Welcome to the Skull Session.
Another week of Ohio State football incoming...
Details matter pic.twitter.com/gnyXSZQu4h
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) August 10, 2025
Have a good Monday.
HENDO’S HUNDRED. I know we had an entire post about it over the weekend, but I have to kick off the Skull Session with TreVeyon Henderson’s 100-yard kickoff return touchdown on Friday.
THE FIRST TIME HE TOUCHED THE BALL IN THE NFL!!!!@TreVeyonH4 | @NFL
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) August 8, 2025
: WBZ pic.twitter.com/NcT2a635nx
I will miss Henderson this season.
Without his acceleration and speed, I’m not sure Ohio State wins the national championship. I mean, he had touchdowns of 29 yards and 24 yards against Tennessee, 66 yards against Oregon and 75 yards against Texas. That’s as explosive as it gets!
I am confident Henderson will please New England Patriots fans for years to come. As for Cleveland Browns fans —
** sighs **
“THERE WAS NOBODY BETTER UPSTAIRS.” Ohio State hired former NFL defensive coordinator Josh Boyer over the weekend.
Boyer’s relationship with Matt Patricia is well-documented, as the coaches worked together for over 10 years for the New England Patriots. What’s not well-documented, however, is what Patricia thinks of Boyer and what would make him a good hire for the Buckeyes.
Still, as I searched the interwebs for Skull Session #content on Sunday, I stumbled across Patricia’s appearance on Julian Edelman’s podcast in January. Almost two hours into his appearance, Patricia mentioned Boyer while discussing his love for creating a defensive game plan during an NFL season. Because Patricia and Edelman’s entire conversation gives Ohio State fans a glimpse at how Patricia operates during game weeks, I decided to include it below.
“I was obsessed,” Patricia said of creating a defensive call sheet.
“You would start out with probably 800 plays and condense it to like 60,” Edelman interrupted.
“They’re all in here,” Patricia continued, turning pages in a binder thicker than In Search of Lost Time. “Through the course of the week, I would build it, whether it was early downs, third downs, red area, I would build them as I would go through (the week). I would sit there by the end, and I would build the call sheet. I had a little bit of a different call sheet than all the other coaches because they also had the personnel on the back. I wasn’t doing the rotation of the players and all that stuff, so all the situational stuff was on the back.”
“So when you’re about to call a play, you’re looking over to see — who’s the signal guy to tell us what personnel we’re gonna be in?” Edelman asked.
“Yeah,” Patricia answered. “Josh Boyer was upstairs. He’s my eyes.”
“Boyer is upstairs,” Edelman said, “He’s going over to you, ‘We got 11! We got 11! We got 11!’ So you sit to and you go to your 11-personnel group —”
“There was nobody better upstairs than Josh. His eyes, the way he saw the game, the information he gave me. It was great,” Patricia said.
Soooooo…
That means Patricia will be on the field, and Boyer will be in the box?
Got it.
While that remains unconfirmed — as does Boyer’s exact role at Ohio State — Ryan Day can provide some clarity on Monday when he meets with the media at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center during the 11 o’clock hour.
BACK TO HER ROOTS. In the Indiana Fever’s 92-70 over the Chicago Sky on Saturday, Kelsey Mitchell did something she hasn’t done since her decorated four-year career at Ohio State: start at point guard.
A three-time All-Star, Mitchell has excelled at shooting guard throughout her eight-year WNBA career. In fact, excelled might be an understatement, as Mitchell leads the league this season with 710 total points — 16 more than Napheesa Collier, 52 more than three-time MVP A’ja Wilson and 78 more than Sabrina Ionescu.
But with all three of the Fever’s point guards out with injuries on Saturday — including Caitlin Clark, whose groin injury has kept her out since July 15, with no timetable on when she’ll return — Mitchell became a floor general for the Indiana offense.
“That was different,” Mitchell told the Indianapolis Star’s Chloe Peterson after the game. “But I think it, I don’t know, it brings out the vulnerable side of me, the leadership in which I need to keep getting better and keep growing at. I think being in the (point guard) position kind of helps with that.”
In 32 minutes of action, Mitchell scored a game-high 26 points on 9-of-18 shooting, including a 4-of-8 mark from behind the arc. She also dropped some dimes to All-Star center Aliyah Boston on several possessions, collecting eight assists.
“I believe in my team, so seeing these assists go up, it’s because of these girls,” Mitchell said. “We have unbelievable chemistry when it comes to seeing and reading each other. I think they made me look good tonight.”
Tonight in the @IndianaFever win over the Chicago Sky (92-70), Kelsey Mitchell became the WNBAs leading scorer this season with 710 points!
— WNBA (@WNBA) August 10, 2025
Kelsey Mitchell 710 PTS
Napheesa Collier 694 PTS
A'ja Wilson 626 PTS
Sabrina Ionescu 622 PTS#RivalsWeek pic.twitter.com/djlsZc7i6n
Mitchell’s performance impressed Indiana coach Stephanie White, who touted the former Ohio State star’s playmaking after the game.
“She let the game come to her,” White said. “Her decision-making has been really good when she had those eight assists, only one turnover. Her shot-making was really good, as it always is, and we know that she was going to create a lot of gravity because of what she does on the offensive end. And she did a really good job of picking her moments and finding her teammates when she needed to.”
Despite Mitchell’s success on Saturday, it appears Mitchell’s stint at point guard will be for one time and one time only, as Indiana signed Odyssey Sims to a hardship contract on Sunday, 48 hours before the Fever’s Tuesday game against the Dallas Wings.
CLARETT’S MOUNT RUSHMORE. The 12th Warrior Happy Hour with Maurice Clarett is in the books. One of the best moments from Thursday’s call included Clarett naming his Ohio State running back Mount Rushmore.
“My Mount Rushmore of running backs, who would I pick?” Clarett asked. “It’s not really hard. Not for me.”
He started with himself.
“Me, myself, I’m gonna put myself on there because I won a championship. I’m not gonna talk about what could have been, would have been. I’m just gonna talk about what actually happened. To be an integral part in what I believe was helping the resurgence of the Ohio State brand — if you’re a historian of it, I think that I played a role in that.”
Clarett continued with the two no-brainers: Archie Griffin and Eddie George.
“The first time I had ever seen an Ohio State game was the time that Eddie played Notre Dame. I think Notre Dame was always on TV, and he had that impactful game. I remember that as a kid,” Clarett said. “Archie, I think he is so much of a legend. I’ve never watched an actual game of Archie Griffin playing; I’ve only watched highlights of him playing. But if you win two Heisman trophies, you have to be on there. You have to be No. 1 among everybody.”
For the final spot on his Mount Rushmore, Clarett picked Ezekiel Elliott with no hesitation.
“What Zeke did was special,” he said. “I remember Zeke and his father came from St. Louis, and I met his father when they first got to campus. At this time, I wasn’t connected to the university, but his father obviously knew who I was from playing football. When you see a kid, and you see how mild-mannered and cool Zeke was, and he was a track kid, when he came in, he was pin thin, he wasn’t filled out to what he was. To see the success he had was crazy. When (Ohio State) went on that playoff run and that memorable championship run, that was a special time.”
For the J.K. Dobbins of the world who would place themselves on the Ohio State Running Back Mount Rushmore over Clarett, the Youngstown native made it clear that his selections are “no shade” to any of the other legendary Buckeye ballcarriers.
“That is my selfish way of looking at the Mount Rushmore,” he laughed.
DAILY DUBCAST. Monday's Eleven Dubcast welcomes Dan Hope to discuss how Boyer could contribute to the Ohio State football coaching staff less than three weeks until the 2025 season opener against Texas.
SONG OF THE DAY. “Satisfaction” - The Rolling Stones.
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