Skull Session: Kamryn Babb‘s Touchdown Was Incredible, Marvin Harrison Jr. is Not Human and C.J. Stroud’s Heisman Campaign Continues

By Chase Brown on November 14, 2022 at 5:00 am
Kamryn Babb
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Welcome to Maryland week.

We have a lot of good stuff in today's Skull Session. Spoiler: It starts with Kamryn Babb.

Let's have a good Monday, shall we?

 WHAT A MOMENT. Kamryn Babb caught his first career pass and scored his first career touchdown for Ohio State on Saturday. After five years of perseverance, he finally had his time to shine. Is it even possible to describe how freakin’ cool that was?

Babb‘s effort to return to the field for Ohio State after four torn ACLs deserves plenty of praise. It was a journey full of hardship for Babb. However, the St. Louis native said after the game that he would do it all over again if given the choice.

 “MARVELOUS MARV!” Marvin Harrison Jr. has made several crazy catches as a Buckeye, but he may have secured the craziest of them all on Saturday.

Eleven Warriors recruiting expert Garrick Hodge, who also takes our (consistently excellent) photos during Ohio State football games, captured a picture of Harrison's catch, and – folks – it was even more bonkers than the FOX television angles could show you.

Oh, and let's stop and talk about the body control on this catch, too.

After the game, former Ohio State linebacker and current Big Ten Network analyst Joshua Perry spoke a Heisman Trophy campaign into existence for Harrison, who leads the Buckeyes with 60 receptions, 969 yards and 11 touchdowns.

 #HE7SMAN. C.J. Stroud added another strong performance to his Heisman Trophy resume on Saturday, collecting 297 yards and five touchdowns against the Hoosiers.

With his efforts on Saturday, Stroud boosted his season totals to 186 completions on 277 attempts (67.1%) for 2,750 yards, 34 touchdowns and only four interceptions. He also became the first player in Big Ten history to throw for 30 or more scores in consecutive seasons and joined J.T. Barrett as the only players in conference history to meet that mark across multiple years.

Additionally, Stroud continued to distance himself from the other quarterbacks in Ohio State history regarding five-touchdown games as the team's signal-caller. The Inland Empire, California, native now has nine such games in his career.

(Also, please note that Dwayne Haskins had five games with five or more touchdowns in his lone season as the Buckeyes' starter in 2018. That's nuts.)

Stroud will have one more tune-up performance against Maryland this weekend – who dropped to 6-4 and was blanked 30-0 by Penn State on Saturday – before the performance that really matters for his Heisman Trophy candidacy, that being a matchup with No. 3 Michigan in The Game.

If Stroud can win that one for the Buckeyes and look good doing it, he could lock up the Heisman, becoming the first Ohio State player to win the award since Troy Smith accomplished that feat in 2006 – when he led the Buckeyes to victory the last time OSU and Michigan were both undefeated entering The Game.

 THE ADVENTURES OF JACK SAWYER. Each week, the 11W beat team offers our final thoughts, asks some questions and picks some players to watch before Ohio State faces its opponent on that Saturday.

For Indiana, my final thought was that the weather shouldn't matter for the Buckeyes against the Hoosiers. It didn't – thank the Maker. Additionally, my player to watch was Jack Sawyer. And, boy, did the second-year defensive end deliver in what was undoubtedly the best performance of his Ohio State career so far.

Sawyer racked up three tackles with 1.5 sacks against the Hoosiers. It was a welcomed performance for the young Buckeye, as the former five-star and top-five overall prospect in the class of 2021 had yet to have a breakout game despite playing the third-most snaps among Ohio State's defensive ends through nine games.

After the game, Sawyer said he and several other defensive linemen have been close to sacking the quarterback and taking down ballcarriers in the backfield this season. Against Indiana, Sawyer finished those plays and made his presence felt in the box score.

“It feels good to finally get home a couple of times,” Sawyer said. “As a unit, we've all been so close a lot this year. We have so many pressures, and we still have a decent amount of sacks, but being able to finally get home a couple of times today definitely felt good.”

Will Sawyer's Indiana performance be a catalyst for the Pickerington, Ohio, native to become consistently disruptive in the backfield? Buckeye Nation would love to see him establish frequent meetings with J.J. McCarthy and Blake Corum on Nov. 26.

 SONG OF THE DAY. “At Last!” by Etta James.

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