Football
Special Teams Look Solid in Kick Scrimmage
By John PorentasThe graduation of punter A. J. Trapasso and place kicker Ryan Pretorious made the kick scrimmage held in Ohio Stadium on Saturday an event of interest. It turns out those who were worried about OSU's kicking game probably worried for nothing.
Aaron Pettry handled kickoffs last season but place kicking was done by Pretorious after Pettry had handled both the place kicking and kickoffs two seasons ago. Pettry was nine of 12 as a field goal kicker in the kick scrimmage, his lone miss coming from 53 yards out. Two of his attempts were blocked. He hit a long of 57 yards and kicked the game winner of 34 yards on the last play of the scrimmage to give his Scarlet team a 30-27 win.
"I love going in there and kicking long field goals," said Pettry when asked about his 57 yarder. "I'd rather kick those than 30 yarders."
Not only did Pettry show that he is ready to be the do-all place kicker for OSU, but two other kickers stepped up and and demonstrated that they too can be reliable. Gray team kickers Devin Barclay and Ben Buchanon didn't hit any long ones like Pettry's 57 yarder, but were extremely consistent when called upon. Barclay, a redshirt junior, hit all five of his attempts which came from 28, 31, 34, 36 and 40 yards out. Buchanan, a redshirt freshman, had his attempt from 34 blocked, but hit his other four from 28, 31, 36 and 40.
Pettry was expected to be solid this year but looked like an improved kicker in the kick scrimmage. None of his kicks were even close to being off mark with the exception of the 53 yarder he missed wide right. Barclay and Buchanon were also pretty much down the middle with plenty of distance on all their attempts as well.
The punting game looks like it will be in good hands this fall. Fifth-year senior Jon Thoma needed only to find consistency to be effective, and it looks like he had found just that. Thoma had just one kick that was less-than adequate, and that was negated by a penalty. The rest were long and high with good hang time. Thoma was especially impressive when the ball was spotted on the one-yard line coming out and he was asked to punt from the end line just 11 yards from his snapper instead of the customary 17. Thoma responded with kick after kick that was fielded at or beyond the 50-yard line, all of which had impressive hang time.
"Coach always puts us in the toughest situation possible (in the kick scrimmage," said Thoma. "The other team has the big D-linemen up there trying to push in so basically it's catch/kick and I got some good ones off."
Thoma's competition for the punting job is Buchanon, and he too was effective as a punter. Neither punter had a punt blocked, but Buchanon did not fair quite as well in the portion of the scrimmage in which he had to kick from the end line One of his punts from the back of the endzone ended up being low and was returned to the 27-yard line to set up the game winning field goal by Pettry. Buchanon is of course also competing for the place kicking job.
"I don't know if they're going to let me do all three (kickoffs, place kicking and punting)," said Buchanon.
"That's what I want to do but if they're going to steer me in a direction, I want to do what's best for the team and I'm going to work at that 100 percent as hard as I can. This season I'm running with the twos with both units."
The holders and long snappers were somewhat jumbled for the kick scrimmage. Buchanon usually works with Patrick Howe as his long snapper, but Jake McQuaide ended up on his team as it was divided by the coaches, so Buchanon ended up with McQuaide as his long snapper. The biggest change for him was at holder. Wide receiver Dane Sanzenbacher is his usual holder, but he was held out of the scrimmage due to a minor leg injury he suffered yesterday.
"Thoma filled in today and he does a great job," said Buchanon.
Sanzenbacher was pressed into action as a holder this season because Buchanon is both a punter and a kicker. OSU graduate assistant Chad Rogosheske, who works with the specialists, explained.
"Essentially our punters do our holding and we're down a holder because Ben kicks as well," said Rogosheske.
"We like using Dane Sanzenbacher because he's really pretty natural catching the football."
Rogosheske said that at the moment Pettry is the kickoff man and place kicker, Thoma the punter and holder and Jake McQuaide the long snapper. He also said that could change.
"The competition is going to continue into this fall to see who emerges," he said.
"We'll go as long as it takes for someone to emerge. Two years ago that was the situation at long snapper and Coach Tressel wasn't against letting both our long snappers snap in games. We rotated a little bit until someone emerged."
Buchanon was impressive as both a punter and place kicker and said he would like to punt, kickoff and place kick if he can, but Rogosheske says that isn't likely to be in the cards.
"It's going to be a function of what he does best and the team's needs are going to factor in that as well, but ideally we'd like to allow him to put his focus into one area when the time comes for it," he said.
Scrimmage Notes:
* Pryor Sore: Before the kick scrimmage began the Buckeyes spent some time in a regular practice setting. Quarterback Terrelle Pryor left the field just prior to the start of the kick scrimmage and was looked at by a trainer on the sideline. The trainer spent some time massaging Pryor's right triceps and later taped an ice bag to it. Pryor seemed to be experiencing some discomfort, but not severe pain. His problem did not appear to involve a join of any kind, but rather his triceps
* Who dat? The kick scrimmage was conducted with players wearing numbers that were not their normal numbers, making it difficult to identify them at times. Brian Rolle ended up wearing number 5 and stood out on several plays. Rolle made a couple of big hits in kick coverage and also blocked a field goal.
* Wham! One of the better returns of the day was made on the opening kickoff when Devon Torrence took a big hit at about the 30 yard line and simply ran through the tackler and advanced the ball out to the 50 yard line.
* TD! Before the kick scrimmage began defensive back Travis Howard registered a pick-six on a pass thrown by Justin Siems during 11 on 11 passing drills.
* Big Play Guy: Ray Small looked very impressive as a return man in both the kicking and punting games.
* Blocks Not Devastating: A number of field goal attempts were blocked, but none of them appeared to be due to low kicks or slow get off times. It was more a matter of a breakdown in the blocking. That's never good, but graduate assistant Chad Rogosheske said it was probably to be expected under the circumstance.
"You piece these protection groups together (for the kick scrimmage) on the field goal protection and you're not always sure what you're going to get protection-wise," he said.
* Perfect Day: There were no bad snaps or bobbled snaps during the course of the kick scrimmage.
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