Buckeyes preparing for punter battle to carry late into preseason

INDIANAPOLIS — While the Ohio State position battle conversation is dominated by quarterback and offensive line headlines this offseason, there’s one unsettled job that has flown under the radar this offseason, and that’s the starting punter gig.

After starting three seasons for the Buckeyes, Jesse Mirco transferred to Vanderbilt this offseason. That left a void, and at least one big shoe, to be filled on special teams, a phase of the game Ohio State is trying to revamp this year.

Going into last season, 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-plus yards and just seven touchbacks.

Granted, Mirco didn’t have his best year at Ohio State last season — he was sixth in the Big Ten in punt average (43.5 yards) and 10th with 18 punts inside the opposing 20 — but the Fremantle, Australia, native had his best outing of the year in the Cotton Bowl versus Missouri and was a Ray Guy Award preseason watch list honoree for a reason.

Mirco started his first year at Ohio State. The same could be true for Nick McLarty, a 6-foot-7, 255-pound punter from Melbourne, Australia, who joined the Buckeyes this summer.

“The punter, that’s going to be a battle that goes into probably the third week [of training camp] to see if they can win the job,” head coach Ryan Day said Tuesday at Big Ten Media Days.

“We got three or four guys in there that are going to be in the mix. [Nick’s] got a big leg, he’s young. So we’ll kind of see. We got another guy (Buffalo transfer Anthony Venneri) with some experience coming in. But those guys are important.”

As for Venneri, he had 12 punts of 50 or more yards last season, including two that traveled 60-plus yards. The Hamilton, Ontario, native pinned 17 punts inside the 20-yard line, and a total of 18 of his punts resulted in fair catches.

When all was said and done last year, he clocked out with an average of 43.88 yards per punt. That mark broke his own single-season Buffalo record of 43 yards per punt that he set in 2022.

Like Mirco, second-year punter Joe McGuire is a Prokick Australia product, except McGuire is from Melbourne. He handled punting duties in the spring game, but it’s worth noting that neither McLarty nor Venneri were with the team at the time.

Ohio State has options at punter.

Like most kicking battles, though, this one’s going pretty deep into the preseason.