If Syracuse’s punt return unit helps Demetres Samuel Jr. reach the end zone this season, there’s a little extra cash waiting in the wings.
Samuel said Tuesday that he’s promised to pay each member of the Orange’s punt return team $100 for every punt return touchdown he scores this year. He made it clear the deal doesn’t stop at one score, either.
“Every return touchdown I get, I give them all $100,” Samuel said. “Everybody on the return team. ...
No matter how many times I score. So, if I score on a punt return 10 times, you get $100 10 times.”
The sophomore’s setup is part reward, part motivation, and it comes with a real chance to matter. Syracuse hasn’t had a punt return touchdown since Courtney Jackson returned one on Oct. 30, 2021, against Boston College.
The first game suggested Samuel and the return team may have something cooking. In Syracuse’s 66-3 season-opening win over New Hampshire, Samuel was officially credited with four punt returns for 82 yards. He brought each one back at least 10 yards, and holding penalties erased part of the damage on three of them.
Even with the flags, Samuel repeatedly looked one move away from breaking free. His teammates were clearly trying to spring him, maybe a little too aggressively at times.
Syracuse coach Fran Brown said after the game that he wasn’t bothered by the special teams penalties, calling them a byproduct of effort.
“They were fighting their butts off for him because they wanted to score,” Brown said. “Like, he got something going on with them. That was just being a good teammate, trying to fight.”
Brown added that he would use the situation as a teaching point, stressing to the return unit that they can’t get caught holding when Samuel makes his cuts.
Samuel said the staff also emphasized a point of its own this week: “get vertical” on his returns.
That instruction isn’t just about cleaner execution. Samuel said it’s the better way to maximize yardage against more athletic opponents than New Hampshire.
This isn’t the first time Samuel has had the incentive in place, either.
“When I became the punt returner last year, I introduced the idea,” Samuel said.
Samuel was Syracuse’s highest-ranked recruit in its Class of 2025 and one of the biggest players the program had to keep this offseason. He also reclassified up a year and could have been in high school last season, which helps explain why he was still seeing heavy defensive snaps as a true freshman. Because of that workload, he returned only four punts last season.
Now, Syracuse appears more willing to let him loose in the return game.
And Samuel isn’t the only one around the program with a cash reward attached to a game-changing play. He said Brown has a similar system that pays any player $1,000 for an interception return touchdown.
Syracuse’s most recent pick-six came from Jayden Bellamy against Holy Cross on Sept. 29, 2024.
“That’s for Coach Fran,” Samuel said, when asked about the interception bonus. “His rule is, if we get a pick-six, that’s $1,000. So that’s what I’m really trying for.”
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