Pierson-El returns punts, talks the talk

IOWA CITY - The first time Iowa decided to punt to De'Mornay Pierson-El, Dillon Kidd saved the day, tackling the Nebraska freshman after a 41-yard return.

OK, Kidd just saved a touchdown for one play. Nebraska quarterback Tommy Armstrong Jr. hit wide receiver Kenny Bell for a 32-yard TD on the next play, but Kidd did tackle Pierson-El.

That only seemed to make him mad.

On the very next punt, Pierson-El shredded Iowa's coverage and wound up one-on-one with Kidd again. This time it was no contest. It was 80 yards for a TD and a 28-24 Huskers' lead.

Nope, punter, not this time.

'I beat him the first time,” said Pierson-El, who returned three punts for 134 yards. 'I beat him the first time. He just got lucky. That was a good play by him, hats off to him, he got me one time. I wasn't letting it happen a second time. I made sure of that.”

Iowa's punt coverage unit has five defensive starters, linebackers Quinton Alston, Josey Jewell and Bo Bower and safeties John Lowdermilk and Jordon Lomax. The gunners were running back Akrum Wadley and wide receiver Derrick Mitchell Jr.

On his TD return, only Lomax even laid a glove on Pierson-El.

'They doubled the guuners on those,” Lowdermilk said. 'They had a good blocking scheme. The core didn't cover as well as we should've.”

OK, fool them once, shame on you. Fool them twice, shame on them.

Iowa had a plan, head coach Kirk Ferentz said. The plan probably wasn't for Wadley and Mitchell to collide, the left side of the coverage to completely collapse and for Lomax to have to leap Kidd, who ended the TD return on his backside, and fail at a flying tackle.

'Yeah, we had a plan. It didn't exactly work the way we hoped,” Ferentz said. 'And then you've got to get down there and cover, too. You've got to disrupt him, can't let him get started upfield, which on those two he got a quick start and got going. Again, it's fundamental football, and if you don't do that well enough with a player like that, you're going to pay for it.”

Pierson-El has been a one-man revival for Nebraska's punt return. In all of 2013, the Huskers had 70 yards in punt return yards. Pierson-El had that on the one in the fourth quarter and now has 589 this season, which is third in school history. The 80-yarder was his third punt return for a TD this season (Fresno State and Michigan State were his other two victims).

'Once they kicked it to me again, I was like ‘Seriously? Again? OK. All right,'” Pierson-El said. 'I'm thankful for it.”

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