Special teams are often an afterthought for most football fans. The third unit of the team doesn’t see nearly as much action or game time as the offense and defense, but the unit can often be just as important.
Good teams tend to have good special teams units, while bad teams tend to have bad units. Last season, Ohio had a rock-solid unit that was reliable and consistent, but with a lot of departures in the unit, we will take a look at how things shake out this season.
Who’s Gone
This offseason, Ohio lost many key contributors in the special teams unit, losing starters all across the board.
The offseason departures started slowly as Ohio was the only FBS team in the country that had not lost a player before their bowl game. After that bowl game, kicker Gianni Spetic was the first player to enter his name into the transfer portal.
Septic had a breakout year last year in his second year as the starter. He connected on 13 of his 16 field goal attempts and hit a season-long 52-yard field goal to close out the Mid-American Conference title game, which helped him earn the special teams MVP award for that game. He departs for Memphis this season.
The other part of Ohio’s kicking duo is punter Jack Wilson, who will be departing this year as well. He graduated after spending all five years of his college career with the Bobcats. The Australian had a solid year last year with an average of 40.5 yards per punt while he downed 16 punts inside the 20.
Longsnapper Colby Garfield will be returning to Charlotte this season, the school where he started his college career. He will be following Tim Albin and other staff to the Queen City this year.
Lastly, Coleman Owen served as a key role for the team’s punt returner last year, a position where he excelled. He earned 3rd team All-MAC honors as a punt returner after he returned 17 punts last year, including one for a touchdown.
Who’s Back
The only real special teams contributor returning this season is graduate student wide receiver and kick returner Eamonn Dennis.
The former Michigan transfer put the MAC on notice with his blazing speed and return ability last season, and it was best showcased when he took the opening kick of the second half against Kent State back for a touchdown.
Alex Kasee is back, and he has some experience kicking in games when he went 1-2 on field goals in 2023, and backup longsnapper Dominic Konopka is back as well this season.
Who’s New
To help ease the blow of all of the departures, Ohio’s coaching staff hit the transfer portal and welcomed in a slew of new bodies.
In at kicker is now UCLA transfer David Dellenbach, along with Utah State transfer Britton Watts. Dellenbach was named the starter ahead of Rutgers in week one’s depth chart.
Magnus Haines was named the starting punter in the week one depth chart as well. The Massillon, Ohio native has been around the college football world as he has played at both Arkansas State and Kent State.
The new long snapper will be Buffalo transfer Nick Hemer, with returner Aiden Lowery backing him up this season. Wide receiver Max Rodarte will be handling punt return duties, along with being the third receiver in the offense this season as well.
