By the time Nick McLarty completed his visit to Ohio State this week, he didn’t just know that he wanted to be a Buckeye. He wondered why any player recruited by Ohio State would choose to go anywhere else.
When McLarty arrived in the United States from Australia to visit Ohio State, the punter planned to also visit several other schools before making a college decision. When McLarty’s visit to Ohio State concluded with a scholarship offer from Ryan Day, however, McLarty accepted the offer immediately, leaving Columbus with no doubt that Ohio State was the right school for him.
“I don’t know where else you’d want to be, seriously,” McLarty told Eleven Warriors on Friday, hours after announcing his commitment to Ohio State. “There's no better place than Ohio State. If you're a recruit, and you look at Ohio State and say ‘No, I don't want to go there,’ you have lost the plot.”
Officially Committed pic.twitter.com/KJF31wGcOu
— Nick McLarty (@nick_mclarty) March 8, 2024
McLarty said Day was the biggest reason why he was sold on Ohio State by the end of his visit, as Day – who will be taking a more active role with Ohio State’s special teams this season after firing special teams coordinator Parker Fleming – demonstrated to him how much he cares about special teams and the attention to detail that Ohio State puts into every aspect of the game.
“His perspective on special teams, the emphasis on the minute aspects of the game, it's phenomenal,” McLarty said. “We were sitting in a team meeting and from my perspective, it looked like this meeting was planned out so thoroughly that it was insane. He comes in and makes a point about individualized footwork of a person and how your hands should be or how your thumbs need to be out for O-line or stuff like that. So it's just ridiculous how he sees it on such a microscopic level.
“Plus, he emphasizes the value of special teams. He emphasizes how important it is to be a punter and the role that I’ll play.”
McLarty felt even better about his commitment to Ohio State after receiving a wave of support from Buckeye fans following his announcement Friday morning.
“It is so intense how much love and support the Ohio State fans are giving me right now. I know you guys absolutely love and live and die by football,” McLarty said. “It's honestly silly. In Australian terms, it is fucking insane. It's pretty cool … I can't express how cool it is.”
“There's no better place than Ohio State. If you're a recruit, and you look at Ohio State and say ‘No, I don't want to go there,’ you have lost the plot.”– Nick McLarty
That said, McLarty doesn’t want to get too caught up in the excitement of his commitment because he doesn’t want to lose focus on what got him to Ohio State in the first place.
“Social media isn't everything to me. It obviously is pretty cool, and I'm going to cherish this moment and feeling, but I've got a job to do at Ohio State and I don't want the media to take away from that, in my perspective of what my role on the team is,” McLarty said.
How McLarty became a top punting prospect
Like many punters from his country, McLarty got his start playing Australian rules football. But while McLarty initially had aspirations of playing in the Australian Football League, he fell out of love with his home country’s sport and decided he wanted to pursue a career in American football instead.
“I had a brother that went through the (Australian football) professional system, and I'm really fortunate to have a lot of mates in the professional system, and that just sort of wasn't for me anymore,” McLarty said. “So NFL sort of gave me the opportunity to use my skills that I've learned from AFL and then transfer that into another professional environment where I could develop as an individual.”
Once McLarty began training with Darren Bennett and Sav Rocca, a pair of former NFL punters from Australia, they gave him confidence that he could one day follow in their footsteps.
“From the very start, both Darren and Sav said, their quote was I had an NFL leg,” McLarty said. “I was always pretty strong, could kick a ball a long way, but we never really knew what my ceiling would be. And even now, I haven't even hit that. But yeah, it's pretty cool. Those two always believed in me and believed in where I could go. It was just a matter of hard work and a lot of training, a lot of reps.”
Since graduating from high school in 2022, McLarty – who turned 20 in January and will be a freshman when he enrolls at Ohio State in June – has been fully focused on training for the opportunity to play American football.
“I'm very fortunate the way that both my parents gave me the opportunity to train,” McLarty said. “I had a pretty professional mindset in terms of I linked up with coaches and built programs around my week, and there wasn't a single day where I wasn't doing something related to punting. Usually training three or four or five hours a day, multiple times a day. And I'm very lucky to have those people in my corner and help build a program.”
McLarty has unusual size for a punter at 6-foot-7 and 255 pounds, and that size is a big factor in McLarty’s potential. It helps McLarty generate excellent power on his punts, as demonstrated by a clip he posted last year in which he punted a ball 90 yards over a stadium.
90+yards over stadium!?@nflaussie pic.twitter.com/FmHefMhDub
— Nick McLarty (@nick_mclarty) November 6, 2023
One of the biggest things McLarty has had to learn in training to become a punter, though, is how to manage that power to punt accurately.
“The thing about my size is it's the thing that helps me do what I do, but it's also my killer,” McLarty said. “I'm able to generate so much power into a ball which obviously makes the ball fly. But my mishits can also be very large. So you just sort of have to find the balance between power and accuracy. To me, that's about 80% power, usually I don’t hit anything above 80% power. And that sort of allows me to kick a ball long and far, but also accurately with direction and all that.”
Ready to compete at Ohio State
With aspirations to ultimately play in the NFL, McLarty hopes Ohio State will be just the first stop in his American football journey. But McLarty says he’s focused on the present rather than the future right now.
“I don't really want to get caught up by the future. I'm not even caught up by where I need to be in two months’ time. Just focus right now on this week and take it day by day and try to get better every day,” McLarty said. “I have a book literally right next to me which has every single day mapped out. It's got goals, it's got expectations. And at the end of the day, it says ‘Did I get better today?’ And that’s sort of a thing where over a period of time, whether that be weeks, months, years, or whatever it may be, you can look back on and say, ‘Did I get better?’
“You gotta be truthful about it, you gotta be honest with yourself. So that sort of allows me to look at my week and say, ‘Did I get better? Did I get worse? What needs to be improved?’ And then tailor my following week around that.”
McLarty will compete with another Australian, walk-on Joe McGuire, to be Ohio State’s starting punter this season when he arrives in Columbus this summer. McLarty, who will be the only punter on scholarship this year, is coming to Ohio State hoping to win Ohio State’s punting job right away, but he knows that will depend on his performance in preseason camp.
“I know Joe and I will be competing and I have nothing but admiration and respect for Joe,” McLarty said. “I'm coming in to be the No. 1 punter, but that being said, dependent upon how he goes and how I go, time will tell who the main guy is. But Joe was really lovely and reached out to me today (after his commitment) and thanked me and obviously while I was on my visit, he was incredible towards me.”
McLarty is happy that he won’t be the only Australian on Ohio State’s roster this year. He’ll also be able to turn to former Ohio State punter Cam Johnston, the first Australian to ever play for the Buckeyes, for guidance on making the transition to Ohio State from their home country.
“Cam Johnston has been phenomenal towards me. He reached out to me today, thanked me and invited me to his house if I ever needed anything. I've been in contact with him for the last couple of weeks since coming over to Ohio State to visit,” McLarty said. “The career he's already put under his belt is just phenomenal, so I couldn't ask for a better mentor, supporter and obviously an ex-Buckeye.”
McLarty will be the fourth punter from Australia to play for the Buckeyes, joining Johnston (2013-16), Jesse Mirco (2021-23) and McGuire (2023-).
If all goes according to plan, McLarty will have his own NFL career after his Ohio State career. For now, though, McLarty just wants to do his job and help the Buckeyes win a national championship.
“If you want to be the best, you gotta go against the best. So being able to be at such a big school like that where every punt matters is really important to me and something I take a lot of pride in,” McLarty said. “That's something that I look forward to, and that's what made me appeal to Ohio State.”
