Ryan Day didn’t leave much room for debate on Tuesday: Ohio State’s special teams haven’t been good enough, and he wants more from every piece of Robby Discher’s unit.
That message comes after another shaky outing in the kicking game, with Connor Hawkins missing a 40-yard field goal against Iowa after also missing from 48 yards in the loss to Texas. The Iowa miss came with 12:28 left in the second quarter and clanged off the left upright, though this time Ohio State held on to its 10-6 lead.
Against Texas, the miss was even more costly. With 4:16 left in the fourth quarter, Hawkins hooked a 48-yard try left, and Texas finished its comeback from 20 points down with the game-winning score in a 24-23 win.
"I don't think I can sit here and say that we've improved in special teams right now," Day said. "We need to play better, and that's everybody included.
It's not just Rob. Rob is the coordinator, so he's in charge, but I'm in every meeting.
The coaches are in every meeting, and we need to make sure that we're getting better production out of the special teams."
Hawkins arrived at Ohio State after going 18-for-22 at Baylor last season, including 3-for-4 on kicks beyond 50 yards. His long of 54 and his 53-yard game-winner against Kansas State - with 31 seconds left in a 35-34 Baylor victory - helped build the kind of confidence Day spent much of the offseason talking up. Day praised Hawkins’ leg, his accuracy and his work in pressure situations during practice, and after the Texas miss he stood behind him.
“We’re confident in Connor. I don’t think we can group Connor in with anything that’s happened in the past.
That’s not Connor’s issue,” Day said mid-September. “That being said, we count on him to make that kick.
He’s beat himself up over that kick.”
But another miss in a ranked game has only sharpened the concern about what happens when the pressure spikes. And Hawkins isn’t the only name in the recent memory bank. Day’s program has already lived through big-game kicking pain from Jayden Fielding - including a pair of misses against Michigan in 2024 and a missed 24-yarder in the Big Ten Championship Game last year - and Noah Ruggles’ 50-yard miss with three seconds left in the 42-41 Peach Bowl loss to Georgia two years ago still sits in the background.
Day said Ohio State has tried to change how it trains for those moments, but the results still haven’t followed.
"We've got to look into everything and try to figure out different ways in practice to apply more pressure. I think we've done that.
We've looked into it. We've made changes.
I think that everybody has to feel pressure - there's no question," Day said. "What we've done hasn't worked, so we've got to continue to figure out ways to get it better.
I do think we have guys that can kick field goals, and they've shown that they can do that, but it's got to be consistent, and it's got to be in big spots. 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 going to come down to one of these kicks again that we've got to make."
The problems stretch beyond Hawkins, too. Ohio State was flagged for being offsides on a kickoff and for a false start on a punt against Iowa.
The return game hasn’t provided much punch either. Brandon Inniss and Devin McCuin have been used as safe options, Phillip Bell has shown some wiggle but has only a 10-yard long return, and Legend Bey’s role as a kick returner disappeared after his Week 1 issues against Ball State, when he brought the ball out of the end zone twice when he shouldn’t have.
Even the punting hasn’t been clean. Joe McGuire is averaging 40 yards per punt with a long of 50, and while five of his 11 punts have been downed inside the 20, only one has landed inside the 10. His most notable punt was also his roughest, a 26-yarder from Texas’ 39-yard line that ended up at the opponent’s 13.
Day backed McGuire, too.
"I do believe in Joe. I think Joe has the ability to do it," Day said in September. "But we've got to go put it on the field."
For Ohio State, that’s the bottom line now. The Buckeyes need more from special teams across the board - kicking, punting, kickoff returns and punt returns - and Day made it clear the fixes have to show up soon before the mistakes turn into more losses.
"When we play against certain teams, teams will look to try to steal a possession, and so there's times where we have to make sure that we're covering our bases," Day said. "But just overall, 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 across the board. When we have an opportunity to pooch the ball inside the 10-yard line, that has to get done.
So it's a challenge to everybody in the program."
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