Welcome to the Skull Session.
Another Ohio State GAMEDAY has arrived.
Time to keep turning it up a notch pic.twitter.com/ZnbLnskjgs
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) September 3, 2025
Have a good Saturday.
BE SAFE. HAVE FUN. Look, I'll be honest with you all. I cannot talk up Ohio State vs. Grambling State. I just can't. Therefore, I'll lean on the wise words of Ramzy Nasrallah, who loves to get Situational about the Buckeyes on Wednesdays.
Saturday ends a 14-game stretch for Ohio State which has involved exactly one layup — poor old Purdue, on a forgettable afternoon when two moments in particular still found a way to be historic. The first was when Buckeye defenders kept coming off the field telling their coaches hey if that number 86 ends up in the portal, you should go get him. That guy was Max Klare. He did, and they got him. The second was Jack Sawyer's first scoop and score touchdown. That's called foreshadowing.
The Boilermakers, still technically a Power Four program were the only layup in this stretch. It's been a rare, brutal and ultimately rewarding sequence of games which began at Sparty under the lights, always a chore no matter what the analytics might suggest. The Nebraska game was the first time the Buckeyes had to play without Josh Simmons, their best lineman. That afternoon was dicey for the 25.5-point home favorite.
They got Northwestern in an old baseball stadium which presented multiple hazards, from brick outfield walls dangerously close to the endzones to NU defensive back Robert Fitzgerald deliberately trying to injure Jeremiah Smith.
As for the rest of this stretch - banger after banger after banger without any notes or exceptions. It's been gloves-up for a full year now. Whew, bring on Grambling State.
Yes, bring on Grambling State.
Have fun, be safe and let's see what the backups can do. Give me Bo Jackson and Isaiah West, Mylan Graham and Quincy Porter, Aaron Scott Jr. and Devin Sanchez. I heard a lot about Jarquez Carter this summer. What can he do? What about Garrett Stover and Riley Pettijohn? I want to see all of them and more — early and often.
Ohio State 69 - Grambling State 0.
Nice.
THE MENU. College football's Week 1 was glorious. Week 2? Not so much. This weekend, FOX's Big Noon Kickoff is in Ames for Iowa at Iowa State, and ESPN's College GameDay is in Norman for [REDACTED] at Oklahoma. Those matchups are... fine... and so are these:
| AWAY TEAM | HOME TEAM | Time | TV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liberty | Jacksonville State | 12:00pm | CBSSN |
| Baylor | 17 SMU | 12:00pm | The CW |
| UConn | Syracuse | 12:00pm | ACCN/ESPN+ |
| San Jose State | 7 Texas | 12:00pm | ABC |
| Iowa | 16 Iowa State | 12:00pm | FOX |
| 11 Illinois | Duke | 12:00pm | ESPN |
| East Texas A&M | 14 Florida State | 12:00pm | ACCN |
| Kent State | 24 Texas Tech | 12:00pm | TNT/Max |
| Virginia | NC State | 12:00pm | ESPN2 |
| FIU | 2 Penn State | 12:00pm | BTN |
| Kennesaw State | 23 Indiana | 12:00pm | FS1 |
| Northwestern State | Minnesota | 12:00pm | BTN |
| Central Michigan | Pitt | 12:00pm | ESPNU |
| Utah State | 19 Texas A&M | 12:45pm | SECN |
| Howard | Temple | 2:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Western Carolina | Wake Forest | 2:00pm | ACCNX/ESPN+ |
| Idaho State | New Mexico | 3:00pm | ALT/MWN |
| Fresno State | Oregon State | 3:30pm | The CW |
| Austin Peay | 4 Georgia | 3:30pm | SECN+/ESPN+ |
| UAB | Navy | 3:30pm | CBSSN |
| Bryant | UMass | 3:30pm | ESPN+ |
| Troy | 8 Clemson | 3:30pm | ACCN |
| Lindenwood | Appalachian State | 3:30pm | ESPN+ |
| Kansas | Missouri | 3:30pm | ESPN2 |
| Saint Francis U. | Buffalo | 3:30pm | ESPN+ |
| Texas State | UTSA | 3:30pm | ESPN+ |
| 20 Ole Miss | Kentucky | 3:30pm | ABC |
| Oklahoma State | 6 Oregon | 3:30pm | CBS/Paramount+ |
| Bowling Green | Cincinnati | 3:30pm | ESPN+ |
| ETSU | 22 Tennessee | 3:30pm | SECN+/ESPN+ |
| Gardner-Webb | Georgia Tech | 3:30pm | ACCNX/ESPN+ |
| Miami (Ohio) | Rutgers | 3:30pm | Peacock |
| North Texas | Western Michigan | 3:30pm | ESPN+ |
| Delaware | Colorado | 3:30pm | FOX |
| Grambling State | 1 Ohio State | 3:30pm | BTN |
| Middle Tennessee | Wisconsin | 4:00pm | FS1 |
| Northern Iowa | Wyoming | 4:00pm | ALT2/ALT+/MWN |
| West Virginia | Ohio | 4:00pm | ESPNU |
| USF | 13 Florida | 4:15pm | SECN |
| Arkansas State | Arkansas | 5:00pm | SECN+/ESPN+ |
| Sacramento State | Nevada | 5:00pm | NSN/MWN |
| Jackson State | Southern Miss | 5:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Florida A&M | Florida Atlantic | 6:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Texas Southern | California | 6:00pm | ACCNX/ESPN+ |
| Cal Poly | 25 Utah | 6:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Campbell | East Carolina | 6:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Missouri State | Marshall | 6:00pm | ESPN+ |
| NC Central | Old Dominion | 6:00pm | ESPN+ |
| SC State | 10 South Carolina | 7:00pm | SECN+/ESPN+ |
| WKU | Toledo | 7:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Tulane | South Alabama | 7:00pm | ESPN+ |
| North Carolina | Charlotte | 7:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Army | Kansas State | 7:00pm | ESPN |
| Bethune-Cookman | 5 Miami (FL) | 7:00pm | ACCNX/ESPN+ |
| Houston | Rice | 7:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Memphis | Georgia State | 7:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Northern Colorado | Colorado State | 7:00pm | ALT/ALT+/MWN |
| LIU | Eastern Michigan | 7:00pm | ESPN+ |
| North Carolina A&T | UCF | 7:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Southern Illinois | Purdue | 7:30pm | BTN |
| Charleston So. | Coastal Carolina | 7:30pm | ESPN+ |
| Ball State | Auburn | 7:30pm | ESPNU |
| 12 Arizona State | Mississippi State | 7:30pm | ESPN2 |
| Akron | Nebraska | 7:30pm | BTN |
| Boston College | Michigan State | 7:30pm | NBC/Peacock |
| Louisiana Tech | 3 LSU | 7:30pm | SECN+/ESPN+ |
| Georgia Southern | USC | 7:30pm | FS1 |
| Vanderbilt | Virginia Tech | 7:30pm | ACCN |
| 15 Michigan | 18 Oklahoma | 7:30pm | ABC |
| ULM | 21 Alabama | 7:45pm | SECN |
| UCLA | UNLV | 8:00pm | CBSSN |
| McNeese | Louisiana | 8:00pm | ESPN+ |
| UT Martin | UTEP | 9:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Tulsa | New Mexico State | 9:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Weber State | Arizona | 10:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Stanford | 10 BYU | 10:15pm | ESPN |
| San Diego State | Washington State | 10:15pm | The CW |
| UC Davis | Washington | 11:00pm | BTN |
| Sam Houston | Hawaii | 11:59pm | Spectrum/MWN |
OUR PICKS. The first week of Our Picks was... bad. Andy led the staffers with a 2-3 record, as Chase and Dan each went 1-4. But (!) there's no time like the present to bounce back! Here's Round 2:
Iowa at Iowa State (-3.5)
Iowa and Iowa State have faced off every season since 1977, excluding the COVID-impacted 2020 season. The road team has won the last five games in this matchup, with four of them decided by a touchdown or less. Here were the final scores:
- Iowa 18, Iowa State 17 in 2019
- Iowa 27, Iowa State 17 in 2021
- Iowa State 10, Iowa 7 in 2022
- Iowa 20, Iowa State 13 in 2023
- Iowa State 20, Iowa 19 in 2024
Expect another showcase of defense and special teams in Saturday's battle for the Cy-Hawk, where field position and points will be at a premium.
Andy: Iowa State
Chase: Iowa
Dan: Iowa
Illinois at Duke (+3.5)
Bert!
Bret Bielema and Illinois head to Durham to face Manny Diaz and Duke this weekend. Coming off a season with 10 victories, including a season-ending win over South Carolina in the Citrus Bowl, but the No. 11 Illini are only four-point favorites against the Blue Devils. This matchup should feature a thrilling quarterback duel, as Luke Altmyer continues his third season as Illinois' starter and Darian Mensah continues his first season as Duke's starter. Despite his inferior experience, Mensah could be the superior signal-caller. He had 23 touchdowns as a redshirt freshman at Tulane last year and was one of the most coveted players in the transfer portal this past offseason.
Andy: Illinois
Chase: Illinois
Dan: Illinois
Oklahoma State at Oregon (-27.5)
Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy and Oregon's Dan Lanning beefed over NIL budgets this week.
Gundy claimed the Cowboys spent "around $7 million" over the past three years while the Ducks spent "close to $40 million last year alone." Lanning's response? "If you want to be a top-10 team in college football, you better invest in winning. We spend to win. Some people save to have an excuse for why they don't."
* whispers * Don't tell Andy and Dan this, but I love Oregon here. Remember when Lanning lit a fire under his team with all the drama leading into the Colorado game in 2023? "They're fighting for clicks, we're fighting for wins," Lanning said. I expect him to have a similar edge entering this matchup, leading to at least a four-score win over the Cowboys.
Andy: Oklahoma State
Chase: Oregon
Dan: Oklahoma State
Bowling Green at Cincinnati (-22.5)
Ohio State legend Eddie George led Bowling Green to a win over Lafayette in his debut as the Falcons' head coach. This weekend, George and his team face a much stiffer test in Cincinnati, who took Nebraska down to the wire in a Week 1 matchup in Kansas City. For what it's worth, Cincinnati opened as an 18-point favorite in the matchup, but enough soft-earned American dollars came in for the Bearcats to shift the line almost five points in the Bearcats' favor.
Andy: Cincinnati
Chase: Bowling Green
Dan: Bowling Green
West Virginia at Ohio (+3.5)
Charlie Fadel of The Post — The Athens Post, not The Washington Post — believes the battle between the Bobcats and Mountaineers "could be the biggest game in Peden Stadium history." Ohio announced Thursday that the game is sold out. Yes, all 24,000 seats will have butts in them — and there will probably be more who throw down a lawn chair on the Hockhocking Adena Bikeway to watch the game beside the Hocking River. Do Parker Navarro and the Bobcats have what it takes to keep it close with the Mountaineers? We'll see. But they'll certainly have a lot of people supporting them!
Andy: Ohio
Chase: Ohio
Dan: West Virginia
THE BEAUTIFUL, PERFECTLY IMPERFECT GAME. You remember Tiki Barber? The running back? He starred at Virginia, then carved out a stellar 10-year career with the New York Giants, collecting 15,632 total yards and 67 touchdowns from 1997 to 2006.
In 2025, Barber co-hosts a radio show with Evan Roberts on WFAN in New York. On Thursday, while discussing Giants rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart, he shared this take: “College football sucks. It’s a bad watch. You don’t know who’s good, you don’t know who sucks, and even the good teams suck. So, college football is bad.”
Amazing. Every word of what he just said was wrong.
Now, I know what I said earlier about Ohio State vs. Grambling State — that I hope the Buckeyes have fun and stay healthy. Sure, that may sound like indifference. But hear this: I never take an Ohio State gameday for granted, and neither should you. We only get 12 guaranteed Saturdays a year to watch the Men in Scarlet and Gray play this beautiful, chaotic, perfectly imperfect sport. College football doesn’t suck — it’s the best thing in the world. And no matter who Ohio State is lining up against, you’ll find me watching.
SONG OF THE DAY. "Jump" - Van Halen.
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