Skull Session: Arch Manning Says Texas Has “A Red Dot on Everyone Else” This Season, Ryan Day Wants Ohio State to Trust Its Process and Culture in 2025

By Chase Brown on August 27, 2025 at 5:00 am
Arch Manning vs. Ohio State
Tim Heitman – Imagn Images
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Welcome to the Skull Session.

Three more sleeps.

Have a good Wednesday.

 “WE HAVE A RED DOT ON EVERYONE ELSE.” Texas is the No. 1 team in the Coaches Poll and AP Poll. While the Longhorns are on top of the college football mountain — albeit a small mountain next to a much larger mountain, which Ohio State occupies as the defending national champions — Arch Manning told reporters Monday that he and his teammates shouldn’t imagine themselves with a target on their back.

“I think we kind of try to shift the narrative. We’re going for everyone else,” Manning said. “The target’s not on our back. We have a red dot on everyone else.”

I must admit, that’s a bar.

Manning’s offensive mindset is one that Ohio State adopted this offseason. At Big Ten Media Days, Ryan Day described the Buckeyes as “attacking” for another national title, not defending their previous one.

“We’re not defending anything. They can’t take the trophy away. We’re attacking,” Day said.

We’ll look into Ohio State’s mentality entering the fall in the next section, but for now, let’s return to the Prince That Was Promised. After Texas reporters perceived Manning’s confidence leading into 2025, one of the journalists asked the Texas quarterback how he plans to handle the hostile environment at Ohio Stadium.

“I feel like I do a good job of zoning everything out, but if I hear it, I guess it kind of fires me up,” Manning said.

I admire his self-assurance, but Manning’s two starts came in home games against Louisiana-Monroe and Mississippi State, a team that went 2-10 last season with a 0-8 record in SEC competition. That’s a littleeeee different than a road game at the Horseshoe, which has a reputation of being one of the hardest places to play in college football. We’ll see if he can zone out 106,000 people! We’ll see!

 “TRUST YOUR CULTURE.” What is Ohio State’s mentality entering the 2025 season?

“Trust your process and trust your culture,” Day told The Athletic’s Cameron Teague Robinson this summer.

Following its national championship season in 2024, Ohio State lost 17 players to the NFL, including Will Howard, TreVeyon Henderson, Donovan Jackson, Emeka Egbuka and the entire defensive line. 

As such, the 2025 Buckeyes are a new team with a new identity. Day tasked strength coach Mick Marotti and a leadership council, featuring Sonny Styles, Caleb Downs and others, to set the tone and push their teammates to strive for another national title this season. All of them responded. Day’s staff has, too — and that includes 73-year-old Larry Johnson.

“I’m embracing this in all the right ways,” Johnson told Teague.

Jim Tressel told Teague that Ohio State’s mindset will pay dividends. He should know, as the Buckeyes’ 2003 team went 11-2 following the 2002 national championship. Had the sport used a CFP instead of a BCS, that Ohio State team could have contended with LSU, Oklahoma and USC for a championship.

“When you are standing at the top of the mountain, there’s lots of people interested in kicking you off there,” Tressel said. “That’s part of the fun of it… He does a good job of focusing on, ‘What do we have to do to get better?’ He’s done a pretty good job of focusing on the moment, which is what you have to do.

“People like to talk about repeating. Well, the answer to that is what are you going to do every day? If you sit there and think about 16 weeks from now, it’s not good use of our emotional gas tanks.”

After listening to Day’s press conference on Tuesday, I think Ohio State’s emotional gas tanks are full. Right now, all this team wants to do is knock the snot out of Texas, then they’ll move on to Grambling, Ohio and so on.

“It’s competitive. It’s edgy. They like competing,” Day said of his team’s identity. “They enjoy being with each other. I think now it’s just a lot of these guys got to get on the field and play. And then we’ll figure out what it is from there when we have success, when we have setbacks, those types of things as we work through that. 

“But a lot of leadership has risen here, and that’s a good thing. A lot of guys are figuring it out. Some guys still don’t know what they don’t know. I say it’s like raising a son or having children — you bring them along, show them, you see growth, but ultimately they have to go live their life. Well, it’s the same thing here. They’ve got to go play the game now. And we’re ready to go play. We can’t wait to get on the field and get the season started.”

 ONLY IN THIS RIVALRY… On3’s Ari Wasserman thinks The Dave Portnoy Saga proves Michigan lives rent-free in Ohio State’s head. I think it proves something else: Ohio State and Michigan have the greatest rivalry in all of sports.

How else can it be that, in a week where the Buckeyes host No. 1 Texas in their season opener, the most-read article on Eleven Warriors is about whether Ohio State banned Barstool Sports founder and loud-mouth Michigan fan Dave Portnoy from the Horseshoe on Saturday?

In a classic case of he said, she said: Ohio State insists it didn’t ban Portnoy from Ohio Stadium, while Portnoy insists it did.

“Take accountability for your actions,” Portnoy said on Tuesday. “Yeah, we banned him. Just say it. Yeah, we banned him. Don’t point the finger. Don’t blame Connor Stalions. Don’t blame the hammer. Just look in there and say, ‘We’re weak. We’re soft. And until we get better, we’re never going to beat this team.’”

Here’s what I told Dan Hope on Tuesday: love him or hate him, Portnoy is, in today’s terms, an engagement farmer, proven by the thousands of Ohio State fans filling his replies to tell him off.

My advice?

Don’t fall for the ragebait.

Instead, recognize this moment for what it is: a Michigan fan at war with 11 million Ohio State fans who’d love nothing more than to slam the next pizza he reviews right in his face. And that only happens because the Buckeyes and Wolverines share something no one else does — a rivalry over 100 years strong, and destined to last for hundreds more.

 SO LONG, FAREWELL. Saturday should not be about Dave Portnoy; it should be about Ohio State vs. Texas and Lee Corso.

Corso has had a remarkable career in the world of college football. He was a quarterback and cornerback at Florida State from 1953-57 and later a head coach at Louisville, Indiana and Northern Illinois from 1969-84. But what he’s most famous for is his role as a beloved host on ESPN’s College GameDay, where he’s been a fixture since 1987.

On Saturday, Corso will make his final appearance on College GameDay. Fittingly, he’ll return to Columbus — the site of his first-ever headgear pick in October 1996, when he chose Ohio State to beat Penn State in a top-five showdown. In the video below, Corso and Kirk Herbstreit recalled how Herbstreit and his wife, Allison, obtained the Brutus Buckeye headgear for Corso to wear at the end of the broadcast.

While that video sparked laughter, another brought tears. Ahead of Corso’s final show, colleagues, fans and others shared heartfelt tributes about his impact on them and on college football. Their responses are a testament to his nearly four decades as one of the sport’s most cherished voices.

Did someone cut onions at the 5:59 mark?

Expect more emotion — and more tears — when College GameDay returns to Columbus this weekend. Corso has often said that Brutus is his “first love,” and you never forget your first. He certainly hasn’t, as he’s donned the Brutus headgear 45 times since 1996.

 DAILY DUBCAST. Today's Eleven Dubcast enlists Dan Hope to help make sense of the contract dispute between FOX and YouTube TV that puts a significant share of the streaming audience for Ohio State vs. Texas in a precarious position.

 SONG OF THE DAY. “Still Feel” - half alive.

 CUT TO THE CHASE. Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are engaged… The enduring legend of Philip Seymour Hoffman… Reports of smoke diverts flight after passenger device catches fire… A New York woman dug for 3 weeks to find her own engagement ring diamond.

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