Ohio State Football team adds a late transfer portal player
The Ohio State football team added to its special team's room as they brought in transfer punter Anthony Venneri, who was the University of Buffalo's starting punter in 2023. He is a walk-on for the program and will be not counted as a scholarship player.
Venneri averaged 43.9 yards per punt last season while at Buffalo, which ranks him inside the top 35 nationally in punting average. The Ontario, Canada native has two years of remaining of eligibility left as Ryan Day and the Ohio State football team hopes he can help fill the punting void as last season's starter, Jesse Mirco, left the program in favor of Vanderbilt.
It's expected that Venneri will be in an open competition for the starting job with redshirt freshman Joe McGuire and incoming true freshman Nick McLarty. Venneri should have the leg up given his previous college football experience.
While punter has not been a position of importance under Ryan Day with his high-flying offenses since he's been at the helm, it is extremely important that the Buckeyes can find a competent punter amongst the three, especially in games where field position matters. We saw it in last season's Penn State game where being able to flip the field on your opponent can come in handy and can indeed help win a football game.
In other transfer news, Ohio State had former Michigan State starting safety Jaden Mangham on campus over the weekend. With the Buckeyes losing Ja'had Carter and Cedric Hawkins to the transfer portal over the Spring, obtaining another depth piece at the position is something worth exploring.
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Given Mangham's starting experience within the Big Ten, he would be a logical choice to fill a backup-type role for Ohio State. Starting all 11 games for the Spartans in 2023, Mangham had 53 total tackles and four interceptions.