Skull Session: Caleb Downs and Julian Sayin Extend a January Full of BOOMs For Ohio State Football, Buckeye Women's Basketball Upsets Iowa and Tara VanDerveer Makes History

By Chase Brown on January 22, 2024 at 5:00 am
Ryan Day
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Welcome to the Skull Session.

You get a BOOM! You get a BOOM! You get a BOOM!

Word of the Day: Reflection.

 WHAT A DAY! Buckeye Nation had fun on Sunday – lots of it.

It all started when No. 18 Ohio State women’s basketball defeated No. 2 Iowa in overtime, 100-92. The win came in front of a record-breaking crowd at Value City Arena, which watched some impressive basketball from Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, who scored 45 points with seven assists, and Ohio State’s Cotie McMahon, who scored 33 with 12 rebounds and two blocks.

Among the 18,660 in attendance for Ohio State-Iowa were Marvin Harrison Jr. and several other current and former football Buckeyes, including Sonny Styles, Lathan Ransom, Air Noland, Deontae and Devontae Armstrong, Tegra Tshabola, Eddrick Houston, Carson Hinzman and Joey Galloway.

What a great win for the Buckeyes, and what a great day for Buckeye Nation!

Wait, there’s more?

Oh, yeahhhhhhhhh.

Ohio State football also landed former Alabama quarterback Julian Sayin, the No. 5 overall prospect in the 2024 class, from the transfer portal – a move Dan Hope said sent a clear message that the status quo from the past few seasons doesn’t cut it in Columbus.

No, after back-to-back years with losses to Michigan and in the postseason (Georgia in 2022 and Missouri in 2023), Ohio State has declared war on mediocrity. Therefore, the Buckeyes have added, and will continue to add, transfer portal talent to their roster – no matter the cost to the program’s (bottomless?) NIL fund or its future roster retention. The addition of Sayin to a quarterback room that already features Will Howard, Devin Brown, Lincoln Kienholz and Air Noland is proof of that.

 WHAT A WEEK(END)! The Ohio State women’s basketball team’s win over Iowa and Julian Sayin’s commitment were two headlines at the end of a week (and weekend) full of positive news for Buckeye Nation.

On Tuesday, Ohio State hired Ross Bjork as its next athletic director. Bjork will be on campus in March as a senior advisor to Ted Carter and Gene Smith before he assumes his role as AD in July. On Wednesday, Bjork crushed his introductory press conference, and he shared how fun it will be when head football coach Ryan Day leads the Buckeyes to championships (plural) in the future.

On Thursday, Day hired Bill O’Brien as his offensive coordinator. The man with the immaculate chin will come to Columbus after one season with the New England Patriots. He also had stints with Alabama, the Houston Texans, Penn State, the New England Patriots, Duke, Maryland, Georgia Tech and Brown.

I know many Ohio State fans didn’t love the hire. However, if I may be so bold, please consider that Nick Saban – the greatest college football coach of all time – and Bill Belichick – the greatest NFL coach of all time – both wanted him on their staffs at one point (or two). If O'Brien was desirable to them, he is desirable to me.

Where was I?

On Friday, Ohio State landed Caleb Downs. No explanation is needed for how monumental that was. However, I will still write that – with the addition of Downs – the Buckeyes' defense has the potential to be one of the greatest in college football history.

Over the weekend (in addition to what I mentioned in the previous section), Ohio State athletics had unbelievable success:

*Note: I will cover most of this in the next edition of Around The Oval on Monday.

  • Ohio State wrestling defeated No. 25 Maryland (Friday) and No. 17 Wisconsin (Sunday).
  • Ohio State men's volleyball defeated No. 1 UCLA (Friday) and No. 13 USC (Saturday).
  • Ohio State men's basketball defeated Penn State, 79-67.
  • Ohio State swim and dive defeated Michigan for the third consecutive season.
  • Ohio State women's hockey swept No. 7 Minnesota-Duluth (Friday and Saturday).

What a great week for Buckeye Nation!

 WHAT A MONTH! OK. Sunday was cool. Last week was cool. But the month of January has been the coolest.

Outside of a few of hours on Jan. 8 when [REDACTED] won the College Football Playoff, I have spent the entire month all jacked up on Mountain Dew because of THE World Famous Ohio State Buckeyes.

Over the past three weeks, TreVeyon Henderson, Emeka Egbuka, Donovan Jackson, JT Tuimoloau, Jack Sawyer, Tyleik Williams, Ty Hamilton, Denzel Burke, Jordan Hancock and Lathan Ransom all announced they would return for another season at Ohio State.

BOOM Counter: 10

Moreover, the Buckeyes landed four-star defensive end Dominic Kirks in the 2024 class and both five-star cornerback Devin Sanchez and four-star defensive end Zahir Mathis in the 2025 class.

Boom counter: 13

Ohio State also added Will Kacmarek, Will Howard, Quinshon Judkins, Seth McLaughlin, Caleb Downs and Julian Sayin from the transfer portal.

BOOM COUNTER: 19

Tell me, dear reader, are you addicted to BOOMs?

I know I am.

It's been one helluva offseason for Ohio State football, and it's only Jan. 22. Soon, we will see the Buckeyes start winter workouts and move on to spring football (ICYMI: Ohio State's spring game is scheduled for April 13). Then, we could see the program attack and dominate the second transfer window, adding more talent from the portal (offensive line, please!) and rounding out the roster before the 2024 season — one where Ohio State should be the clear favorite to win the whole f–––– thing.

 THIS AND THAT. Another Skull Session, another This and That™.

You know the drill.

Former Ohio State women's basketball coach Tara VanDerveer became the winningest coach in college basketball history when Stanford defeated Oregon State, 65-56, on Sunday. Of VanDerveer's 1,203 wins, 110 came at Ohio State from 1980-85. Across those five seasons, the Buckeyes won four Big Ten championships and made an appearance in the 1985 Elite Eight.

C.J. Stroud's record-breaking rookie season ended with a 34-10 loss to the top-seeded Baltimore Ravens on Saturday. Still, the former Ohio State quarterback said he feels “blessed” to have led the Houston Texans to the playoffs this year and looks forward to his future with the franchise.

Tim Walton is coming for Brian Hartline's title as the best recruiter on Ryan Day's staff. Across two years in Columbus, he's landed Jermaine Mathews Jr., Calvin Simpson-Hunt, Aaron Scott Jr., Bryce West, Blake Woody and Devin Sanchez. By the looks of it, Walton also sealed the deal with Caleb Downs.

Sports Illustrated is dead. Ohio State football honored its death with a post that featured some of the greatest Buckeye-themed Sports Illustrated magazine covers ever.

That's all, folks!

 SONG OF THE DAY. “Chamber of Reflection” - Mac DeMarco.

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