A fired Ohio State University football coach is probably smiling right now

The Ohio State football team made many coaching staff changes during the offseason. They added a new safeties coach, a new offensive coordinator and a new running backs coach. It was an offseason full of changes as far as the coaching staff was concerned.

Another change was the dismissal of Parker Fleming. Ryan Day decided to part ways as special teams coordinator after a few years of playing really bad special teams. Fleming brought no value to the team and took a full-time coaching position.

We are now six games into the Buckeyes’ season. Somehow the special teams were worse this season. They made a multitude of mistakes, not just in the game they lost to Oregon, but all year long. I’m sure wherever he is, Fleming is smiling right now.

So far this year, the Buckeyes have thwarted a punt, kicked the ball out of bounds on a kickoff three times in a row and had an onside kick against them. The punting, which was bad last year, has somehow gotten worse. None of the players the Buckeyes used were good.

Joe McGuire has averaged 41.3 yards on his punts this season. Nick McLarty averaged 32.5 yards on his only two punts of the year. The fact that they can’t find a good player is absolutely baffling. Ryan Day’s handling of special teams was terrible.

Fleming must feel vindicated. While the special teams weren’t good under his watch, they regressed even further without him. This is a team that has a lot of issues that need to be addressed if they want to compete for a national championship. Special teams are one of the needs.