Parker Fleming likes where Ohio State’s specialists are at heading into 2022.
It’s not a new unit. Jesse Mirco is back at punter after playing in his first ever football game in the season opener against Minnesota a season ago. Bradley Robinson is back for another season as the Buckeyes’ long-snapper — his seventh of eligibility.
Noah Ruggles is back too, even though he was not with the program for the majority of spring practice, which head coach Ryan Day confirmed, even though the sixth-year kicker and former North Carolina transfer was in attendance for the spring game.
"He just needed some time away," the head coach said.
To Fleming, it was just a personal thing for Ruggles. It wasn’t a big deal.
“He didn’t join the team last year until June,” Fleming said. “He’s an older guy, he’s mature, he can take care of himself and that’s something he was doing all the entire time he wasn’t with us.”
But that didn’t stop Ohio State from making a move in the room.
After visiting Columbus the weekend of the spring game, USC transfer Parker Lewis announced that he would join the Buckeyes in 2022, joining Ruggles and Jake Seibert as Ohio State’s scholarship kickers heading into next season.
Lewis was not someone Fleming could talk about or confirm, but coming into a season in which he has multiple options to go to at kicker — including the USC sophomore that connected on 17 of his 22 field-goal attempts in 2021, including five of nine tries rom 40 yards or longer — the Ohio State special teams coordinator feels that competition is what fuels success in that room.
“I think all competition is good competition,” Fleming said. "Our job here is to make sure that… we get the best out of our players every day. The motto around here is ‘Fight.’ Fight to be the best version of yourself every day. And in some places, the best possible way to do that is to compete.”
But Ruggles is still at the forefront to Fleming.
The Ohio State special teams coordinator is in constant communication with the Ohio State kicker, entering in his second season with the program after connecting on each of his 74 extra-point attempts and 20 of his 21 field-goal attempts, including each of his four attempts from 40 yards or longer.
“It wasn’t necessarily checking in,” Fleming said. “It was one of those things, just making sure he’s got what he needs to make sure he’s doing what he needs to be doing. If he needs help from me or support from anybody here, you know, we’re always here for that. But he’s mature, kind of takes care of his business.”
Fleming knows how good of a season Ruggles had in 2021. As the kicker enters 2022, his final season of college football, the Ohio State special teams coordinator is focused on building off that momentum, focused on one question: “How do you improve on a great season?”
Then again, the veteran presence in the kicking game does allow Fleming to take a step back, focus on other players in other roles on special teams, even taking the opportunity to grow the younger guys in the room, using Ruggles, Mirco and Robinson as examples, as success stories of what can be done under pressure.
“Those guys have experience in The Shoe, in big games, in big moments,” Fleming said. “And they can help other people see it from that viewpoint now, so that’s something that’s important.”
But that’s not the broad focus of the room: preparing for the future. It’s much simpler than that.
It’s just improvement. It’s a specialists room focused on getting better than last season, even if there’s new members of the room of if members weren’t with the team during the spring.
There’s too much work to be done in the present, Fleming said, to be focused on the future.
“Looking at the future, I don’t want to say it quite like that because we got a lot of work to do,” Fleming said. “Those guys have a lot of work to do to get better for this fall.”
