Skull Session: Eddie George Calls Ohio State’s 2024 Title Run “Ryan Day’s Finest Hour,” Sonny Styles Says the Buckeyes Aren’t “Living Off Last Year’s Hype”

By Chase Brown on July 24, 2025 at 5:00 am
Sonny Styles
Adam Cairns / Columbus Dispatch
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Welcome to the Skull Session.

The head coach needs some appreciation.

Have a good Thursday.

 "MAN I LOVE THIS TEAM." Tegra Tshabola shared a message with Buckeye Nation on a Wednesday in July at 10:51 a.m.

He loves this team. I love this team. We all love this team. That's because this team is the team — the World Famous Ohio State Buckeyes!

 RYAN DAY'S FINEST HOUR. Some people call Ohio State’s 2024 national championship the Greatest Run in College Football History. I’m sure Eddie George would agree, but in a Q&A with the incredible Mark Rea for Buckeye Sports Bulletin’s annual Interview Issue, the former Ohio State running back and current Bowling Green head coach described it as this: Ryan Day’s finest hour.

BSB: Did you get to follow Ohio State’s national championship run this past season? 

George: “I began to catch up with them at the end of the season beginning with the game against that team up north.” 

BSB: Well, maybe we don’t have to talk about that one. 

George: “Oh, no. We have to talk about that one. You can’t forget about it or just write it off because of what happened. If you didn’t understand before how that game is one of the toughest games year in and year out, you have to understand it now. It doesn’t matter what the records are or what the rankings are, and I think we saw that again. I think that game just underscored how good Michigan really is in their culture. They came into that rivalry game with some of their lead dogs out — heavy underdogs, no one giving them a chance to win — and to still find a way to win it, I think that speaks to what they have cultivated up there over the years. You have to tip your hat to that.

“But having said that, I think what happened afterward has to be considered Ryan Day’s finest hour. He could have easily lost his team. When you lose to your rival, especially when it has happened several years in a row, that’s all you hear. And you hear it over and over and over. But what Coach Day did was inspire his team. He took that loss and inspired his team to dig deeper. He galvanized that bunch of players into a unit, and we all saw the result. They played four of the best teams in the country and beat them all by double digits. You talk about turning a negative into a positive. Man, I thought it was awesome.”

We all did.

With his back against the wall, Day delivered, leading his team to victories over Tennessee, Oregon, Texas and Notre Dame en route to the program’s ninth national championship. 

That marks Day’s finest hour — for now. 

I am hopeful there will be finer hours in the future, perhaps even this season, as Ohio State enters yet another season with one of the best rosters in college football. Expect anything different?

 GOING BACK-TO-BACK? At Big Ten Media Days, Ryan Day reaffirmed that Ohio State’s mindset entering the fall is that the 2024 Buckeyes won a national championship — not the 2025 Buckeyes.

“The team we have currently wants to leave their own legacy,” Day said. “They’ve made that clear. We’ve said before that we’re not defending national champions because we’re not defending anything. They can’t take the trophy away, but we’re looking to add to it and win a championship with this team.”

For this year’s team to immortalize itself in Ohio State football lore, Day said his players need to enter preseason camp with concentration and determination.

“Attack every day with extreme intensity and focus,” he said. “Every day in camp is a needed day at camp. Even if you’re tired, even if you don’t feel like being here, go at every practice with intensity and focus. Because at the end of the day, when you look up and you’re able to play a game, you want to know you did everything to prepare.”

With players like Jeremiah Smith, Caleb Downs and Sonny Styles as the team’s leaders — not to mention veterans like Davison Igbinosun, Caden Curry, Kenyatta Jackson Jr. and more — I am confident the Buckeyes can and will do that.

So is Downs.

“It’s just putting ourselves back at zero, giving ourselves the best opportunity to earn something new, to not have last year hanging over our head,” Downs said of Ohio State’s mentality entering August. “It’s just the opportunity to say we’re going to work for whatever we can work for this year, and we’re going to try to do the best that we can. That’s all we can control.”

Later, Downs added, “I feel like there’s a hunger. We’ve worked out vigorously, trying to get better, trying to better ourselves physically and mentally. Just finding ways to chop wood, carry water, push ourselves to get better at the little things every day.”

Oh, and the Block O frontrunner has some confidence, too.

“We’re not living off last year’s hype,” Styles said. “We’re looking at it coming into this season that we’ve got something to prove every day and put a chip on our shoulder. I think a lot of people are doubting us a little bit because we lost a lot of great players. For a lot of people, their time is finally here. They’re hungry. They’re excited to prove something.”
And I am excited to see them prove it!

 ”YOU CAN’T GO WRONG.” You all know I am a simple man. I see potential Ted Ginn Jr. #content; I include the Ted Ginn Jr. #content in the Skull Session.

At Big Ten Media Days, CBS Sports asked Smith to name his Mount Rushmore for Ohio State wide receivers. Note that Bryant McFadden told Smith that he could include himself, but the sophomore standout humbly declined. Instead, he named Cris Carter, Marvin Harrison Jr., Jaxon Smith-Njigba and, after a long pause, Ginn.

To see Smith place Ginn on his Mount Rushmore made me smile ear-to-ear. He is one of my favorite Buckeyes of all time, and I think David Boston, Terry Glenn, Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave (plus some others, but I have to end the list somewhere) often overshadow him in conversations like this.

A question I will leave you with as the Skull Session comes to a close: If Smith were to place himself on Mount Rushmore, which receiver would he replace? Carter, Marv, JSN or Ginn?

Because of my love for Ginn, I wanted to replace JSN, but his performance in 2022 — 95 catches, 1,606 yards and nine touchdowns in a room that also featured Wilson and Olave (and Harrison and Emeka Egbuka!) — was so special. Even more special were his efforts in the 2023 Rose Bowl: 15 catches, 347 yards and three touchdowns. 

I think, even though my affections are strong, I would have to replace Ginn, leaving me with Carter, Harrison, JSN and Smith. But what about the other greats I named above — Boston, Glenn, Wilson, Olave? Oh, man, what a tizzy. It’s like Smith said, “You can’t go wrong with nobody really”!

 SONG OF THE DAY. "Paranoid" - Black Sabbath.

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