If there’s one silver lining to allowing 59 points, it’s that the opposing team then has to kick the ball off to Leonard Johnson.

The true freshman cornerback set a NCAA record with 319 kick return yards in the 59-17 loss to Oklahoma State. Johnson’s accolades did not go unnoticed, as he was named the Big 12 Conference Special Teams Player of the Week.

“It’s 11 of us out there on the ambush team, which is the kickoff return team,” Johnson said. “I just thank all 10 of those guys for making those blocks, because if one misses a block, then it’s kind of hard for me to do what I do.”

The previous record was 282 yards, set by Clemson’s Justin Miller in 2004 against Florida State. Miller is now with the New York Jets and was a Pro Bowl kick returner in 2006.

Johnson averaged 35.4 yards per return, with longs of 73 and 72 yards.

“When he gets in the open field right now he’s able to make that first guy miss — if he can make that last guy miss, then hopefully he’ll get a chance to score,” said coach Gene Chizik.

The two long returns that Johnson broke resulted in the 10 points that Iowa State had at halftime. Johnson just had one guy to beat in both of those long returns.

“I let the kicker catch me on a couple of them,” Johnson said.

The Clearwater, Fla.-native said he took some flack from his teammates after the kicker slowed him down.

“Coach Boulware was on me all last night. Every time he sees me, I know he’s going to say something — ‘Look out, there’s the kicker,’” Johnson said.

Nine games into his Cyclone career and Johnson already holds the best kick return average in Cyclone history, at 28.68 yards per return.

“It’s definitely big, especially for an offense when you shorten the field like that,” said running back Alexander Robinson.

Last season the Cyclones had a committee of players returning kicks and together they averaged a measly 18.5 yards per return, with a long of 41 yards.

“Special teams-wise, right now I think we’ve made vast improvements over the year before,” Chizik said.

Johnson said that on each given kick he looks for the wedge on whatever side of the field that the blocking is set up for.

“It’s not all Leonard Johnson. There’s 10 guys out there throwing some pretty good blocks. I mean, I could run through some of those holes,” Chizik said.

The previous high for kick return yards by an ISU team was 254, against Colorado in 1968.

“It always jacks us up when Leonard gets a big return,” said quarterback Austen Arnaud.

Johnson has also done a great job this season at avoiding the knockout hit that many kick returners receive while returning kicks.

“You have to have a lot of courage back there now. You got guys running 50 yards trying to light you up,” Chizik said.