Ohio State Football: Noah Ruggles making an impact as a transfer

For most of the season, the Ohio Seate football team hasn’t needed to have a strong kicking game. Their offense has been so potent over the last few weeks that they have been finishing most of their drives with touchdowns instead of settling for field goals.

That was not the case on Saturday night against Penn State. The Buckeyes had five red-zone possessions and only scored one touchdown. That was the TreVeyon Henderson run late in the third quarter. Other than that, they had to settle for field goals.

Enter in Noah Ruggles. Ruggles is the kicker for the Buckeyes who transferred in from North Carolina before the season started. He hadn’t been great at UNC, only converting on 70% of his kicks in 2019, which is the last team he had kicked for a team.

Since winning the kicking job over Jake Seibert in the preseason, Ruggles has been very good for Ohio State. In fact, he has been perfect. So far this season, he is a perfect 11/11 on field goals and 47/47 on extra points. His long this season has been from 44 yards.

Against Penn State, you could argue that Ruggles was the most valuable player for the Ohio State football team. He was a perfect 4/4 on field goals and scored the Buckeyes a total of 14 points if you count his two extra points. That’s more than enough to make the difference in this game.

Ruggles is the perfect kind of kicker that Ohio State needs this season. He isn’t someone that is going to be used much because of the aggressive nature of Ryan Day. But when he is called upon, he is money. It’s great for a team to have a security blanket like that.

I’m sure Ruggles would rather be kicking extra points than field goals because that would mean the Buckeyes are scoring touchdowns and likely winning. But he will step out on the field and do what needs to be done. His kicking has been clutch.

I hope Ruggles doesn’t need to kick four field goals in another game this season. I need to see more touchdowns!