2026 games, yards per punt per game. W and L: the team’s results.
As of
The discourse around McGuire isn't loud, but it's persistent: an incumbent who was steady as a 2024 starter, then wobbled enough in 2025 that Day kept getting asked about it. His answer never changed — McGuire stays — but the framing did. "I think it's been solid, but I know we can do better," Day said of the punt game, and in Columbus, where special teams is treated as a point of pride, "we can do better" reads less like reassurance and more like a deadline. The numbers underneath are honest about it: 29 punts for 1,229 yards in 2025, a 42.4-yard average, 12 pinned inside the 20 and a long of 55. Solid. Not the weapon a national-title roster expects to win the field-position game.
So Ohio State did what contenders do — it added a hedge. Former Houston Christian punter Brady Young transferred in to compete for the job, and his career line (a near-identical 42.3 average, a longer 61-yard career boot) is close enough that the room is now a real competition rather than a coronation. Add the long-running murmur about fellow Aussie Nick McLarty, the 6-7 backup some fans wanted to see, and McGuire enters fall camp as the most scrutinized leg on a roster full of skill-position stars.
The stake is simple and very 2026: the coach who refused to bench him in October now has a credible alternative on scholarship. McGuire either answers the 'we can do better' with a cleaner season — fewer shanks, more pin-deep precision — or he becomes the cautionary tale of the punter who got comfortable. For a guy whose whole pitch has been 'always be ready,' the readiness test finally has a name across the locker on the depth chart.
Update (Nov. 2, 2026): He kept the job. Through eight games McGuire has 23 punts for 993 yards, a 43.2-yard average (last season's was 42.4), eight downed inside the 20 and a long of 56. No other Ohio State punter appears in the box scores. His best average was 52.0 on three punts against Maryland on Oct. 10, and his most yards in a game were 222 on five punts at Indiana on Oct. 17.
Sources
Play style
No 2025 play-by-play percentiles exist in the packet, so this is a scouting read: McGuire is a directional, pin-deep specialist more than a raw boomer. The profile is a 42.4-yard 2025 average with 12 of 29 punts dropped inside the 20 and a 55-yard ceiling — a hang-and-place leg built to flip field position rather than to out-leg returners. The knock that drove the 'mixed bag' label is consistency: the good ones are genuinely good (two 50-plus boots in the Week 1 win over Texas, one pinned inside the Longhorn 20), but the bad ones show up at the wrong time. His 2026 job security rests less on adding distance than on shrinking the variance.
Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.
Ohio State’s specialists
Game log · Week-by-week
2026 season · 8 games
Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
| Wk | Opp | PUNT | YDS | AVG | LONG | IN20 | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | W 56-3vs Ball State | 3 | 123 | 41.0 | 42 | 1 | |
| Wk 2 | L 23-24@ No. 4 Texas | 3 | 117 | 39.0 | 50 | 2 | |
| Wk 3 | W 59-3vs Kent State | 1 | 47 | 47.0 | 47 | 0 | |
| Wk 4 | W 42-19vs Illinois | 2 | 87 | 43.5 | 50 | 1 | |
| Wk 5 | W 31-14@ No. 14 Iowa | 2 | 80 | 40.0 | 47 | 1 | |
| Wk 6 | W 45-16vs Maryland | 3 | 156 | 52.0 | 56 | 1 | |
| Wk 7 | W 19-15@ No. 5 Indiana | 5 | 222 | 44.4 | 52 | 2 | |
| Wk 9 | L 18-30@ USC | 4 | 161 | 40.3 | 45 | 0 | |
| Total | 23 | 993 | 43.2 | 56 | 8 |
Week 7 · 2026
W 19-15
at Indiana
44.4 yards per punt · 5 punts · 2 inside the 20
A close one, won by 4 on the road.
Last game (Wk 9): 4 punts.
Season context: team record and system
3 seasons under Ryan Day — 32-6 over that span.
Returning starter at punter for a 12-2 Ohio State team that went -21 in the portal. Ohio State carries two punters; McGuire has taken all 23 punts.
2026 is in progress.
Coaching lineage · 2023–2026
1 coachPlayed every college season under Ryan Day.
From Melbourne, VIC — one of 84 Australians punting in FBS this season.
