How the Ohio State football team will do with no Special Teams Coach

For the last few years, the Ohio State football program has been one of the few programs in major college football to employ a full-time Special Teams Coach. Ryan Day had hired Parker Fleming on staff to take care of that. He employed him instead of another defensive assistant.

Had Day had another defensive assistant, the offense and the defense would have had the same number of assistant coaches. Instead, Fleming was there. Did that help the Ohio State football program be elite on special teams? No. In fact, it made them worse than their opponents, especially last year.

The special teams in general were a mess. They weren't able to cover kickoffs well. Punts didn't go very far and were hardly downed inside the 20-yard line. It seemed that every time they returned a punt, there was a penalty too. There were just too many mistakes.

Finally, Day decided to fire Fleming this offseason. They no longer employ a full-time Special Teams Coordinator. Instead, Day will help run the special teams. Will this have an adverse affect on that unit of the Buckeyes moving forward, especially this season?

I would argue no. In fact, they should be better. There's no way that they could be any worse than what they were last year. That's despite the fact that they will have a new kicker and a new punter this season. Whoever they settle on to be the starter at those positions shouldn't be bad.

I'm not sure what took so long for Day to make this decision. It would have been different if the special teams were some elite unit over the past few years, but that was simply not the case. Instead, it was a unit that was actively hurting them. Hopefully, things will get better in the absence of Fleming.