Ohio State football team adds a player from the transfer portal

The Ohio State football team was not active in the Spring portal. In fact, they haven’t added anyone of substance from the portal yet this Spring. Up until Saturday, they hadn’t added anyone at all. Saturday saw them bring in their first player from the portal since before Spring practice began.

So who did they add? The Buckeyes added a punter from the portal. The Buckeyes added Anthony Venneri from Buffalo as a walk-on player. Even though he’s a walk-on, he’ll have an opportunity to fight for the starting punter position. Ohio State doesn’t have an established starter after they lost Jesse Mirco to the transfer portal following the season.

Ohio State football team adds punter from the portal

Venneri had an average of 43.6 yards per punt last year for the Bulls, which isn’t great. You’d like to see a little more distance on those punts. He also didn’t have a single punt downed inside the 20 last season, which seems impossible. The good news is that the Buckeyes aren’t using a scholarship on him as he comes in as a walk-on.

At the very least, bringing Venneri in helps foster competition for the punting position. Even if he doesn’t end up winning the job, it helps the Buckeyes figure out who is best for this season. They would be wise to look at some of the best punters coming out of high school though. They need someone better than they’ve had for the past year or two.

I would be surprised if the Ohio State football team added anyone else from the transfer portal. That’s especially the case if they were to add another scholarship player. They seem to like the players they grabbed from the transfer portal so far. It’ll be interesting who wins the punting competition this Fall.