As the 2016 season draws nearer by the day, it’s time to start taking a look at some of the top players to watch in the Big Ten Conference.

We continue our Ranking the Big Ten series today by taking a look at the return men, which feature some of the most explosive special teams weapons in the country this season.

Likely is the best returner in the Big Ten and the best in all of college football, and there’s little arguing otherwise. He may only be 5-foot-7, but he’s a threat to take one to the house every time he touches the football.

Likely led the nation in combined return yards last season with 1,197 to earn first-team All-American and first-team all-conference honors as a returner and was named the Big Ten’s 2015 Rodgers-Dwight Return Specialist of the Year.

Likely ended his stellar junior season by averaging 17.7 yards per punt return and taking two punts and a kickoff back for touchdowns. He now enters his senior year holding a slew of Maryland records, including single-game kickoff return yards (228) and single-game punt return yards (233), which broke a 76-year-old Big Ten mark.

Grant enters his senior season standing as the best kickoff return man in the history of Rutgers football. A 2015 second-team All-Big Ten selection, Grant set a school record with 984 kick return yards to lead the conference and ran back three kickoffs for touchdowns.

He also added 167 punt return yards with a another touchdown to bring his overall return yardage to 1,151, ranking second nationally. As a result, Grant ended last season as Rutgers’ all-time leader with 2,411 career kickoff return yards, and he also ranks 10th with 368 career punt return yards.

On top of all that, Grant is also a versatile weapon on the Scarlet Knights’ offense. He ended up with 352 receiving yards and 80 more rushing yards, which helped him finish second in the Big Ten last year with 1,583 all-purpose yards and 20th nationally with 131.92 total yards per game.

As if it weren’t enough for King to establish himself as the best cornerback in all of college football last season by winning the Jim Thorpe Award and earning first-team All-American honors, he also ended up as one of the Big Ten’s most productive return men.

Handling the majority of Iowa’s kickoff and punt return duties in 2015, King ranked fourth in the conference with 14.2 yards on 17 punt returns and 10th with 24.4 yards on 29 kick returns. Those numbers were good enough to add an honorable mention All-Big Ten honor as a returner to his already decorated resume.

King is back for his senior season in 2016 and is expected to one again handle the role as the Hawkeyes primary return man.

Similar to Likely, Paige is usually one of the smallest players on the field at just 5-7, but what he lacks in size he more than makes up for with his dynamic playmaking ability.

Paige ranked fifth in the Big Ten and 22nd nationally last year with an average of 11.1 yards on 18 punt returns, and he tied the single-season school record by taking a league-best two punts back for touchdowns. Those numbers ended up earning him honorable mention all-conference honors.

Among those two returns for scores included a 91-yard touchdown in a win over Western Kentucky, which ended up being the fifth-longest return in Hoosier history and the second-longest in FBS in 2015.

Only a true sophomore in 2015, Vault proved to be one of the Big Ten’s most dangerous kickoff returners by ranking fifth in the league with an average of 26.3 yards on 25 returns with two touchdowns.

Along with being named third-team all-conference as a return specialist, Vault became the first Northwestern player to run back two kicks for touchdowns in a season and the first Wildcat to record three kickoff returns for scores in a career.

Vault had one his best outings of the year in Northwestern’s win over Duke, as he finished with 118 kick return yards and took one 98 yards to the house to open the third quarter to give the Wildcats a lead they would not relinquish.