Homemade Croutons

One thing I haven't figured out in my 30+ years of cooking and baking is out is how to make yeast breads. I've tried and tried and always have a problem getting the dough to rise the second time. Obviously, I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. My dough rises the first go round in the greased bowl, but after I punch it down, shape it and place it in a pan to rise again, it does nothing. I've tried different types of flour and yeast, but to no avail. My rolls/breads end up looking like this...

This is suppose to be a Copycat Texas Roadhouse Roll.
To show you how flat they turned out, I put this one in front of a hot dog bun.

There IS good news. I found a recipe from All In Good Food and made flavorsome homemade croutons from my day old I-Suck-at-Baking-with-Yeast Rolls.

If you know what I could be doing wrong in the bread baking department, please drop me a note in the comment section of this post. I'm up for tips and suggestions.