Through the first three games, the Buckeyes have, for the most part, looked solid.
The Silver Bullets haven’t really skipped a beat under new defensive coordinator Matt Patricia, despite losing seven starters. Freshman running back Bo Jackson seems to have finally breathed some life into Ohio State’s run game. The offense through the air has looked great, with quarterback Julian Sayin and wide receivers Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate all locked in.
This is not to say they don’t have things to work
on in this upcoming bye week, but given what we’ve seen so far, fans aren’t wrong to feel confident in this team. Still, there is one area of the Buckeyes’ game still causing me to lose sleep at night: Special teams. We’ve seen special teams issues in the past, so this isn’t particularly new, but with Parker Fleming’s firing in January 2024, it was something I think fans hoped to see improve by now.
Unfortunately, it’s really the only element of Ohio State’s play that has consistently looked subpar to this point in the season, and it’s not limited to one aspect of special teams, either.
In Week 1, the Buckeyes particularly struggled with punting — a handful of short punts from Joe McGuire set Texas up with better field position than OSU would have liked, something that could easily have flipped the outcome of this close game on its head if the other units hadn’t executed so well.
But the Week 1 troubles didn’t stop there — whether it was questionable instincts or just first game nerves, there were multiple punts that the Buckeyes simply let bounce deep in their own territory. It was such a pervasive problem against the Longhorns that OSU started two drives from within their own five-yard line.
The issues on the return continued into Week 2 against Grambling State and in the first half of Saturday’s game against Ohio, with Brandon Inniss in particular largely looking lost and struggling to gain field position. Against the Bobcats on Saturday, he lost two yards on the Buckeyes’ first punt return of the game.
Ryan Day has referred to the team’s punt return issues as a “red flag,” and he’s even gone so far as to start using wide receiver Jeremiah Smith as a punt returner. While it gives Smith more touches, and theoretically, getting the ball into such talented hands should set the Buckeyes up with better field position, it also brings up the issue of potential injury, a large risk to take with a Heisman-caliber wide receiver.
Plus, even Smith had a muffed return against Ohio, losing a yard on the return.
To Inniss’ credit, he looked better in the second half, even managing a 28-yard return to put the Buckeyes close to midfield, but the lack of consistency is concerning. If the team is struggling this much to return the football against teams like Grambling State and Ohio, what happens when Penn State comes to town?
What does that look like in a playoff game when every yard on the return or on a punt can be the difference between a win and the end of a season? Or what happens if Smith gets injured on special teams at a critical time in the year and we lose our top receiving target?
If Ohio State hopes to repeat their national title, this is possibly the most critical aspect of their game they need to adjust. They’ve got a bye week coming up to work on it, but heading into their Big Ten schedule, they need to have an answer or this could be the thing that erodes their dreams of repeating.
