Kansas University kick returner Marcus Herford streaks down the sideline during his 74-yard touchdown return Saturday against Southeastern Louisiana. The Big 12 acknowledged Herford's big day when it named him conference special-teams co-player of the week Monday.

Kansas University kick returner Marcus Herford streaks down the sideline during his 74-yard touchdown return Saturday against Southeastern Louisiana. The Big 12 acknowledged Herford's big day when it named him conference special-teams co-player of the week Monday.

Kansas University football junior Marcus Herford doesn’t get a crystal football for winning the Big 12 Conference’s Player of the Week award on Monday.

But if he did, you can bet he’d like to split it 11 ways.

Herford earned the special-teams co-honor – along with Texas’ Brandon Foster – after returning a free kick 74 yards for a touchdown and having two other stellar kickoff returns in the Jayhawks’ 62-0 victory over Southeastern Louisiana.

Herford has said all along that the role of his 10 blockers will be key in whether he succeeds. He’s had success so far, and he’s not straying from passing out credit.

“The thing we’ve learned is that everyone has an assignment,” Herford said after Saturday’s game. “If they do it, great things can happen. It’s showing.”

KU’s success returning kicks was expected, at least on paper. Herford averaged 26.1 yards per return a year ago, third-best in the Big 12. This year, the NCAA pushed kickoffs back five yards to the 30-yard line to prevent an abundance of touchbacks.

Herford has averaged 41.2 yards per return so far, including run-backs of 74, 45 and 30 against Southeastern Louisiana. He’s the only one in the conference to return one for a touchdown, though it comes with asterisk – it came on a free kick after a safety, and Southeastern had to kick off from the 20.

Coupled with kicker Scott Webb’s four touchbacks when KU kicks off, the rule change appears to play to KU’s strengths. It certainly has been a helping hand in the Jayhawks’ dominant 2-0 start.

“The main thing was the time we put into special teams,” Herford said. “We take it seriously, we practice hard at it every day, dating all the way back to spring. It’s starting to really show, and we’re helping the team out however we can.”

Since coach Mark Mangino’s arrival at Kansas in 2002, special teams have been a major emphasis in the program, part of the reason key players like Jon Cornish, Charles Gordon and Brandon McAnderson were heavily involved in more than just their regular position.

Herford – a second-string wide receiver – emerged as the No. 1 kick-return option last year, an avenue to show off his speed and fearlessness.

“We’ve worked hard to improve our kick returning over last year,” Mangino said. “We’ve improved our blocking and sustaining those blocks. Marcus is doing a good job of hitting the seam and getting upfield. We just need to sustain that.”

Herford’s touchdown on Saturday was nifty – he caught the ball at the 26-yard line near the right hash mark, slipped through a seam going diagnol right-to-left, streaked up the left sideline and juked the kicker before striding over the goal line.

Reaching the end zone was an individual goal of his at the beginning of the season. But after he accomplished it, he realized it wasn’t so individual.

“Those guys did their job,” Herford said of his blockers. “I tried to finish it off. I did my part and things happened for us.”