It's been a while.
The last time the Buckeyes made or even attempted a game-winning field goal was in November of 2009. The team's current kicker, Jake Seibert, was in second grade at the time.
For the most part, Ohio State simply hasn't needed that sort of late-game heroics, winning the vast majority of its games by double digits the past decade. And the games they've lost haven't come down to a make-or-break Buckeye kick, either (with the exception of the Penn State loss in 2016, but that's a different scenario).
But as Devin Barclay can attest, you never really know when it's going to happen.
Barclay, a former professional soccer player, didn't even begin the season expecting to kick field goals in a game, much less an overtime game-winner to send the Buckeyes to the Rose Bowl, but after starter Aaron Pettrey suffered an MCL injury, placekicker duties fell on him.
“That was one of the highlights of my life.”– Devin Barclay on his game-winning kick
Barclay got off to a shaky start in his first game against New Mexico State, missing two of his first three field goal attempts. But he came back strong hitting a 37-yarder in a conference game against Penn State the following week before the Buckeyes hosted Iowa with a trip to the Rose Bowl on the line.
With how the game played out – a back-and-forth battle with neither team ever really pulling away – Barclay had a pretty good idea it could come down to him.
"You just go through it, just keep going and then you see things happening and then you're like, oh my gosh, this game is going to come down to a field goal," Barclay told Eleven Warriors in an interview last year.
He was right.
A late Hawkeye touchdown tied the game at 24, eventually sending it to overtime. Ohio State got a stop in the first overtime, thanks to back-to-back negative plays and an interception on fourth-and-long, and three Boom Herron rushes later, the game was on Barclay's foot.
"So you just literally get to that point, just think back to all of the practice and all of the drills and technique and you have to literally simplify what you're doing and fade everything else out," Barclay said. "So that kind of paints the picture of how it all kind of went down. That's the feeling, walking on to the team and years of hard work and going to school and kind of shifting gears."
#OTD years ago, Devin Barclay clinched a 2010 @rosebowlgame berth.@OhioStateFB went on to beat Oregon, 26-17. pic.twitter.com/516xMrL843
— Ohio State on BTN (@OhioStateOnBTN) November 14, 2019
Obviously, he hit it, giving the Buckeyes the win, at least a share of the Big Ten title and a Rose Bowl berth.
"That was one of the highlights of my life. I mean, not just the highlights of my athletics, but just a moment that I'll always remember and treasure," Barclay said. "Everything had to be perfect. The snap had to be perfect, the hold. The snapper, Jake McQuaid is now a Pro Bowl snapper. He's been in the NFL for years now. I remember Jon Thoma was the holder. He had to hold it and get it right and perfect, and everybody had to block. So there are a million things that have to go right there and everything did and I had to just make the kick. Luckily, I did so it was pretty cool."
That was the last time an Ohio State kicker hit – or even attempted – a field goal with the game on the line. Before then, the last game-winner came courtesy of Mike Nugent in 2004, when he hit a 54-yarder to beat Marshall.
It's been a long time since it's been necessary, but one day the Buckeyes will once again need some late-game heroics from their placekicker. If it happens this year, they'll have to hope Seibert is up to the task.
Seibert attempted just two field goals in his debut season, hitting a 23-yarder and missing a 44-yard kick against Indiana. He also went 0-for-2 on kicks during the spring game, missing a 40-yard and a 45-yard kick.
Still, he was the No. 2 kicker in the country coming out of high school and has shown consistency and range of more than 60 yards. If a game comes down to an Ohio State field goal this fall, the game will be on his foot.
