I've been following Ohio State football religiously since 2001 and I don't remember a punter having a blocked punt from 2001-2009. Now correct me if I'm wrong but did Thoma, Trapasso, Turano, Sander, or Groom ever have a blocked punt. Buchanan has had like 5 in his career... Now I really don't fault Buchanan being totally responsible for all the blocked punts but I remember Thoma writing something about Buchanan having a bad form or something.
I just gotta think Thoma was on to something... I wish I remember where I read him talking about it... I think it was on Twitter after the Sugar Bowl.
Blocked punts are just unacceptable.
Can't blame the punter.
I would venture to guess that a blocked punt is almost never the punters fault
"You're pissed because we went after a committed guy? Guess what, we got 9 guys who better go do it again," said Meyer. "Do it a little harder next time."
The two this year were:
1) A horrible attempt at a new formation that failed to block three players
2) A bad blocking call by the up man (Boren) that resulted in him and Cam Williams taking the same guy and leaving another unblocked.
Neither of this are Buchanan's fault. Not sure about previous years.
I'm not really that concerned- they'll never use that bad formation again (they have not gone back to it), and last night's was an execution mistake. Boren won't make it again, he's too good.
I'm pretty sure Buchanan takes longer than our previous punters to get the ball off, but whenever he gets a punt block there are always 3-4 guys back there.
I'm also fairly confident that almost all of those blocks were from that horrible formation with the 3 personal protector guys way behind the line (maybe two yesterday). But either way, I fail to see how letting guys through the line right next to the center is a good protection scheme.
When told OSU set school record for 50+ games this year, UFM said "That's good. We're gonna break that next year."
I think OSUBIAS is onto something. Is does seem like Buchanan takes longer to get rid of the ball than previous punters. He's not as quick on the trigger. But on the blocks I don't really fault him as much as the guys that are supposed to be protecting him.
None of the blocked punts this year were his fault or in the formation where there is the second line of blockers. These have been totally different formations than I have ever seen. The spacing is too big between the linemen and communication seems to be off by a lot. Don't blame a punter for his protections mistakes
Buckeye Nuthouse Member 2011-13 season
Block "O" 2012 season