Nick Saban repeated the question back to the reporter.

“Stay with him? What do you mean stay with him?”

Following Alabama’s 49-21 win over Kentucky, UA’s head coach was asked about the decision to stick with Kool-Aid McKinstry following a muffed punt in the first quarter — a decision that panned out later when McKinstry returned a punt 27 yards to midfield.

“What would you do with him?” Saban continued. “I love the guy, he’s a good returner. Look, the gunner on that side ran into him when he missed the punt. Alright, that’s the gunner’s responsibility. You can’t look up and catch a ball and worry about somebody running down the field blocking for you running into you. So, he tried to fair catch the ball.

“I got every confidence in the world. He’s been a good player for us. I just think the players around him have to do a little bit better job. When you get these radical punts, I’m gonna call them, you don’t get easy balls to field, you gotta cover a lot of ground to catch it and that launch point of where he’s catching it changes for the people that are blocking for him. I’m not making excuses for anybody, but you can’t blame him for that one in my opinion.”

While the gunner, Louisiana-Lafayette transfer Trey Amos, didn’t make contact with McKinstry, he did dart across his face as the ball hit McKinstry’s arms. A dogpile resulted in the Wildcats’ ball at the 32-yard line and their first touchdown after a six-play drive. It was the latest struggle this season for McKinstry, the punt returner.

After being one of the best special teams weapons in the sport in 2022, McKinstry has failed to consistently field punts. His average is down from 25.5 yards per game to 6.4 yards. He’s also lost two fumbles, granting South Florida a short field in Week 3. Saban has explained how teams are avoiding McKinstry, sometimes using rugby-style punts to bounce balls toward him.

“It’s a lot of different things,” McKinstry said when asked on Oct. 31 about returning. “Faced a lot of challenging kicks this year, whether it has been rugby or a guy holding the ball longer than usual. The ball has been just different. Punt returning, you’ve got to make sure at the end of the play we at least have the ball. Make sure we don’t have any unnecessary turnovers. I would say I’ve been working harder on just making sure I’m catching all the difficult balls, balls that are even harder to catch or can be risky catches. Making sure I am doing that to make sure we save as much field position as possible.”

An elite cornerback and a potential first-round pick in next April’s NFL Draft, McKinstry’s ability with the ball in his hands has been part of his game since high school. Representing Pinson Valley in the 2021 Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Game, McKinstry was awarded MVP with three touchdowns: one as a reciever, a pick-six as a defensive back and a punt return touchdown.

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].