Skull Session: Ohio State’s Talent is Off the Charts, Julian Sayin Has a Heisman Moment, Carnell Tate Cannot Be Denied and Isaiah West Flashes Against Wisconsin

Welcome to the Skull Session.

Victory Monday feels gooooood.

That's a shutout #GoBucks | @anduriltech pic.twitter.com/SywXTgLUDs
— Ohio State Buckeyes (@OhioStAthletics) October 18, 2025

Have a great Monday.

THIS TEAM IS GREAT. You tell me — how many of college football’s best players does Ohio State have on its roster? Four? Five? Six? Seven?

Jeremiah Smith and Caleb Downs entered the fall as the best offensive and defensive players in the sport. Carnell Tate, Max Klare and Sonny Styles were also well-regarded, so the number was at least five before Ohio State faced Texas in the season opener. But this year, several Buckeyes have established themselves in college football’s upper echelon.

I hesitated to place Davison Igbinosun among the “well-regarded” tier because of the countless penalties he committed last season — it was 16, I counted — but through seven games in 2025, he’s cleaned up his coverage and become one of the nation’s best corners. His running mate, Jermaine Mathews Jr., has done the same. Both are, as Ryan Day called them last week, “the kind of DBs you want on your team.”

Igbinosun and Mathews have not climbed the mountain to greatness alone. How about Kayden McDonald and Caden Curry? Both Buckeyes were named midseason AP All-Americans, along with Smith, Downs and Arvell Reese (spoiler: he’s climbed the mountain, too). McDonald is the best nose guard in the nation, while Curry is — well, just look at this stat, per Cleveland.com’s Stephen Means:

Caden Curry through 7 games:

34 tackles, 10 TFLs, 7 sacks, 1 PBU, 1 FR and 26 pressures in 296 snaps

Chase Young through 7 games in 2019:

23 tackles, 10.5 TFLs, 9.5 sacks, 1 PBU, 3 FF and 30 pressures in 269 snaps
— Stephen Means (@Stephen_Means) October 19, 2025

It’s important to note that Young accomplished that feat while double and sometimes triple-teamed, but it shows the kind of impact Curry has made in 2025. He’s no longer a no-name.

Then there’s Reese, who has NFL scouts looking like Slick Joe McWolf when viewing his All-22 film. The Cleveland native has been so good this season that all the well-known NFL draft analysts have him ranked as a top-10 prospect (and in some cases, top five) for 2026.

And last but not least, there’s Julian Sayin, who has established himself as a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate, alongside Alabama’s Ty Simpson and Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza. (More on that in a moment.)

That’s 11.

Did I miss someone?

Probably.

That’s how talented Ohio State is — and that’s surely what has Smith confident enough to declare the 2025 Buckeyes better than the 2024 Buckeyes. Yes, Smith said this year’s team is better than the one that won a national championship.

“This year’s team, we want to make a name for ourselves. We want to go down in the history books as the team (to win national titles) back-to-back,” Smith told CBS Sports on Saturday. “I feel like this team is better than last year’s team. That’s what I feel.”

In the latest episode of Eleven Warriors Live, associate producer Jack Emerson and I agreed it’s hard to back Smith’s claim until Ryan Day and the Buckeyes win it all again in January. Still, with the talent on this roster, I’m inclined to believe him.

KING JULIANNNNNN. Julian Sayin completed 36 of 42 passes for a career-high 393 yards and four touchdowns in Ohio State’s win over Wisconsin.

For Ohio State fans, Sayin’s performance felt like just another day in the office for the Buckeyes’ quarterback, who had completed 78.4 percent of his passes for 1,479 yards, 15 touchdowns and three interceptions during the team’s 6-0 start. OK, maybe not just another day in the office — more like one where a co-worker brought in donuts and coffee to share.

But for non-Ohio State fans, Sayin’s performance put him on the map — specifically, a Heisman Trophy map near Simpson and Mendoza.

Sayin’s teammates leap at opportunities to praise him. This past offseason, Jeremiah Smith said his quarterback can “make any and every throw,” a statement he reiterated following Ohio State’s win over Grambling State. On Saturday, Tate called Sayin “the truth.”

“He’s the truth. He’s the Heisman winner. Ain’t no question, ifs ands or doubts,” Tate said. “Each and every week, he goes out there to prove to us why he’s a Heisman winner.”

Sayin’s 80 percent completion rate leads the nation (the next closest quarterback is Marshall’s Carlos Del Rio-Wilson at 74.4 percent). His 189.7 passer rating ranks second behind Mendoza’s 191 and his 86.9 QBR ranks fourth behind USC’s Jayden Maiava, Georgia’s Gunner Stockton and Arkansas’ Taylen Green.

Fitting the California quarterback mold, Sayin continues to look calm and poised as Ryan Day, Brian Hartline and Billy Fessler ask more of him week after week.

“We really tried to put a lot on his plate today and let him push the ball down the field,” Day told CBS Sports on Saturday. “I thought he made some really good decisions. I thought there were some really good catches as well, but he’s making good decisions. I thought he made a couple of really good scramble plays down the stretch as well.”

In a press conference with reporters, Day continued his praise for Sayin, who translates information processed in weekday meetings to the field in weekend games, Day said.

“I sit in those meetings with Billy and he and Lincoln (Kienholz) and the amount of information that he’s processing and those guys go through in those meetings is well done. And when you see it translate to on the field, that’s winning football,” Day said. “When you can take a meeting to the field as quickly as he can and then see it and then process it — you know, is he perfect? No, there are things he’s gonna work to get better at, but man, he’s got a bright future ahead of him.”

Oh yeah, Sayin is a redshirt freshman. Ha, we have at least another year and a half with this kid — and he’s already this good.

CARNELL GREAT. You know who else is good?

My mom!

Any Regular Show fans out there?

Just me?

Cool, cool, cool.

On a serious note, Carnell Tate is good. Like, so, so, so good.

Tate had six catches for 111 yards and two touchdowns against Wisconsin. His second catch — the 100th of his career — deserves to be on repeat all week. Tate leaped over two defenders, lost his helmet and still scored Ohio State’s first touchdown of the game.

Ryan Day called it “an All-American catch,” which sounds cool, but the context Day provided made it sound even cooler.

On the play before Tate’s touchdown, Brandon Inniss left the game with an injury. While Inniss entered the medical tent, Tate moved to the slot, and Quincy Porter entered the game as Ohio State’s X. The following snap, Tate ran in a straight line to the end zone and hauled in the 33-yard score.

“He had not run that play in practice one time,” Day said.

Day clarified that he meant a practice this year because, according to Day, Tate ran the play two years ago against Purdue. Then a true freshman behind Marvin Harrison Jr., Emeka Egbuka and Julian Fleming, Tate turned the play into a big gain for the Buckeyes.

That means it was just like old times for Tate — only better this time around.

“Just happened to be two defenders up there,” Tate said. “I just went up there and grabbed the ball.”

It’s hard to capture in writing just how casual Tate was when he said it. Like that kind of thing just happens. Oh, wait, this is Ohio State. It does!

WAKE UP, MR. WEST! Ohio State’s run game left a lot to be desired on Saturday — or as Ryan Day said on Saturday, the Buckeyes “left some meat on the bone in the run game, for sure.”

Bo Jackson (10 carries, 26 yards) and CJ Donaldson (2 carries, 12 yards) combined for 38 yards on 12 attempts. That’s 3.2 yards per carry. Oof. Thankfully, Isaiah West carried the load elsewhere, leading the team with 55 yards on nine carries — a healthy 6.1 yards per attempt.

Back in the summer, Carlos Locklyn told reporters at a prospect camp that we were overlooking West. Given that Ohio State already had Donaldson, James Peoples and Sam Dixon on the roster — plus Jackson and Anthony “Turbo” Rogers joining the program as higher-rated recruits — I laughed it off.

I should not have laughed.

(This is a good example of how Ohio State coaches are better talent evaluators than I am, and that all college coaches have forgotten more about football than I could ever hope to know.)

West showed some burst in his nine carries on Saturday. More importantly, he made defenders miss — something Ohio State’s running backs had failed to do consistently through its first six games.

The Lock Boyz adding a big time playmaker to the backfield who can do it all, welcome @IsaiahWest_12 pic.twitter.com/6eCdQa4Olx
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) October 16, 2025

“It’s a good sign for a young back, so we’ll see what it looks like and see where we are going from here,” Day said. “We are going to look at everything and do everything we can to make sure we are more efficient and more balanced.”

If West keeps performing at this level, Day and Locklyn may need to rethink the Buckeyes’ running back rotation. Could a setup where Jackson and West take the majority of carries, with Donaldson handling short-yardage situations, be the key to unlocking Ohio State’s run game?

DAILY DUBCAST. The first Eleven Dubcast of the week recaps the 34-0 win for Ohio State over Wisconsin and explores if the Buckeyes will have enough remaining competition to prepare themselves for the late-season challenges to come.