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College Football: Cotton Bowl: Ohio State Jayden Fielding (38) in action, kicks a field goal vs Texas at the AT&T Stadium. Arlington, TX 1/10/2025 CREDIT: Greg Nelson (Photo by Greg Nelson/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images) (Set Number: X164661 TK1)
As preseason camp begins this week, Land-Grant Holy Land is diving into its final theme every week of the off-season. This week is all about identifying one specific thing sure to make a difference for the Buckeyes this fall. You can catch up on all of the Theme Week content here and all of our ”The One Thing” articles here.
When we look back on the elite football we’ve seen from Ohio State over the past several seasons, at times, it can feel nitpicky to analyze where the team can improve.
They have, after all, finished the last two seasons ranked No. 1 in total defense, have finished in the top 25 in total offense, and took home the National Championship in 2024. They’ve led the conference or the conference and the nation both in several stats, and players have brought in many individual accolades over the past few years.
In spite of the Buckeyes’ myriad accomplishments, however, one unit simply hasn’t performed at the elite caliber as the rest of the team: Special teams.
In the 2024 National Championship season, the special teams unit ranked around 82th in the nation in efficiency. For the best team in the nation, the special teams unit was remarkably unspecial, average at best.
They lacked a dynamic return game, finished the season 62nd in the country in field goal percentage, and came in 91st in average punt yardage.
The team fared even worse in 2025, finishing 84th in total special teams efficiency, and though they cracked the top 50 in field goal percentage, memorable misses from kicker Jayden Fielding, including a 27-yard attempt that would have tied the Big Ten Championship game against Indiana, haunt Buckeye fans.
So while we look ahead to 2026, special teams is arguably the one area that needs the most focus from coaches. At some point, Ohio State needs its special teams unit to actively contribute to wins instead of being a team that wins in spite of the unit’s failures.
In the 12-team playoff era, the difference between a Big Ten Championship or a long playoff run could very well come down to special teams. Whether it’s a major mistake like that high-pressure field goal against the Hoosiers or something more minute—field position, hidden yards—the unit can make or break a game for the Buckeyes.
We already know the Buckeyes have the offensive and defensive skill sets to beat most opponents, but given the difficulty of the 2026 schedule (largely considered the toughest in the conference and one of the hardest in the nation), Ohio State will need special teams to help it gain an edge in its toughest games, including road games against Texas, Indiana and USC and home games against Oregon and Michigan.
They don’t even need to be spectacular—the Buckeyes have enough spectacle on both sides of the ball to carry the team all the way—but they do have to be reliable, something we haven’t seen in several years. And if there’s one thing they need to change in order to become a unit Ryan Day can rely on, it’s this: Eliminate their self-inflicted mistakes and sloppy errors.
Sure, running it back for a touchdown is lovely, and I will never shut that down as something I’d like to see more of. But the primary thing we need to see from the unit is consistency.
In addition to Fielding’s four missed field goals, the Buckeyes muffed several punts throughout the season, gave up costly returns to opponents, and committed sloppy errors (like Brandon Inniss’s fumble against Washington on a punt return, which fundamentally resulted from simply not tucking the ball tight enough, as just one example).
After the Week 1 game against Texas, Ryan Day considered Inniss responsible for 47 lost yards from not fielding punts, and while the Buckeyes ultimately won that game by the skin of their teeth, they will need flawless execution from all units to repeat that victory on the road against the Longhorns this season.
Week after week, it seemed that even when every other unit was consistently grading out high, special teams struggled for average-at-best ratings. This won’t fly in 2026.
The Buckeyes will need every yard and every point they can get, any way they can get them, and special teams will need to step up on this front. They certainly cannot hand possession of the ball over to their opponents.
The addition of kicker Connor Hawkins, the transfer out of Baylor selected for his success at long range and in high-pressure situations, should help to stabilize kicking for the Buckeyes. But they’ll need to step up in all areas, including returns and coverage on both punts and kicks.
With an unforgiving schedule, there’s little room for costly errors, and the unit will need to give the Buckeyes a competitive advantage rather than merely an afterthought.
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