Ask those who have done it and they will tell you fielding punts isn’t as easy as it looks.

The punt returner must battle the wind. He’s catching a punted ball, not a thrown spiral. The higher the punt, the tougher it is to gauge.

Those challenges deal with what the return man sees. What he hears – what John Facenda used to call the “thundering herd” on the highlight films – doesn’t make it any easier.

It requires a wide range of abilities that extend beyond speed, shiftiness and sure hands. It requires the ability to maintain focus, adjust on the fly, ignore the thundering herd.

A coach has to be really sure about a player’s ability to catch punts before he asks him to return them. KU coach Mark Mangino wasn’t sure about Brian Murph and wasn’t convinced he did the right thing in letting assistant coach Clint Bowen talk him into letting Murph return punts in the Fort Worth Bowl.

It didn’t take long for Mangino to regret the decision and for Bowen to brace himself for the short-lived consequences. Standing on the 20, not five minutes into the game, Murph badly misjudged the depth of the punt, thinking it wasn’t as long as it was. He dropped it, picked it up on the 15, dashed down the left sideline and cut back to the middle for an 85-yard touchdown. It was KU’s first punt return TD since 2000.

Mangino was asked to look back on that play nearly eight months later and answer whether the play made him more confident or less confident in Murph’s ability to handle punt return duties.

Mangino, paused, smiled, and answered: “That’s a good question. I like the fact that he ended up in the end zone. I don’t like the way he started the play out. Let’s put it this way: I have confidence in his ability to run the punts back after he has it under his arm. He’s working on gaining our confidence in actually fielding it, and he’s making a lot of strides.”

It’s no easy chore.

“I think it takes some courage, rules or no rules,” Mangino said. “You’re down there trying to field the ball while 10 people are in a full gallop trying to knock your head off. It takes some courage. It takes some nerve to sit there and catch the ball and run with it. That’s part of the punt return mentality. You have to be a tough customer, and Murph’s a tough guy.”

Murph doesn’t claim to have mastered the art yet.

“It’s a struggle sometimes, but coach (Earle) Mosley has me back there working,” he said.

What makes it tougher than it looks?

“The ball and the wind,” Murph said. “The ball does different things. You have to keep your eye on it.”

It’s nothing like catching a baseball with a glove.

“It’s harder than being an outfielder,” Murph said. “I played center field in high school. It’s a lot harder than that.”

Running to open spots and catching passes comes more naturally to Murph, the favorite to lead the Jayhawks in receptions and reception yardage. Having Murph lined up in the slot puts him closer to the middle of the formation and makes it easy for him to attack either side of the defense.

Murph will make his way onto the highlight film often. One big key to his season lies in staying off opposing school’s special teams highlight films, which is tougher than it sounds.