Welcome to the Skull Session.
This is a week full of matchups between the Buckeyes and Nittany Lions. First, Ohio State men's hockey hosts Penn State and future top NHL draft pick Gavin McKenna on Thursday and Friday. Then, Ohio State men's soccer hosts Penn State on Friday. And last but not least, the Buckeyes and Nittany Lions battle on the football field Saturday.
Have a good Thursday.
A POINT TO PROVE. The more I think about Ryan Day’s comments on his relationship with Jim Knowles, the more confident I am that Ohio State will beat the snot out of Penn State this weekend. That said, another one of Day’s remarks gives me pause — his assertion that the Nittany Lions still boast one of the most talented rosters in college football, and that they have nothing to lose.
“We know that this is one of the top five, 10 teams in the country. I don’t think there are many teams in the country that have more talent than Penn State has. I think people recognized that early in the season. Sure, it hasn’t gone the way they’ve wanted it to, but that doesn’t change the fact that they still have really good players,” Day said. “When you looked at this game a few months ago, it was an absolute matchup game. That has not changed. It’s still the same players, other than the quarterback. Our guys know that. They understand that.
“These are very, very talented players. They have a lot of NFL players, and we know they have really good coaches. All of that is gonna lead to a huge matchup game for us on Saturday.”
When Day said Ohio State knows Penn State has really good coaches, I’m sure he had Knowles in mind. Day said he and Knowles haven’t talked much, if at all, since the defensive coordinator left Columbus for State College soon after the Buckeyes won the national championship. Day was all class when asked about Knowles’ departure; however, he hinted that he has feelings about how the whole saga went down.
“We try not to take those things personal, but we are human,” Day said.
Day is an emotional person, but he often reminds himself of this mindset: you have to play with emotion, you can’t let emotion play with you. So, while it would be awesome to see Day take Knowles and the Nittany Lions to the woodshed, I’m not sure he will — only because that’s not how he and the Buckeyes have operated all season.
I guess I must ask: what proves a bigger point for Day, that Ohio State beats a defeated, hopeless Penn State by more than three scores, or that he wins his second straight national title, proving he can hoist a CFP trophy with or without Knowles? To me, it’s clearly the latter. To do that, the Buckeyes must keep picking apart opponents with an efficient offense and a dominant defense — exactly the course Day has followed all season.
Still, if Ohio State can lean on an efficient offense and dominant defense and beat Penn State by three scores (or more!), I'd take that, too! I'd take that, for sure!
KNOW WHEN TO WALK AWAY. The NCAA voted Tuesday to delay a rule change that would allow athletes and athletic department staff to bet on professional sports from Nov. 1 to Nov. 22.
The NCAA’s announcement came 48 hours after SEC commissioner Greg Sankey sent a letter to NCAA president Charlie Baker in which he expressed concerns about the rule change.
“On behalf of our universities, I write to urge action by the NCAA Division I Board of Directors to rescind this change and reaffirm the Association’s commitment to maintaining strong national standards that keep collegiate participants separated from sports wagering activity at every level,” Sankey wrote, per ESPN’s Heather Dinich. “If there are legal or practical concerns about the prior policy, those should be addressed through careful refinement — not through wholesale removal of the guardrails that have long supported the integrity of games and the well-being of those who participate.”
Sports werent corrupted by gamblers. It got sold out by the people who made gambling central to the business model.
— Joon Lee (@joonlee) October 28, 2025
New @nytopinion column: how gambling became the engine driving American life starting with sports https://t.co/Dzm5emYdxO
I think Ryan Day would endorse Sankey’s message. When asked about the rule change on Tuesday, the Ohio State head coach seemed to have no interest in his players having the freedom to gamble.
“Yearly, we have a huge talk about gambling. Gambling is really one of the hot topics. Every year, I try to identify — we try to identify as a staff — the top four or five things that we think can jam our players up and distract them or get themselves off track and one of them is gambling,” he said. “It’s just completely changed, and I think that’s another part of this game that’s changed. The fans, the people who are just cheering for us every day. There’s a lot that comes with that, and so we talk to our guys a lot about that part of it.”
Day called the rule change “a losing proposition” for coaches. Still, Day and his staff have a plan in place for if and when the rule changes. In fact, the plan is already underway, thanks to C.J. Barnett.
“We try to post as many — C.J. Barnett right now, you’ll see in our locker room (he posted) a bunch of articles about some of the stuff that’s going on most recently about people getting jammed up with that… ”
I’m assuming those articles are about Chauncey Billups, Terry Rozier and the Mafia, but I could be wrong.
“... We try to post them and make our guys aware... It’s just one area we try to educate our players. Usually, we do a lot more of that in the offseason, but it is a good reminder during the bye week.”
According to a report from the Associated Press, a seldom-used rule allows each Division I school to vote to rescind a proposal within 30 days if 75% of the Division I cabinet adopts it. The original vote to approve betting fell short of the 75% threshold earlier this month, but with Sankey and (I assume) Day in support of rescinding the proposal, I’ll be curious to see what happens from here.
A GRIEF OBSERVED. Ryan Day opened his Tuesday press conference with an announcement that Ohio State will hold a moment of silence for Nick Mangold and Bob Maggs, two prominent former players who died last week.
“Both had major impacts on this program,” Day said. “We’re praying for their families and want to let those families know we’re all thinking about them.”
Harrowing but beautiful — 105,000 souls silent to mourn lives lost but celebrate lives lived. I’ll confess this: most deaths of former Ohio State athletes don’t impact me. The affliction passes as soon as it arrives. I think it’s because I never watched them play for the Buckeyes. Yet, the same is true of Mangold and Maggs, and their passing has moved me deeply.
Maybe it’s because I’m older now. Maybe it’s because, as I age, I’ve become more aware of life’s fragility and more protective of the people I love — and what it would be like to lose them.
Mangold and Maggs’ parents lost their son.
Their siblings lost a brother.
Their wives lost a husband.
Their children lost a father.
I grieve for them.
In A Grief Observed, a book C.S. Lewis wrote after his wife, Joy, died from breast cancer, the esteemed author shared that no one ever told him grief felt so like fear.
I am not afraid, but the sensation is like being afraid. The same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness, the yawning. I keep on swallowing. At other times it feels like being mildly drunk, or concussed. There is a sort of invisible blanket between the world and me. I find it hard to take in what anyone says. Or perhaps, hard to want to take it in. It is so uninteresting. Yet I want others to be about me. I dread the moments when the house is empty. If only they would talk to one another and not to me.
That’s what makes moments like the one on Saturday so powerful. When 105,000 people stand in silence together, grief becomes communal — a burden shared, a love remembered. For mere seconds, the world slows, and the living honor the dead not through words but stillness. Mangold and Maggs are gone, but the echoes of their lives, and the love that shaped them, remain.
THREE TOP 100 BUCKEYES. This is the season Ohio State men’s basketball returns to the NCAA Tournament. It has to be!
According to ESPN’s college basketball staff, three Buckeyes rank among the top 100 players in the sport: Bruce Thornton (No. 25), John Mobley Jr. (No. 82) and Devin Royal (No. 100).
No. 25 - Bruce Thornton
Thornton is often too strong for opposing point guards to handle, which has helped him develop into a remarkably efficient offensive player. He shot a career-high 50.1% from the field and 42.4% from 3 in a high-usage role that resulted in him averaging 17.7 points and 4.6 assists last season. Thornton will now hope to lead the Buckeyes to their first NCAA tournament since he arrived in Columbus three seasons ago.
No. 82 - John Mobley Jr.
In Jake Diebler's first full season as head coach, his squad didn't end it with an NCAA tournament berth, but there were silver linings -- including a top-30 mark in adjusted offensive efficiency, according to advanced college basketball analytics site EvanMiya.com, and a top-45 clip in 3-point shooting rate. Mobley's overall marksmanship (13.0 PPG, 39% 3P%) had a hand in that effectiveness. He is due to have a greater impact in his sophomore season.
No. 100 - Devin Royal
Royal edges out Xzayvier Brown for the final spot in the 100. Royal, a 6-foot-6 forward, averaged 13.7 points and 6.9 rebounds last season, showing the ability to rack up breakout performances: 29 points vs. Illinois, 31 points and 15 boards vs. Valparaiso, and 26 points vs. Michigan. If Royal can produce outings like that more consistently, Ohio State will likely take the next step and be a real threat to win NCAA tournament games.
With these three studs, plus 7-foot, 240-pound center Christoph Tilly dropping dimes like Nikola Jokić and Brandon Noel looking like both a bucket and a problem, Ohio State’s starting lineup should stack up well against the rest of the Big Ten this season. That said, I want to see Jake Diebler channel his inner Kevin Bacon and make this team dance in March!
DAILY DUBCAST. Today's Eleven Dubcast welcomes back beat writer Andy Anders to discuss the emergence of Isaiah West in the Ohio State running back rotation during the Wisconsin game and how his performance could further reshape the backfield moving forward.
SONG OF THE DAY. "Say It Ain't So" - Weezer.
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