Progress Report: Evaluating Ohio State special teams after spring practice
COLUMBUS — Ohio State is taking a new approach to special teams this season.
For the first time since he became the Buckeyes head coach in 2019, Ryan Day will not have a full-time special teams coordinator. Day fired Parker Fleming from that role in January and chose not to replace him with one singular special-teams coordinator.
Instead, Day is having all 10 assistants — and himself — become more active in turning the Ohio State special teams from a liability to a reliable phase of the game. And the Buckeyes saw good results in spring ball.
“As a player, you want to really impress your position coach, you want to impress your coordinator, you want to impress the head coach,” Day said. “Sometimes the special teams coordinator can get a little bit low down the line. But when your position coach is up there, and he’s coaching special teams and being the head coach, being a very much a part of it with them, it provided a lot of buy-in from the players. It really made sense to me.”
Ohio State has national championship expectations this fall. Special teams must meet those expectations if the goals are going to be reached.
Lettermen Row is wrapping up its Progress Report series by breaking down the Ohio State Buckeyes specialists. Let’s dive in.
Spring MVP: Assistant coach Rob Keys
Ohio State parted ways with special teams coach Parker Fleming following the Cotton Bowl loss to Missouri, and the Buckeyes didn’t replace him with a full-time special teams coordinator. Instead, they’ll look to improve on the aggregate by having every coach on staff — including head coach Ryan Day — involved with improving the special teams product. That effort to help every coach keep up with special teams falls on staffer Rob Keys, who is the former head coach at the University of Findlay and has been playing point guard for the coaching staff to direct special teams responsibilities. Keys even became the Buckeyes 10th assistant during the window between Tony Alford’s departure and Carlos Locklyn’s hiring as running backs coach. Oh, and Keys spearheaded the effort to land a commitment from projected starting punter Nick McLarty, the Aussie punter from Melbourne who visited in spring and committed shortly after.
Rob Keys had quite the spring. He’s a name to know on the staff moving forward, especially if the Buckeyes see improvement from their special teams units.
Most improved for Ohio State: K Jayden Fielding
Jayden Fielding did a decent job last fall in his first season as the Buckeyes starting kicker. He replaced Noah Ruggles last fall and made 49 of his 50 extra points and 16 of his 20 field goals. Fielding was a perfect 11 of 11 on field goals inside 40 yards. But he was just 5 of 9 — with an impressive make from 47 yards out — on field goals of more than 40 yards. He missed the infamous 52-yard try at the halftime buzzer against Michigan and a 48-yard try in the Cotton Bowl loss to Missouri, his two longest attempts of the year, but he has worked hard this spring to improve his distance more than anything else. He wants to be a reliable long-range kicker for Ohio State — and do it in big moments.
Buzz coming out of spring practice revolved around his improvement. For that, he’s the most improved specialist.
Unanswered question for Buckeyes: Will special teams be better?
This is a pretty easy question to ask, right? Ohio State has to get better on special teams this season if it wants to win a national title. It simply wasn’t good in that phase last fall — time and time again. Ohio State struggled through special teams errors all year in 2023, including in the loss to Michigan to end the regular season. The Buckeyes had short punts and a special teams penalty in that game. In 2022, Ohio State had a miscommunicated fake punt that wasn’t ran in that loss to Michigan and a fake punt gone wrong in the loss to Georgia in the College Football Playoff.
So Ryan Day pulled the plug on the special teams operation, firing Parker Fleming after three years leading that part of the game. Ohio State must be better on special teams. No more burned timeouts on miscommunications. No more blunders or mis-called fake punts to give opponents points on the road.
Improvement should be easy; the Buckeyes weren’t good on special teams a year ago. Will that show itself under new leadership — with every coach on the staff having a hand in the special teams effort? That’s the goal for Day and his staff to see through.
Projected special teams starters
Kicker: Jayden Fielding
Jayden Fielding is improving, as we stated above, as he enters his second season as the Buckeyes starting kicker. He was solid for Ohio State last season. He needs to be even better in big moments if he’s going to help this program win a national title.
Punter: Nick McLarty
Jesse Mirco transferred to Vanderbilt after three decent — but sometimes rocky — seasons as the starting punter. And Joe McGuire was OK this spring, but the Buckeyes are bringing Nick McLarty from Down Under to become the starting punter right away. He committed this spring and will arrive soon. Expect the freshman to boot the ball for the Buckeyes this fall.
Longsnapper: John Ferlmann
Buckeyes longsnapper John Ferlmann returns for his second year as a starter after transferring in from Arizona State. He’s locked in as the starter here.
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