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02-08 Special Teams Comparison

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02-08 Special Teams comparison

  • 02- Nugent, Groom, M. Hall, Gamble

    Votes: 51 96.2%

  • 08- Pretorius, Trapasso, Saine, Small/Hartline

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • its a toss up

    Votes: 2 3.8%
  • Total voters
    53
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Nugent = Groza and best PK in school history
Groom = Ray Guy runner up and probably best single season for a punter in school history
M Hall = All Time Kick Return Yard leader for a career in school history
Gamble = Best Punt Return specialist we'd had until we got spoiled by Ginn

This one is as much a "no contest" as D-Line and Safeties were, I think.
 
Upvote 0
another one that is clearly in favor of '02. Nugent and Groom were one of the best kicker/punter combos that I've seen and the best in the country that year. Nugent and Sander were probably the best combo the next year.
 
Upvote 0
What has happened to our once "special" teams?
2007
Net Punting....33
Punt Returns....58th
Kickoff Returns......117th
Field Goals... rank 33rd Pretorious....percentage.. .783
Kick return yards Defense.....57th
 
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Upvote 0
No brainer. Nuge was just as important as Krenzel that season. The most overlooked play from 02 may be the FG at the end of the first half at Purdue. The FG unit ran onto the field with military precision and got the kick off with 1 tick left on the clock. Nuge was one of the great all time Buckeyes, regardless of position.

Groom consistently gave us an edge in field position. Some of his punts were just picture perfect. He may also have ahad a tackle or two. I was surprised he didn't catch on in the NFL.

This year's special teams are no slouches, I expect them to be solid, but no one compares with 02. It's like comparing any backfield with Archie and Pete.
 
Upvote 0
The best part about Nugent is that he gave Tressel the luxury of playing Tressel-ball to the hilt.

And of course, I have numbers to back that up. From '02-'04, Ohio State got 55% as many field goals as touchdowns. Nobody else matched that number.

Is there any doubt that this was because Tressel was able to button it up and not jeapardize his sure 3-pointer when we got to the opponents 30-yard-line? Every time the Buckeyes got within a sniff of Nugent-Range, it was run-run-run-kick, unless the 3 runs somehow gave the Buckeyes a first down. It worked like a charm in '02; was almost enough in '03 without a running game; and I seem to have forgotten '04 :2004:

Here are the top 10 in FG/TD ratio for '02-'04
BTW: It's not necessarily a good thing to be on this list. OSU was 108th in this metric in '06 because we got TDs instead of field-goals.

Team__________________02-04 fg/td ratio
Ohio St.___________________0.5508
Duke.______________________0.5479
Georgia.___________________0.5448
San Diego St.._____________0.5222
Maryland.__________________0.5203
Mississippi._______________0.5128
Brigham Young._____________0.4828
Notre Dame.________________0.4694
TCU._______________________0.4580
Iowa.______________________0.4493
 
Upvote 0
Seriously, this wasn't just a forfeit... I mean I like the mad South African, Trapasso and all, but special teams and the D-Line were two of the most dominant to ever strap it up since I can remember... Roughly since 93 when I was ten.
 
Upvote 0
It's '02....Sheesh talk about a NO BRAINER....

nobrainer.jpg
 
Upvote 0
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