How Ohio State's football team will fare without a special teams coach

In recent years, Ohio State University's football program was one of the few programs in college football to employ a full-time special teams coach. Ryan Day had hired Parker Fleming to handle that, hiring him instead of another defensive assistant.

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

The special teams were generally a mess. They were unable to cover kickoffs well. The punts didn't travel very far and were rarely brought down inside the 20-yard line. It seemed like every time they returned a punt there was a penalty. There were just too many mistakes.

Ultimately, Day decided to fire Fleming in the offseason. They no longer employ a full-time special teams coordinator. Instead, Day will help run the special teams. Will this negatively impact that Buckeyes unit, especially this season?

I would say no. In fact, they should be better. There's no way they could be worse than last year. And that's despite the fact that they'll have a new kicker and a new punter this season. Whoever they pick as the starter at those positions shouldn't be bad.

I'm not sure why it took Day so long to make this decision. It would have been different if the special teams had been some sort of elite unit over the last few years, but that just hasn't been the case. Instead, it was a unit that was actively hurting them. Hopefully things will get better in Fleming's absence.