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After what happened when kickoffs landed in the hands of Indiana’s Marcus Thigpen last week (197 yards, 1 touchdown), it would behoove Illinois to keep the ball away from Ohio punt returner Chris Garrett. Garrett is leading the nation in punt returns with an average of 25.9 yards for his nine runbacks, and took one 88 yards to the end zone in last week’s victory over Western Michigan. . . . Garrett also is a breakaway threat on kickoff returns, as are Scott Mayle (ranked 18th nationally in that category last season) and Josh Abrams. . . . The Illini’s longest kickoff return is 27 yards by freshman Chris Duvalt and their longest punt runback is 20 yards by E.B. Halsey.
