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K Jayden Fielding (All B1G)

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buckeyemania11 said:
Bonehead return things have been a problem dating back to the Urban days, let's not forget the adventures of Jalin Marshall, you had to cringe every time he went to field a punt.
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Jim Tressel, Special Teams Coordinator.

ron-swanson-dance.gif
 
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NFBuck said:
One of my chief complaints of Day's tenure is his failure to solidify the Special Teams. Been a problem for years now. When's the last time we had a kicker you felt comfortable with in a clutch situation? Not to mention shaky punting and issues with decisions in the return game. Total neglect.
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Yeah, I think Day just lacks awareness in many areas, with Special Teams at the top of his list. Clock management goes right next to it as the most glaring blind spots he has.

I'd go back to him trying to utilize Julian Fleming as a Kick-off returner. It was a way to keep Julian engaged while he was essentially "waiting his turn" to get into the WR rotation. Julian was consistently terrible at fielding kick-offs cleanly, routinely dropping balls. Even if he did cleanly catch the kick, he was so stiff as a runner, he never achieved a single "plus" return. And it all culminated against Michigan, when they kicked the ball off to us to start the game, and like clock-work Fleming mishandled the kick, and we started inside the 5 yard line. Went 3 & out, punted, and gave Michigan incredible field position.

Fast forward to Saturday.......Day has been giving Tre Henderson opportunities in the return game, which I understand....kid is at least explosive and has some wiggle unlike Julian Fleming. However, you can tell with 1000% certainty, it's not something they're actively working on in practice. You can tell, because an experienced returner never lets a kick off bounce in front of them, unless it's a squib kick by opposing team. Henderson was just woefully underprepared to handle the kick-off in windy conditions, and it immediately led to terrible field position to start the second half when we had just taken momentum in the game. And we start the 2nd half in a hole, because Tre isn't prepared to handle a short kick.

I'd tie it back to Caleb Downs as well. He gets thrown in as a punt returner bc he's so explosive (he showed it against Indiana) but again, you can see the lack of detail actually given to the unit. He lets a punt land on the ground it rolls 30 yards to our 10 yard line. We should've started the drive around our 45 yard line if he fields the ball cleanly but instead lets it hit and roll.

I won't bother with with my diatribe on clock management.....but he's oblivious at how to manage the clock in late game situations. He also showed no awareness in when to go for 2 points against Clemson in 2019. Like, there's just a lot of low hanging fruit where you have to say "this guy has tunnel vision for coaching QB's and offenses but is NOT suited to manage an entire team".

There's just so many elements of being a HC that translate to success......unfortunately, I think Day is blind to many of them, which will be the cause of him never being an elite Head Coach.
 
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NFBuck said:
I think the kicking/punting issues are more of a talent issue than coaching. With our NIL war chest, there is no excuse for not going out and getting one of the best of both on any given year. Or at least getting competent players at both positions. But for whatever reason, we seem to be okay with "just a guy" at either spot. tCun went out and got themselves an elite kicker last offseason, and it paid dividends. It feels like we haven't had a reliable guy from 40+ in years.

Now some of the boneheaded returns decisions is a coaching thing.
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Kicker is an odd thing to me as it seems a position that would translate pretty well from one level to the next but you regularly see highly drafted guys that don't pan out in the NFL and similarly top recruits flame out in the NCAA (I recall a few for OSU in recent years). For this reason I'm thinking this is an ideal position to target in the portal. I'll take my chances that a guy who has shown he can kick at the college level (be it mid-major or perhaps lower) is a better bet to succeed at the P5 level than running out a high school recruit or walk-on.
 
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NFBuck said:
I think the kicking/punting issues are more of a talent issue than coaching. With our NIL war chest, there is no excuse for not going out and getting one of the best of both on any given year. Or at least getting competent players at both positions. But for whatever reason, we seem to be okay with "just a guy" at either spot. tCun went out and got themselves an elite kicker last offseason, and it paid dividends. It feels like we haven't had a reliable guy from 40+ in years.

Now some of the boneheaded returns decisions is a coaching thing.
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With the expansion of the coaching staffs, they need a dedicated kicking coach to help these guys in practice and make sure they're consistent. Fielding has a good leg, but apparently isn't doing a great job of lining up prior to the kick. I guess that's why so many of his kicks hook.

They'll look to the portal this year, but now there's room to have more ST coaches without having to take up a position coach slot.

EDIT: I was thinking of the last time I was really confident in a kicker, and other than Nugent maybe Barclay or Basil? Is Nugent the only kicker who's both been close to automatic and capable of hitting 50 yarders?
 
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1926Buckeyes said:
With the expansion of the coaching staffs, they need a dedicated kicking coach to help these guys in practice and make sure they're consistent. Fielding has a good leg, but apparently isn't doing a great job of lining up prior to the kick. I guess that's why so many of his kicks hook.

They'll look to the portal this year, but now there's room to have more ST coaches without having to take up a position coach slot.

EDIT: I was thinking of the last time I was really confident in a kicker, and other than Nugent maybe Barclay or Basil? Is Nugent the only kicker who's both been close to automatic and capable of hitting 50 yarders?
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Barclay was good as I recall. I also recall Josh Huston being quite good from distance when he followed Nuge.
 
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