Special Teams are a crucial, often overlooked aspect of football. A bad special teams unit can derail entire games and seasons.
Ohio’s unit in 2023 was solid, but in 2024 it will have plenty of new faces entering the locker room and familiar faces leaving, let's take a look at the special teams unit for Ohio in 2024.
Who’s Gone
Unlike the rest of the roster, Ohio was not hit very hard with departures in the special teams unit. The pieces they did lose came mostly in the return game as kick returner Keegan Wilburn departs after he put up a return average of 17.9 yards per return with a long of 28.
The Bobcats will also lose their punt returner as Tyler Walton leaves after a subpar season that saw him average 2.85 yards per return with a long of 9. The returners leaving Ohio weren’t very explosive, allowing the team an opportunity to improve.
The only non-return-man who is departing is punter Jack Wheatley. He booted 19 punts with an average of 36 yards per punt and pinned seven punts inside the 20.
Who’s Back
Ohio will be returning a big chunk of their kicking core, starting with sophomore kicker Gianni Spetic. Spetic handled the field goal and PAT duties last season, going 18/26 on his field goals with a long of 40. Fellow kicker Alex Kasee will also be coming back to handle the team's kickoffs. He had 13 touchbacks last season and just one kick out of bounds.
Primary punter Jack Wilson will be returning and should be taking every punt this season for Ohio with the departure of Jack Wheatley. Last year, Wilson averaged 42 yards per punt with a long of 58 and 12 punts downed inside the 20.
Who’s New
The only new face in Ohio’s special team room is long snapper Colby Garfield who enters from East Carolina. Garfield was a 5-star long snapping prospect coming out of high school, according to Rubio Long Snapper. He will be a graduate student this year and will bring some experience to the Bobcats special teams room this season.
cf111322@ohio.edu
