I was capable of being the punt returner,” Hosley said of Williams. “Once I got the job, he was like, ‘It’s your game now. Do what you do.’”

So far, so good. In 10 games this season, Hosley has averaged 10.4 yards on 26 returns, which is good for fourth in the conference and 25th nationally.

He announced his presence with a 64-yard return for a touchdown against Marshall, just one week after securing the starting punt returner job, and has been setting up the Hokies with great field position ever since.

Last week at Maryland, five of Hosley’s six punt returns gave Tech the ball at its own 35 or better. The one that didn’t? Well, he returned that one 39 yards to the Maryland 31, but it was called back because of an illegal block.

Hosley had a 33-yard return two weeks ago at East Carolina to set up Tech’s first points in a 16-3 win.

“He breaks some tackles and he’s explosive back there,” said Tech coach Frank Beamer.

If there’s a knock on Hosley, it’s that he sometimes has trouble fielding the ball. He had trouble judging the ball’s path earlier this season against Miami, making for some dicey catches, and he recovered his own dropped returns against ECU and UNC.

That’s an area in which he continues to try to improve. He’s gotten some help from Tech punter Brent Bowden, who has given Hosley tips on how to read punts when they’re in the air.

“If the (tip of the) ball is up, it’s going to travel farther. If it’s wobbly, it’s going to go straight down. That’s the kind of stuff I learned talking with (Bowden),” Hosley said. “He actually pulled me aside after the one I dropped in the ECU game. … He helped me out a lot.”

Hosley doesn’t have difficulty shedding tacklers. That was on full display during his first return Saturday against the Terps. He avoided a would-be tackler while fielding the ball, cut to his right and spun out of a tackle by the punter before being taken down from behind.

“I know they look at me and I’m pretty small, but you can’t catch speed,” Hosley said. “When you have speed, you can wiggle, get away from guys, break tackles, elude guys. Size doesn’t really matter when you have heart.”

Hosley is coming along as a return man, but he also has the potential to be a good defender as well. He was highly rated out of Atlantic High School, the same school former Tech standout cornerback Brandon Flowers attended, and stays in contact with Flowers, who is now a starting cornerback for the Kansas City Chiefs.

He absorbs every bit of advice, because he wants to reach Flowers’ level.

“He just tells me, ‘Make sure you stay focused. Hit the books. Get better. Take your time with it; don’t rush into it,’” said Hosley, who had two tackles and broke up a 2-point conversion against Maryland. “That’s all. Just take the steps that he took to get where he’s at, and that’s all I’m doing.”