Welcome to the Skull Session.
Cleveland Browns running back Quinshon Judkins.
Oh yes.
Q getting work in with the draft hat on is pic.twitter.com/1NNRx1OmlU
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) May 1, 2025
Have a good Friday.
“IT’S JUST SO CHEAP.” In an interview with CBS Sports’ Josh Pate, Ryan Day addressed a claim non-Ohio State fans have made since confetti fell in Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Jan. 20: Ohio State bought its national championship!
“It’s just so cheap and easy for someone to say,” Day said sternly. “If you actually do the research, all it does is tell you the value of an Ohio State football player. If you look at a brand that has just south of 12 million fans, the city of Columbus with two million people and the power of Ohio State, yeah, our guys are gonna make a lot of money in NIL.
“The truth is, the majority of (the guys we paid) were all guys that decided to come back, that were already on the team, that we recruited and developed. We did add six or seven guys, but not 15 or 20, where we went out there and got the best players in college football. That wasn’t the case. And that’s not what won us a championship.”
Day, who seemed to grow more irritated as he continued, concluded with this: “It’s easy for people to say (we bought a championship) just because it’s easy and it’s cheap. But when you really do your research and you look through it, like, all of these guys had been here multiple years. You look at that front, you look at JT (Tuimoloau) and Jack (Sawyer) and Ty (Hamilton) and Tyleik (Williams) and Cody Simon and Lathan Ransom and Denzel Burke.
“You go through Donovan Jackson and Emeka Egbuka. You start going through these guys that are just – you know, sure, Quinshon (Judkins) and Will (Howard) were big additions for us, but TreVeyon has been here since his freshman year.. When Coach (Nick) Saban retired and we had an opportunity to pick up Caleb (Downs) and then Julian (Sayin) and Seth McLaughlin, like, that kind of happened opportunistically.
“... I’m pretty defensive of that because these guys who came through here and have scars. You don’t always remember the wins until you win championships. You remember the losses around here. These guys have some scars along the way. That’s what kept them together throughout the entire road. I never really got into that or addressed that, but our guys hear that over and over again and people in the building with these high expectations and we’re just throwing out numbers like that. But that didn’t really affect us in the end because we knew that wasn’t the case.”
Be as defensive as you want, Coach. It’s the truth! And these other programs, these other fans – well, they can’t handle the truth!
“WHAT A WILD RIDE.” The ridicule Ohio State receives for spending $20 million on its national championship team has been intense. However, the ridicule Ohio State would have received for spending $20 million and not winning a national championship would have been tenfold.
Day said the Buckeyes used that potential derision as one source of motivation for their legendary four-game run in the College Football Playoff following a painful loss to [REDACTED] in November.
“Coming out of (The Game), they had to believe that we could do this,” Day said of his team’s mindset entering the Tennessee game. “I told them the story about the Giants when they came off that wild card game, and it looked like Coach (Tom) Coughlin was out the door, and they won that first wild card game. … They built momentum. This was an opportunity to build momentum. The other thing was the opportunity to write an unbelievable story.”
Day’s next point reminded me: The Brotherhood is real.
“The next opportunity is to keep the team together. When we talk about playing for each other and playing for The Brotherhood, first off, these guys didn’t want to leave without anything to show for all their hard work. I think that if you ask those guys and cut them open, that was probably the No. 1 thing that nobody could sleep at night. These players would have nothing to really show for all the work they put in here. That was crazy.
“As it went on, that was the first part of it, but it was, ‘OK, if we win, we get to stay together another week.’ By the time we get to the national championship game, the truth of it all was, ‘If you don’t win this national championship game, nobody cares. You have nothing to show for anything.’ Like Jack Sawyer’s interception in the rivalry game is one of the greatest plays I’ve ever been a part of. No one will ever talk about it because we lost the game. It’s not Jack Sawyer’s fault. It’s all of our fault. We lost the game.
“All of those things would not have been able to be told if we don’t win the whole thing. We were right out here (on the indoor practice field) when I said it, and it was going into the national championship game, and you could see them all kind of looking at you, like, ‘Wow.’ All the work, all the games, all the wins, all the plays, and it would never matter if we don’t win this game. It made us get up quick in the morning. It made us stay up late at night.
“When you’re dealing with 16 games, there’s different ebbs and flows of your season and focuses and adjustments that have to be made, and you can see each week there was just a different focus, and you know, what a wild ride.”
A wild ride?
That’s for sure.
But I’ll take a wild ride if it ends in a national championship!
“YOU LOOK AT ME DIFFERENT NOW.” Since winning a national championship, Ryan Day has looked like a new man – relieved from the crushing weight of expectations, just as he hoisted the College Football Playoff trophy with his players.
In a recent interview with The Lantern’s Noah Weiskopf, Day said nothing about him is new; rather, the college football world has a new lens through which it views him.
“You look at me different now. That’s all it is,” Day said with a laugh.
Weiskopf mentioned Day’s appearances on Jimmy Fallon and Kelly Clarkson’s talk shows and asked, “Has there been a big weight taken off your shoulders? Because it feels like you're a different person now.”
“Well, I wasn’t invited on those shows until I won the national championship,” Day said, laughing again. “America loves a winner and does not like a loser. That’s just the way it goes. That’s part of the job. But I do think when you’re a first-time head coach at Ohio State, there’s a lot that comes with it, and you don’t necessarily get the benefit of the doubt because you haven’t done it before. So, when you win that first championship, when you go through adversity, when you can check certain boxes, I think that you are looked at in a different light. I try not to be different. I think maybe people perceive it a little different.
“But at the end of the day, winning allows us an opportunity to continue to make an impact on young people’s lives. That’s it. My job is not to win games and win championships. If I don’t, they’re gonna find a new coach. That’s just how this job goes. I get that. But my job is to make an impact on young people’s lives, so again, winning allows us to continue to do that. The minute we lose focus on that, then that’s not good. That’s why our staff and everybody in the building has to believe that same thing.”
Look, man.
You know what I am about to write!
Ryan Day gets it!
OLYMPIC VILLAGE. Ohio State men's lacrosse will compete for a Big Ten Tournament championship this weekend.
Movin' on to Saturday! #B1GMLAX x @OhioStateMLAX pic.twitter.com/4HHAMjOV6l
— Big Ten Conference (@bigten) May 1, 2025
The Buckeyes, who defeated Rutgers 11-7 in the semifinals, will face Maryland at 8 p.m. on Saturday inside U-M Lacrosse Stadium. The Terrapins handed the Buckeyes one of their two regular-season losses, a 13-8 defeat in Columbus, which means it's time for some sweet, sweet revenge!
Take care of business, Buckeyes.
SONG OF THE DAY. "Here Comes Revenge" - Metallica.
CUT TO THE CHASE. Boston Marathon runner makes journey from paralyzation to finishing the race... Brazilian nun, world’s oldest person has died at 116... Millions of dimes spill onto Texas highway after truck rolls... Meet the New England team working to rescue the seals... Kohl’s CEO fired for funneling business to romantic partner.
