Ohio State Hopes to Build Upon Purdue Punt Block With More Big Plays on Special Teams

Ryan Day has said all year that Ohio State is working on making more big plays on special teams, but those efforts hadn’t yielded many results going into Saturday’s game against Purdue.

The Buckeyes still haven’t returned a punt or kickoff for a touchdown despite Day’s preseason guarantee that they would do so this year, and they haven’t forced any special teams turnovers to steal a possession. But they finally made a game-changing play in that phase of the game against the Boilermakers that got the train rolling toward the Buckeyes’ eventual 45-0 win.

With Purdue forced to punt from its own 13-yard line, Ohio State unveiled a new punt block formation that it had worked on during the week of practice. Caden Curry and Mitchell Melton both went unblocked off the right side of Purdue’s protection unit, and Curry timed his lunge toward Purdue punter Keelan Crimmins perfectly to get both hands on the ball, knocking it straight up into the air and giving the Buckeyes the ball back at the 8-yard line.

BLOCKED PUNT@OhioStatefb shuts down the Purdue punt pic.twitter.com/M9U011omkt
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 9, 2024

Ohio State scored its first touchdown on a 1-yard Will Howard run four plays later, and the Buckeyes would never trail for the rest of the game.

“We felt like we had something on punt block, we put Caden and Mitch off the edge there, which felt like a good matchup for us in that moment,” Day said after the game. “Put a lot of work into it. But then those guys have to go execute, and they did.”

The Buckeyes believed that punt block formation would work because of the size of the players on Purdue’s punting unit. While Ohio State’s punt block/return unit typically consists mostly of smaller players, the Buckeyes felt that putting two defensive ends on the unit could give them a favorable matchup against the Boilermakers.

“We liked the matchup with those guys on the shield. When you look at the shield, they were a little bit smaller body types. We felt like if we could get them to move their feet, that we had a chance to go after it,” Day said. “We thought both Caden and Mitch do that for a living. They can rush the passer … We've been working on it for a couple of weeks, and it was good to see it hit.”

After Ohio State was forced to punt on its first offensive possession, the punt block served as a big spark for the Buckeyes to start taking control of the game.

“Coach Day made a big emphasis that we needed some special teams to make some plays, especially this week,” Lathan Ransom, whose punt blocks in back-to-back games in 2022 were Ohio State’s most recent punt blocks before Saturday, said after the game. “So that definitely got the team going.”

While the personnel Ohio State used for Saturday’s punt block may have been specific to the Purdue game and the matchup the Buckeyes thought they would have against the Boilermakers, the effort put into drawing up that punt block was part of the Buckeyes’ larger effort to start making more game-changing plays on special teams.

Asked about special teams on Wednesday, Day said he had challenged the Buckeyes to start making more game-changing plays in that phase of the game.

“We've got to start making all the work that we're putting into it show up on the field. Tired of saying, you know, one play away or one block away or whatever, we've got to start doing it on the field,” Day said Wednesday. “I think the effort's been good, but it has not been a big plus for us this year. It's been solid. … There's been great effort and some good play out there, but it needs to be a plus for us. It needs to be one of those things that can be a game-changer. We haven't had that.”

Ohio State’s special teams are being led this season by quality control coach Rob Keys, who joined Ohio State’s staff in 2022 after 11 years as the head coach at the University of Findlay, but Day has asked all of his assistants to have a hand in special teams this year after choosing not to hire a dedicated special teams coordinator to replace Parker Fleming. He gave Brian Hartline credit for his leadership with the punt return team following Saturday’s punt block.

“Rob kind of organizes everything, but Brian Hartline is in charge of the punt return and punt block. So good to see them make a difference in this game and change the game,” Day said Saturday.

Ohio State wants to make more plays in other phases of special teams, too. The Buckeyes have experimented with a variety of returners on both kickoffs and punts, using both Brandon Inniss and Caleb Downs at punt returner against Purdue while deploying TreVeyon Henderson at kickoff returner for the first time since the opening game of his freshman year. The Buckeyes weren’t able to manufacture any big plays in the return game against the Boilermakers, as Henderson was stopped at the 18-yard line on his only kickoff return while the Buckeyes didn’t return any punts, but Day says Ohio State plans to keep working at ending its return touchdown drought which spans back to 2014 on punt returns and 2010 on kickoff returns.

“You saw TreVeyon back there on kickoff return. We didn't quite get what we wanted there. We used Caleb and Brandon back there at (punt) returner,” Day said. “You saw a couple of guys run down a little bit different on kickoff. Denzel (Burke) was a jammer for us today. So we're moving some pieces around, trying to put our best guys out there on special teams.”

Day believes Saturday’s punt block can serve as a jumping-off point for Ohio State’s special teams as it serves as proof that the Buckeyes’ efforts to enhance that phase of the game behind the scenes are starting to pay off.

“It's good for the momentum. Meetings will be sharper, watching film will be sharper, practice will be sharper when you see the impact it can have in a game,” Day said.