Best in 25 Years Series: Vault is Northwestern's top kick returner

It's been 25 years since Northwestern's magical run to the Rose Bowl in 1995. WildcatReport is celebrating that Silver Anniversary by finding out who's been the best player at each position since that legendary team revitalized Wildcat football.

BEST IN 25 YEARS SERIES:

OFFENSE: QB Dan Persa l RB Justin Jackson l WR D'Wayne Bates l TE Drake Dunsmore l T Zach Strief l G Ryan Padgett l C Rob Johnson

DEFENSE: DE Corey Wootton l DT Matt Rice l MLB Pat Fitzgerald l OLB Napoleon Harris l CB Sherrick McManis l S Ibraheim Campbell

SPECIAL TEAMS: PR Venric Mark

Like he did more often than any other kick returner in Northwestern history, Solomon Vault simply ran away from the competition.

Vault left no doubt by garnering 75.5% of the votes to claim the title of the best Northwestern kick returner over the last quarter century. Venric Mark, already the punt returner for our Best in 25 Years Series, finished a distant second with 20.4%. Stephen Simmons was third with 4.1%.

To put Vault's victory margin in perspective, only wide receiver D'Wayne Bates (85.7%) and middle linebacker Pat Fitzgerald (80%) won a larger percentage of the ballots at their respective positions than Vault.

Really, this result should come as no surprise. Fairly or not, we judge kick return men -- and return men, in general -- by touchdowns.

And no one in Northwestern or Big Ten history took more kicks to the house than No. 4.

BALLOT: Who was the best Northwestern kick returner over the last 25 years?

Vault's first KOR TD came as a true freshman in 2014, when he had an 89-yarder against Illinois. He added two in 2015 -- a career-long 98-yarder at Duke and a 96-yarder at Michigan State -- to become the only man in Northwestern history with more than one in a season. He then reached the promised land one final time on a 96-yard return against Penn State in 2016. (You can see the last three of those in videos below.)

We don't think Vault's record of four kickoff-return touchdowns is going to be threatened anytime soon, either. The only other Wildcat with more than one career score is College Football Hall of Famer Pug Rentner, and his second and last one came in 1931.

Vault's career average per return of 25.3 yards is also the fourth-highest in school history.

Unfortunately, Vault, a Gaithersburg (Md.) product, never got a chance to put his record even further out of reach over the next two years. He missed what would have been his senior year in 2017 after preseason surgery for what the program called "a lower body injury." He came back for a fifth year in 2018 but battled through injuries that limited him to nine games and just one kickoff return all season.

Still, that quartet of electric touchdowns made "Solo" the clear choice in this race.

2015 vs. Duke

2015 vs. Michigan State

2016 vs. Penn State