There’s a lot from last weekend against Maryland that is still on my mind, and no doubt, it’s still on Ryan Day’s mind as well.
Despite the 45-16 victory over the Terrapins, the Buckeyes’ performance is easy to scrutinize (and trust me when I say I have, as someone who loves to coach from the couch and as a chronic ruminator). I’m not going to give too much space to my gripes from last weekend, though, as it’s hard to separate them from the fact that much of the starting offensive line was out.
I’ve
said before that Week 7 served as a sort of do-or-die moment for the team to figure out its identity and ensure all growing pains are behind it. I stand by that, so I’ll save any further assessments until next week.
Instead, my ruminating has gone back in time — all the way to last December, as the Buckeyes gear up for a rematch of last year’s Big Ten Championship game when they head to Indiana to face the Hoosiers this weekend.
It is a game that haunts me, not because Ohio State lost but because of how they lost: A 27-yard missed field goal would have tied the game, 13-13, with just under three minutes to play.
It should have been a chip shot. Instead, the Hoosiers got the ball back and were able to drain the clock down to 0:18. Unable to capitalize on the remaining 0:18, the Buckeyes headed back to Columbus with their first loss of the season.
We’ll never know what would have happened had the Buckeyes tied it. The Hoosiers might have scored on the next drive or won in overtime. The Buckeyes could have walked away with the win and still been eliminated the following game against Miami.
But one thing is certain: What should have been a routine special teams play was costly.
Jayden Fielding is no longer kicking field goals for the Buckeyes, but the problem seems to have followed us into 2026.
Connor Hawkins, the transfer from Baylor, was meant to be a primary piece of the solution for one of the biggest problems plaguing the Buckeyes in recent seasons: Inconsistent special teams play. Hawkins, someone I personally was excited about even when the first week of fall camp was a little messy, hasn’t lived up to the hype.
In the 2025 season, Hawkins made 81.8 percent of his field goals, with his four misses all coming from 40 yards or more. He made 3-of-4 attempts from the 50-plus-yard range. He had proven success in high-pressure situations, including game-winning attempts as the clock ran down.
In 2026, Hawkins has made just 75 percent of his field goals, with misses against Texas from 45 yards and against Iowa from 40 yards. While he hasn’t yet missed any attempts from less than 40 yards, for a guy who was hitting multiple 50+ yard attempts last year, it feels disappointing.
The Texas miss, though a longer kick, was particularly disappointing, as Ohio State ultimately lost that game, 24-23, and a field goal would have been enough to give them an advantage.
Now, the Buckeyes look ahead to their trip to Bloomington with many of the same special teams issues they had last season heading into the Big Ten Championship. It begs the question: Why do special teams continue to plague the Buckeyes in this way, and how much will the unit cost the Buckeyes before the problem is fixed?
It’s not as if Day hasn’t tried to put more emphasis on special teams this year. After going multiple seasons without a dedicated special teams coordinator, relying instead on assistants and quality control coaches, he hired Robby Discher as a special teams coordinator this past February.
Discher has proven success at Illinois, but so far, it hasn’t translated to excellence at OSU.
Similarly, bringing Hawkins on board was intended to fix the kicking issues, but as the season rolls on, it seems to be the same story on a different day.
I don’t expect perfection from anyone on the field — even Jeremiah Smith has dropped the (very) rare pass. But the fact that there is an epidemic of kickers crumbling when it counts over the past few seasons is concerning, especially at a program that is consistently a national championship contender.
Regardless of the effort that went into fixing special teams this year, it’s hard to take their efforts seriously when the same issues continue. It should not be an impossible task for the Buckeyes to find a competent kicker — or, frankly, to stop making sloppy errors in every other facet of special teams as well.
So, as the Buckeyes head to Bloomington this weekend, last year’s Big Ten Championship is back on my mind.
With one loss already this season, the Buckeyes’ room for error is minimal. They can, at best, lose one more game. Indiana, for its part, is undefeated but has struggled against both Northwestern and Nebraska, games in which field goals factored in heavily to the Hoosiers’ wins.
Ultimately, I believe in Hawkins’ ability to make critical field goals because he’s done it in the past. Whether this is a case of the yips or just human error is unclear, but I hope for his sake and ours that he’s able to shake it off and execute to his full potential.
Only time will tell whether the Buckeyes can make up for last year’s sins with better execution on special teams or if history will repeat itself, but one thing is certain: The Buckeyes will need every point they can get as they enter a critical stretch of the season, and that means special teams is going to need to find a way to improve if the team’s playoff dreams are going to become reality.
