[anotherfootballnut]

Just like on roll out passes you almost have to have someone “push” the punter to kick the ball the same as pushing a QB to throw instead of tucking and running. If the punter punts the ball he had turned into a kicker and protected in that process. Like you said you can take a chance on drawing a roughing call but most of the time if the defender gets that close and the punter hasn’t timed his steps up, he takes a chance of the defender getting a piece of the ball and blocking it. The rugby option really does take one, maybe two blockers out of the return just to make sure the ball is kicked.

If college rules are same as high school , once a punter gets outside the locket he’s fair game if he punts it or not . It happened during a college game I was watching , I had no idea that was the rule