Ohio State, at just over 63% of field goals made, finds itself yet again at the bottom of the B1G (Purdue is the only team lower). One might be quick to say "Well tOSU is tied with Michigan State, so it really isn't that bad" but you need to dig deeper into this stat line. Ohio State is 0-3 on attempts of 40 or more (only team in the B1G to not make one over 40). They have also not attempted a single field goal over 50 yards (The only team in the B1G to not do so). There are some plausible factors in this. Cameron Johnson is an elite punter and can typically nail the opposing team inside the 10 if punting from the opposing team's side of the field, and Urban seems to enjoy going for it on 4th with Madden-esque reckless abandon. But with our offense playing admittedly sluggish in the majority of the games, the fact that Meyer trusts a more-often-than-not underwhelming offense more than his kicker seems pretty telling. It was a similar situation last year with Sean. They don't have someone that can go in there and get the job done consistently. Luckily the game hasn't been on the line in a kicking situation, but it seems extremely short sighted not to be prepared with a trusted kicker in the inevitable event that this situation occurs. Urban stresses the word elite when talking about the type of players he brings in, and while it would be fair to call the Buckeye kicking game average over the last few years, it would be criminal to call it elite.

Ohio State seems to win without a steady kicking game so I'm not in meltdown mode or anything, but as defending National Champs with a 47-3 record under Meyer, I just don't understand how they don't land an elite kicker. A quick glance at the recruiting rankings for kickers taken shows teams like Western Michigan and UMass landing top 10 guys. Is there something I'm missing?