Ohio State has a special-teams problem, and it is no longer something Ryan Day can brush aside. The Buckeyes’ kicking issues hurt them last season, played a costly role in their only loss this year, and still have not been fixed. Ahead of Maryland, Day admitted it himself: what Ohio State has tried simply has not worked.
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During his presser, Ryan Day was asked whether Ohio State had looked deeper into its field-goal problems, especially after multiple kickers have struggled over multiple seasons. His answer was unusually blunt.
“What we’ve done hasn’t worked, so we’ve got to continue to figure out ways to get it better,” he said via WBNS 10TV.
Ryan Day said the program has tried different things in practice, including creating more pressure for the kickers. He also believes Ohio State has players capable of making field goals. But capability isn’t the issue here. It’s the consistency.
“They’ve shown that they can do that, but to your point, it’s got to be consistent,” he added. “It’s got to be in big spots. So you ultimately fall to the level of your training but we have to keep looking and uncover all stones to get this thing addressed because we know it’s gonna come down to one of these kicks again that we gotta make.”
And there it is. Ohio State knows this story can end badly because it has already seen it happen. The kicking problems didn’t just appear in September. There’s history there and last season shows how costly it can prove for a program chasing a national championship.
Against Indiana in the Big Ten Championship Game last December, Jayden Fielding missed a 27-yard field goal that handed them a sad 13-10 loss. Then came the Cotton Bowl against Miami. Again, Fielding missed from 49 yards in a game Ohio State eventually lost 24-14. The biggest sting is that those weren’t meaningless kicks in games already out of reach. They came when the Buckeyes needed points and momentum.
So when Connor Hawkins lined up for a 45-yard attempt against Texas with Ohio State leading 23-17 and a chance to restore a two-score advantage, Buckeye Nation had every reason to feel uneasy. Hawkins pushed it far left. Texas then drove 73 yards for the winning touchdown, completing a 21-point fourth-quarter comeback to stun the Buckeyes 24-23.
One kick doesn’t explain an entire defeat. Texas scored 21 fourth-quarter points, and Ohio State had plenty of other problems. Still, that missed kick sits there because it could have changed the game. That missed kick is why they’re not undefeated anymore. That’s what makes Ryan Day’s admission even more important.
“I don’t think I can sit here and say that we’ve improved in special teams right now,” he said. “We need to play better and that’s everybody included… When we look at the consistency of kicking field goals,, not good enough when we look at. Our return yards, we need to be better just across the board, and we have an opportunity to push the ball inside the 10 yard line that has to get done. So, it’s a challenge to everybody in the program. We’ve got to get better in all four phases of special teams.”
Ohio State’s special-teams issues have spread beyond field goals. Against Iowa, Hawkins again missed a 40-yarder off the left upright. He has been perfect from inside 40 yards, but longer attempts have been a different story. Joe McGuire’s first punt traveled only 33 yards. Another punt wasn’t fielded by Phillip Bell, allowing the ball to bounce and roll all the way to the Buckeyes’ 2-yard line.
Those are hidden-yardage mistakes. They don’t always make the highlight reel, but they change where a defense has to start and where an offense has to operate. Ohio State cannot afford that against better opponents and the upcoming schedule is about to make this uglier.
Ohio State has three ranked opponents coming over the next four games. That’s when a 40-yard field goal, a bad punt, or a poor return decision can turn into the difference between winning and spending Sunday explaining why the margin disappeared. Ryan Day knows it. He must be tired of addressing kicking-related questions.
Ohio State has plenty of talent. The defense can cover for mistakes and the offense can erase them. But eventually, against a team good enough to punish every inch, somebody is going to ask for three points. And the Buckeyes have to be ready to give them.