Welcome to the Skull Session.
Goodbye, Bye Week. Hello, Penn State Week!
Have a good Monday.
WHAT IS GRIEF? A national champion, All-American and first-round pick, Nick Mangold wasn’t just a center for Ohio State football in the early 2000s; he was the center of Ohio State football in the early 2000s.
The Ohio State football family suffered a tragic loss this weekend.https://t.co/M4Tw1UWDoT pic.twitter.com/FQltSv53p6
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) October 26, 2025
Mangold’s death has been hard on me. Not because he was one of my favorite Buckeyes — I was 3 years old when Ohio State won the 2002 title and five when he earned those individual honors — but because he was only 41. He was so young. He had so much more life to live.
It’s also hard to think about Mangold’s wife and four children, all of whom will have to grieve his loss now and in the years ahead. But when I think about them, I remember one of my favorite quotes — from, of all people, Paul Bettany as Marvel’s Vision: What is grief, if not love persevering? I hope love perseveres for all of us, but especially for Mangold’s family — now and always. He will be missed.
“IT’S BEEN A LOT.” Mangold’s former team, the New York Jets, secured its first win of the 2025 season on Sunday, defeating the Cincinnati Bengals 39-38 in a shootout. Former Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields, whom Jets owner Woody Johnson publicly criticized last week, led New York to the win.
After the game, Fields shared how hard the week was for him — and how much it means to win a game as the Jets’ starter.
“It’s been a lot for me emotionally, spiritually,” Fields said. “When I was on the field, I was damn near about to start crying, not because we won but because of the goodness of God — just how everything worked for the greater good, everything that I’ve been through this past week, everything that we’ve been through as a team these past seven weeks, it was a lot of ups and downs. I got a lot of support from my teammates, from my brothers, from my family, from my friends, and most of all, I’m just thankful, thankful for the Lord that he blessed me.
“I mean, shoot, yesterday I started praying like crazy just for a win. I’m gonna get pretty vulnerable right here, but this week I found myself in my closet crying on the ground, lying down. Not because of the hardships, not because of the troubles. I feel like I was built to handle that. But in that moment, I was talking to my best friend about how hard it was and not wavering faith-wise, I had just gotten a text from my sister and my step mom and it was just an encouraging text on just keep going and keep spreading the faith.
“It was just a sign from God for me to keep going and that I’m in the right place. Yesterday, I was just praying over and over and over again, like, just one, just one win.”
Man, I love Justin Fields!
I hope this win generates some momentum for him and the Je —
Wait, the Jets play the Browns next?
OK, I hope Fields and the Jets can generate some momentum after that!
Kidding.
Cleveland’s season is down the drain anyway. Myles Garrett has five sacks in a game, and the Browns still can’t win!
BK, CAN’T HAVE IT YOUR WAY. I once wrote in a Skull Session, “If James Franklin has no haters, I am dead.” But then Penn State fired Franklin, and I didn’t want to dance on his grave — so maybe I wasn’t a Franklin hater, after all. Here’s what I can write with confidence, however: If Brian Kelly has no haters, I am dead. Yeah, that one I believe with conviction.
LSU, a team ESPN once tried to convince me deserved to be ranked No. 1 in America after it beat Clemson (who is now 3-4!), suffered a 49-25 home loss to Texas A&M on Saturday. Less than 24 hours later, the Tigers fired Kelly.
LSU Athletics has announced a leadership change with the football program.
— LSU Football (@LSUfootball) October 27, 2025
https://t.co/xbuGbANXGn pic.twitter.com/oEtJ4fYDug
Oh, man! Kelly’s fah-muly turned against him! This couldn’t have happened to a better person!
LSU now owes Kelly $54 million, the second-largest buyout in college football history behind Jimbo Fisher’s $76 million buyout from Texas A&M. (Franklin’s $49 million now ranks third.)
Kelly signed a 10-year, $95 million contract when he bolted from Notre Dame to LSU in November 2021, with 90 percent of it guaranteed. His listed salary of just under $10.2 million ranked ninth among college coaches, trailing Georgia’s Kirby Smart, Ohio State’s Ryan Day, Indiana’s Curt Cignetti, USC’s Lincoln Riley, Clemson’s Dabo Swinney, Texas’ Steve Sarkisian, Oregon’s Dan Lanning and Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer.
The ninth-highest-paid coach in college football compiled a 34-14 record in his tenure. (Even in a season when he had 2023 Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels, who later became the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2024, the Tigers went 10-3 and missed the College Football Playoff!) Now 5-3 in 2025, LSU still has road trips to No. 4 Alabama and No. 18 Oklahoma on its schedule, and I don’t think the Tigers would win either, with or without Kelly!
I look forward to Kelly interviewing to be UCLA’s head coach this winter. Here’s how it will sound:
Brian Kelly showing up for his interview at UCLA. pic.twitter.com/bej9pLIuyC
— Ben Stevens (@BenScottStevens) October 26, 2025
HOOSIER DADDY? Here’s a wild stat: Before this past weekend, Indiana was the only team in college football to win a conference game by 50 or more points. On Saturday, Curt Cignetti and the Hoosiers really said, Wanna see us do it again?
One month after demolishing Illinois 63-10, Indiana smashed a resurgent UCLA team 56-6 in Bloomington as Fernando Mendoza threw for three touchdowns, Roman Hemby ran for two and E.J. Williams Jr. caught two. Meanwhile, Nico Iamaleava completed 13 of 27 passes for 113 yards and two interceptions as UCLA’s only points came from a pair of Mateen Bhagnani field goals.
“We try to play every play like it’s nothing-nothing, game on the line, regardless of the competitive circumstances,” Cignetti said after the game. “That’s kind of our mentality.”
That mentality has made Indiana at least a top-two team in college football. The Hoosiers rank No. 2 behind Ohio State in both the Coaches Poll and AP Poll, but Eleven Warriors editor Dan Hope slotted them at No. 1 in his Big Ten Power Rankings — and it’s hard to argue.
Indiana’s win over Oregon in Eugene is the most impressive victory of the season and outweighs Ohio State’s triumphs over Texas and Washington. Throw in a common opponent — Illinois, which Indiana beat 63-10 and Ohio State beat 34-16 — and the Hoosiers have plenty of ground to stand on as the sport’s true No. 1.
Regardless of where Ohio State and Indiana sit today, the two are on a collision course for Dec. 6 in Indianapolis. A Big Ten Championship Game between the Buckeyes and Hoosiers already sounds surreal — but how about this? Not only could that matchup decide the conference title, it might also decide the Heisman Trophy, as Mendoza (+260) and Julian Sayin (+400) currently rank first and third on FanDuel Sportsbook. That's wild, too!
DAILY DUBCAST. The first Eleven Dubcast of the week begins by paying respects to the memory and family of legendary Ohio State center Nick Mangold before remarking at the Buckeyes holding onto most of the first place votes out of the bye week.
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