Special teams getting off on the right foot

‍

COVER PHOTO: Wide receiver Brandon Inniss receives words of encouragement from defensive line coach Larry Johnson during their first practice of the 2024 fall camp. Picture by Sam Fahmi/Columbus Wired.

‍

For the past couple of seasons, Ohio State’s special teams have kind of been everything but that: special.

Several stumbles took place during special teams coordinator Parker Fleming’s three-year tenure, most notably in the past two seasons.

Although, this season there seems to be a renewed sense of vigor within the unit that hasn’t been felt in a while and it can’t help but feel like head coach Ryan Day’s new approach is what has sparked it.

“I made a bunch of calls to a bunch of coaches and one in particular that hit with me was when I talked to Coach Tressel,” Day said back in March. “He shared with me that he did this when he was here, he assigned one of the special teams to each of the coaches. And it got great buy-in from the players because, as a player, you want to really impress your position coach.”

And the players definitely seem to be buying in.

“I really like it,” said kicker Jayden Fielding on Wednesday. “I like coach Day being around the specialists and all the special teams, it just feels more involved.”

Fielding handled all of the kicking duties last year aside from two kickoffs and punts. He knocked down 16 out of 20 field goal attempts and made all but one of his 50 extra points. His longest field goal made was from 47 yards out.

The junior said he’s been nailing 55-to-60-yarders with consistency during practice.

It was only a couple of months prior to that conversation with one of the finest special teams gurus that Day finally dismissed Fleming after three years of experimenting with having one coach in charge of the special teams. At the beginning of last season, Ohio State was only one of four FBS teams to have a dedicated special teams coach.

Fleming hiccupped and burped his way through the past two seasons with several head scratchers causing pretty much everyone in Buckeye Nation to want to tear their hair out.

In 2022, there was the infamous fake punt against Michigan that was supposed to be a fake punt that actually turned into a non-fake punt.

Down by four midway through the third quarter, the Buckeyes had the ball on 4th-and-10 at the Wolverines’ 48 yard line. OSU punter Jesse Mirco fielded the snap but looked befuddled to get the ball in the first place and quickly had to kick it to avoid being blocked. It resulted in a touchback.

The maize and blue took over with six minutes left in the quarter and proceeded to slowly march down the field on a 15-play, 80-yard drive that gobbled up nearly eight minutes of clock and was capped off by a 3-yard TD run by quarterback J.J. McCarthy that gave them a 31-20 lead with 13 minutes to play.

And the “kicker” about the fake was that the Buckeyes were flagged for a 5-yard penalty on the previous play for an illegal snap by Mason Arnold.

Day never officially admitted after the Buckeyes’ eventual 45-23 loss that it was supposed to be a fake, but watching video of it afterwards sure made those who know a thing or two about X’s and O’s surmise that it was most definitely designed that way.

That play probably wouldn’t have had a major decision on the outcome but it’s always fun to think “what if”.

However, there’s no need to go into kicker Noah Ruggles’ wild shank at the end of the Sugar Bowl that would have given Ohio State the win against Georgia to put them into the national championship game. Maybe it’s unfair to place blame on a special teams coach for that one. They’re not the one responsible for actually kicking the ball.

Then there were several missteps last season including the fake punt that wasn’t supposed to be a fake against Maryland where long snapper John Ferlmann sent it to linebacker Cody Simon who was the upback. Simon seemed surprised, reeled it in and tried to make something out of nothing as there was no blocking to pave a way and he was swallowed for a 3-yard loss.

A month later against Rutgers, it was Mirco who inexplicably called his own number and audibled into a fake on 4th-and-5 that apparently was not supposed to be a fake. He was tackled well short of the marker. It wouldn’t have mattered anyways because OSU was called for a hold that would’ve wiped out the first down.

However, it wasn’t just the kicking game that struggled, it’s their kick and punt return game that has been lacking, too. In2022, they finished 79th nationally in punt return average yards (6.6 per game) and 88th in kickoff return yards (19/gm) and last year they slightly improved in kickoff returns at 67th in the country (19.92/gm) but backslid horribly to 111th overall in punt returns at a dismal 4.4 yards per game.

This season, sophomore wide receiver Brandon Inniss has taken over the duties from senior Emeka Egbuka, who was the main returner the last two years. Inniss said it has been his position coach, Brian Hartline, whom he has been trying to impress and said Hartline has stressed being more aggressive with the way they approach special teams.

“For your position coach, you kind of want to do a better job … and impress your position coach more because that’s the guy who’s going to get you a lot more playing time on offense,” Inniss said. “So if you play better on special teams, you get more plays on offense.”

Inniss had four punt returns for 60 yards including a 36-yarder against Akron last weekend. Under Fleming’s tutelage, their longest return had been 23 yards which was done by both receiver Garrett Wilson in 2021 and safety Lathan Ransom in 2022.

Hopefully that means it’s undoubtedly a new era of special for the special teams in Columbus and fans have got to be rejoicing that Day decided to make that phone call to the special teams guru himself. Any guidance from a man that went 8-1 against Michigan, won six Big Ten titles as well as one natty in his ten-year term as Ohio State’s head man in charge is advice well worth the consideration.

Only time will tell if the change will surely show.