Welcome to the Skull Session.
Boooooom! Jake Diebler landed a massive commitment from five-star small forward Anthony Thompson. There's a lot to love about Thompson, but one of the most lovable parts is that he's from Ohio! The best in Ohio stay in Ohio!
#BOOM Jake Diebler has landed one of Ohio States top commitments in the modern recruiting era.https://t.co/ssJI69NDAo pic.twitter.com/RdydvK07b6
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) October 21, 2025
Have a good Wednesday.
THE COMPUTERS! It's Hump Day. You know what that means. This week, The Computers view Ohio State as the best team in college football. The Buckeyes are ranked No. 1 in both the College Football Power Index and SP+, and there's a considerable margin between them and Oregon, which is ranked No. 2 in both metrics.
College Football Power Index
| TEAM | RECORD | FPI | WIN OUT | WIN CONF | MAKE CFP | WIN CFP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OHIO STATE | 7-0 | 27.2 | 42.5% | 54.8% | 96.2% | 27.8% |
| OREGON | 6-1 | 24.3 | 29.8% | 7.4% | 75.3% | 9.5% |
| ALABAMA | 6-1 | 22.9 | 25.6% | 57.8% | 90.3% | 14.5% |
| INDIANA | 7-0 | 22.7 | 24.1% | 34% | 93.9% | 13.9% |
| NOTRE DAME | 5-2 | 22.5 | 69.4% | N/A | 30.2% | 2.4% |
Ohio State's future opponents in the College Football Power Index: Penn State (21), Purdue (77), UCLA (64), Rutgers (63), Michigan (16)
SP+
| TEAM | RECORD | RATING | OFFENSE | DEFENSE | SPECIAL TEAMS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OHIO STATE | 7-0 | 27.8 | 37.9 (12) | 10.1 (2) | 0.0 (71) |
| OREGON | 6-1 | 26 | 39.7 (3) | 13.9 (5) | 0.3 (15) |
| INDIANA | 7-0 | 25.4 | 38.4 (11) | 13.3 (4) | 0.3 (9) |
| TEXAS TECH | 6-1 | 22.4 | 39 (7) | 16.7 (13) | 0.1 (42) |
| OKLAHOMA | 6-1 | 21.6 | 32.4 (39) | 11 (3) | 0.2 (34) |
Ohio State's future opponents in the SP+: Penn State (17), Purdue (101), UCLA (68), Rutgers (67), Michigan (21)
Matchup Predictor
| OPPONENT | DATE | LOCATION | PREDICTION |
|---|---|---|---|
| PENN STATE | 11/1 | COLUMBUS, OH | OHIO STATE 87.9% |
| PURDUE | 11/8 | WEST LAFAYETTE, IN | OHIO STATE 97.1% |
| UCLA | 11/15 | COLUMBUS, OH | OHIO STATE 97.8% |
| RUTGERS | 11/22 | COLUMBUS, OH | OHIO STATE 96.9% |
| MICHIGAN | 11/29 | ANN ARBOR, MI | OHIO STATE 75.3% |
Movements from Week 7 to Week 8
- Penn State: 86.3% → 87.9%
- Purdue: 96.3% → 97.1%
- UCLA: 97.6% → 97.8%
- Rutgers: 94.5% → 96.9%
- Michigan: 74.4% → 75.3%
Man, I still can't get over Penn State's freefall. Looking back at the Matchup Predictor from between Week 1 and Week 2, the Buckeyes had a 66.1% chance to beat the Nittany Lions. In the seven weeks that followed, Penn State fired James Franklin, Drew Allar broke his ankle and the Nittany Lions are 3-4. That's wild!
STOP RIGHT NOW! Hallelujah! Ohio State is No. 1 in stop rate.
In Week 7 and Week 8, Ohio State was ranked as the No. 3 team in stop rate. This week, however, Matt Patricia's defense claimed the No. 1 spot thanks to their shutout win over Wisconsin, in which the Badgers' drives looked like this against the Buckeyes: punt, interception, punt, punt, punt... *inhale* *exhale*... punt, punt, punt, turnover on downs.
| TEAM | GAMES* | STOP RATE | PTS/DRIVE |
|---|---|---|---|
| OHIO STATE | 6 | 84.2% | 0.72 |
| OKLAHOMA | 6 | 82.1% | 0.84 |
| TEXAS | 7 | 81.7% | 0.94 |
| TEXAS TECH | 6 | 79% | 1.14 |
| TOLEDO | 6 | 78.4% | 1.35 |
| SAN DIEGO STATE | 5 | 77.2% | 1.25 |
| JAMES MADISON | 6 | 76.9% | 1.32 |
| OREGON | 6 | 76.8% | 1.28 |
| INDIANA | 6 | 75.8% | 1.09 |
| MARYLAND | 6 | 75% | 1.37 |
| *GAMES VS. FBS OPPONENTS | |||
ESPN's Max Olson created stop rate to measure the percentage of a defense's drives that end in punts, turnovers or a turnover on downs for all 136 FBS teams. Entering Week 9, the Buckeyes (84.2%) lead college football, surpassing Oklahoma (82.1%), Texas (81.7%) and Texas Tech (79%), all of which ranked ahead of Ohio State earlier this month.
I don't mean to beat a dead horse with this statistic, but I can't believe it's real: Ohio State's 41 points allowed are the fewest by an FBS team through seven games since 1993 Florida State (38). That Seminoles team went on to allow 75 points in 12 games (6.25 per contest), a mark the Buckeyes could surpass, considering the remainder of the schedule includes Penn State, Purdue, UCLA, Rutgers and Michigan, all of which rank outside the top 35 in total offense and top 45 in scoring offense through Week 8.
I believe Patricia and Co. can do it!
RYAN DAY, NONSTOP. Ryan Day appeared on Kirk Herbstreit and Joey Galloway's "Nonstop" podcast on Monday to discuss Ohio State's season to this point and the Buckeyes' plans for their second off week.
Day’s appearance included some serious topics, such as how Ohio State’s culture and mindset have led to the Buckeyes being the most focused team in college football week after week.
“It has to be about the routine of the week and making sure that you’re focusing on your process and routine,” Day said. “The minute you start to change things as coaches and players and your preparation based on who you’re playing, then you can set yourself up for a lot of ups and downs. That’s one thing, to me, I’ve really — every year you try to learn more and more. At Ohio State, there are certain games you’re expected to win by a certain margin, and then you have these other games that are a little bit more matchup games. I think the easy thing to do is for the ones you circle, you start to ramp things up. That’s something I’ve tried to really learn year in and year out, is to continue to keep the routine the routine and just make sure you’re focused on your process.
“But then you have to know your opponent. As we learned last year, a lot of times it’s gonna come down to matchups. As we start to project what the end of the season is gonna look like, you look at all these different teams across the country, it’s kind of like in the NFL a lot of it comes down to your matchups and then what are you willing to do or able to do as a team to adjust and adapt in order to attack what you’re seeing schematically or personnel wise. I think all of those things come into play, and I think the other part of it is talking to your team about being mature, growing up and being a veteran team emotionally, mentally, taking care of your body so you can bring it physically every week.
“There’s a seriousness about that — that you have to understand that every time you go out on the field, you’re putting it on the line, you’re putting your season on the line. Each week, especially in conference right now, I know we talk about it here, we’re playing for a chance to get to Indianapolis. We haven’t been there in a little while, so we need to get there, and every time you’re playing, if you don’t win that game, you put yourself at risk of not getting to Indianapolis. So, understanding what’s on the table and being consistent, I think, is important.”
It also included some unserious topics, like whether Day owns a dog.
“I got dogs on the team, but I don’t have any dogs at the house,” Day said with a laugh. “I’ll explain the dog situation. So, my wife, her father is from Greece, and he grew up in the village and came over when he was 9. Well, they had sheep dogs there. When he was young, if he went by the sheep, the dogs would go and attack you, so he was petrified of dogs growing up. I mean, it could be the littlest dog, and he’s jumping on a table. That fear went into my wife, so she’s petrified of dogs, and that’s one of the reasons there are no dogs in our house, for sure.”
All in all, Day’s appearance was full of fun. I highly recommend watching the segment in full, as it feels more like a conversation between three friends than an interview between college football analysts and one of the sport’s premier coaches.
PLEASE WATCH THIS. CBS Sports released a feature on Ryan Day before Ohio State faced Wisconsin, sharing how Day has made his athletes' mental health a pillar of the program during his seven seasons as head coach. The video is about seven-and-a-half minutes long, but I recommend carving out some time to watch it this week.
"We want to be there for them... Understanding that you have physical health and mental health, and that you need to make sure you're taking care of both."@OhioStateFB's Ryan Day makes sure his program focuses on the mental well-being of its student athletes pic.twitter.com/ox0RZ2vLeI
— CBS Sports College Football (@CBSSportsCFB) October 18, 2025
DAILY DUBCAST. The Eleven Dubcast returns after missing yesterday's episode due to the great AWS outage that swept America, welcoming back Dan Hope to discuss the shifts and storylines among schools across the latest edition of his Big Ten Power Rankings.
SONG OF THE DAY. "1-800-273-8255" - Logic feat. Alessia Cara, Khalid.
CUT TO THE CHASE. The Roosters near Ohio State's campus is reopening on Thursday... An elephant family smashed pumpkins at the Oregon Zoo. But this baby wanted to play ball... OpenAI launches Atlas browser to compete with Google Chrome... Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summaries and social video... NFL wants to expand international slate, will evaluate Saudi Arabia.
