Ohio State starting punter Jesse Mirco enters transfer portal
COLUMBUS — Ohio State’s Jesse Mirco entered the transfer portal Saturday night after spending three seasons as the Buckeyes’ starting punter.
Mirco had his best game of the year against Missouri in the Cotton Bowl. As Ohio State struggled to create offense with quarterbacks Devin Brown and Lincoln Kienholz, Mirco was called upon eight times. He averaged 48.2 yards per punt and booted punts of 61 and 59 yards in the first half.
The junior finished the night with four punts of 50-plus yards and three total punts that landed inside the Missouri 20-yard line.
Mirco was a bright spot Friday night on a special teams unit that carried over its season-long struggles to the Cotton Bowl.
That said, even Mirco didn’t have his best year with the Buckeyes in 2023. Granted he was 12th in the league in total punts (50), but he was sixth in the Big Ten in punt average (43.5 yards), 10th with 18 punts inside the opposing 20 and fifth with 13 punts of 50-plus yards.
Mirco was named to the Ray Guy Award preseason watch list back in August.
The Ray Guy Award is given annually to the nation’s best punter. Mirco has handled Ohio State’s punting and holding since he came over to Columbus from Fremantle, Australia, in 2021.
Coming into the year, Mirco ranked fourth in program history with a career punt average of 44.2 yards per boot. Of his 80 punts in a Buckeyes uniform, 37 had landed inside the opposing 20-yard line. He entered 2023 having posted 18 punts of 50 or more yards and just seven touchbacks.
Last year, his 45.4 yards per punt were good for third in the Big Ten and 12th nationally. It was also the sixth-best single-season punting average in the Ohio State record book.
Maybe his notable appearance last season came at a Northwestern, where he faced winds north of 40 miles per hour. In a low-scoring, cross-divisional matchup, Mirco punted a career-high seven times and averaged 50.3 yards per punt. That went down as the sixth-highest single-game punting average by any Buckeyes player with at least five punts in a contest.
Mirco punted only 31 times as a true freshman and averaged 42.3 yards per punt that season.
He’s a product of ProKick Australia. It’s the same program that helped develop former Ohio State punter and Ray Guy Award finalist Cameron Johnston, who has been in the NFL since going undrafted in 2017.
Mirco was the fourth-rated punter in the 2021 class, according to the On3 Industry Ranking.
This year, he was working with new long snapper John Ferlmann — an Arizona State transfer — and holding for new starting place kicker Jayden Fielding.
But now he’s looking for a new school to use his final year of eligibility as a graduate transfer.
