Ohio State Football: Who will win the kicking battle?

The Ohio State football program will have many positional battles between now and when the season starts on September 3rd. Perhaps one battle isn’t getting as much attention from Ohio State football fans as it should though. That battle is the kicking battle.

Right now, the Buckeyes have three kickers vying for that starting position. Noah Ruggles, who transferred from North Carolina before last season, was the starter last year and did remarkably well in that role. Ruggles was 20-21 last season for the Buckeyes.

Jake Siebert is the other kicker who was on the roster a year ago. He has only kicked in three games in his Ohio State career, going 1-2 in field goals. He was the kicker in the National Championship Game against Alabama back in 2020. Seibert was the kicker in the Spring Game because Ruggles was not with the team.

The third kicker is the new guy on the block. Parker Lewis is a transfer from USC whom the Buckeyes landed a few days ago. He is a junior that will be competing for the starting job as well. He made 77% of his field goals last season with the Trojans, going 17-22 with a long of 52.

I think this is going to be a really interesting battle. I think it comes down to Ruggles and Lewis. You don’t transfer to a program as a kicker if you don’t think you can win the starting job. I find this very interesting that Ohio State even tried to go get Lewis because Ruggles was so good.

Perhaps the more powerful leg of Lewis is on their mind. He has a deeper range than Ruggles does. Ruggles’ career-long is just 49 yards. Lewis can hit kicks from 50+ yards. Maybe that’s something that Ryan Day wants instead of just accuracy.

Personally, I think it would be hard to replace Ruggles after how good he was last season. I have to think that Ruggles wins the starting position again this year, but we’ll see how practice goes in the Fall.