Skull Session: Ohio State Lands Its Fourth Commitment in Five Days, Heisman Voters Cannot Be Prisoners of the Moment and Caleb Downs Has the Talent to Do Anything and Everything

By Chase Brown on November 11, 2025 at 5:00 am
Caleb Downs
Adam Cairns / Columbus Dispatch
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Welcome to the Skull Session

John Legend! What a legend!

Have a good Tuesday.

 BOOOOOOM. Ohio State landed four commitments in five days. Is that good?

Legend Bey flipped from Tennessee to Ohio State on Monday. Bey is “the most explosive prospect in Texas,” according to On3’s Steve Wiltfong, and recruiting analysts from across the nation see the four-star athlete becoming a potential gamebreaker due to his 4.3 speed.

Bey’s commitment was just one of the BOOMs On3’s Hayes Fawcett predicted for Ohio State this week. He also hinted at potential commitments from more prospects from the 2026 class, as well as the 2027 class.

A final note on Bey is that he’s a candidate for Sports Illustrated National Boys Athlete of the Week. One of his competitors is Ryan Day’s son, RJ, who threw for 482 yards and three touchdowns in DeSales’ 33-29 win over Ashland on Friday.

“That’s the most (yards) that’s ever been throw in my house,” Day said of his son’s performance while he appeared on Buckeye Roundtable. “It’s hard for me to say that. I can say I never threw for 480. I’m proud of him. He loves it. He puts a lot into it. There’s a lot that comes at him. And he played great. He did. But that game’s over with. … We have Massillon coming to town, so he better not be reading his press clippings.”

I don’t care who you vote for — just vote for one of them!

 HOLD YOUR DANG HORSES! This week, ESPN’s David Hale articulated well how I view the current Heisman race between Julian Sayin, Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza and Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson. He correctly ranked the candidates in that order — Sayin, Mendoza and Simpson — but he didn’t have Jeremiah Smith at No. 4, which… fine. Instead, Hale picked Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love and UConn quarterback Joe Fagnano to round out his top five.

Here’s what Hale wrote about Sayin, Mendoza and Simpson:

1. Ohio State QB Julian Sayin

There's something that just feels off about Sayin's Heisman candidacy. It has been too easy, like an email from a deposed prince assuring you of millions if you can just help him out by providing your credit card number. Sayin threw for 303 yards and a score against Purdue, even without one of his top receivers, while Jeremiah Smith picked up the slack, catching 10 balls for 137 yards. Sayin looks like he shouldn't be able to get into an R-rated movie without a member of the Ohio State coaching staff accompanying him, and yet he has been nearly flawless all season. How is this possible? It feels like someone is about to explain that he's as much a real quarterback as a sentient Jugs machine developed by OpenAI to eliminate the need for human quarterbacks.

2. Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza

If Mendoza takes home the Heisman as many pundits seem to feel is inevitable now, his final drive that toppled Penn State — and shredded Gus Johnson's vocal cords — will be lauded as his "Heisman moment." Hard to argue. It wasn’t just that he found the holes in Penn State's defense. There weren’t holes. He created them. He put the ball, time and again, in the one spot his receivers could catch it, and each time — miraculously on the final throw — they did. We're not quite ready to hand him the hardware yet, but the Big Ten title game, if it’s a matchup between Indiana and Ohio State, figures to be the deciding factor.

3. Alabama QB Ty Simpson

Years from now, our greatest scientists will study the game film of Simpson's Week 1 loss to Florida State, and the first one to explain it rationally will win a Nobel Prize.

OK, Hale’s three lines about the deposed prince, the R-rated movie and the OpenAI quarterback are some of the funniest I’ve read in an article in quite some time. Bravo to him.

I also appreciate Hale’s desire not to get caught up in the moment — or, should I say, the Heisman moment. Yes, Mendoza was excellent on Indiana’s game-winning drive against Penn State. But let’s not ignore that he finished 19-of-30 for 218 yards, one touchdown and one interception against a Nittany Lions defense that Julian Sayin torched for 316 yards and four scores a week earlier in Columbus.

We shouldn’t be so quick to guarantee Mendoza the Heisman when he and the Hoosiers are on a collision course with Sayin and the Buckeyes in the Big Ten Championship Game. Unless one of the quarterbacks goes nuclear in a losing effort, the winner in Indianapolis — assuming both teams get there — will likely see its quarterback hoist the Heisman in New York City a week later. Someone tell Gus Johnson and other national media to hold their dang horses!

 DOES OHIO STATE HAVE A FATAL FLAW? I’ll return to the Worldwide Leader in this section, as ESPN’s Bill Connelly wrote this week about the fatal flaw that could unravel the College Football Playoff hopes of 26 teams this season. I think it’s worth sharing what Connelly sees as the biggest weaknesses for Ohio State, Michigan and Indiana.

Ohio State: A merely decent run game

Indiana's combined playoff odds are ever-so-slightly higher than those of top-ranked Ohio State, primarily because the Hoosiers only have two remaining regular-season games left and the Buckeyes have three (including one against 7-2 Michigan). But OSU is indeed the top-ranked team per both the computers. It's not hard to see why: The defense ranks first nationally in points per drive and yards per play, and the offense features the best receiver in the country (Jeremiah Smith) and a quarterback completing over 80% of his passes (Julian Sayin).

Sayin will face plenty of elite defenses down the stretch, however -- Michigan ranks ninth in defensive SP+, likely Big Ten championship opponent Indiana ranks fourth despite the big plays, and the CFP will obviously feature lots of good defenses -- and there's a chance the Buckeyes are rendered one-dimensional at some point because of a run game that ranks 19th in rushing success rate* but doesn't really go anywhere (4.7 yards per carry). Sayin could carry the offense anyway, but he's still a redshirt freshman.

(* Success rate: how frequently an offense is gaining 50% of necessary yards on first down, 70% on second and 100% on third and fourth.)

Michigan: Not enough risk or reward

Michigan runs the ball well, prevents big plays and takes as few risks as possible with freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood. The issue: The Wolverines can't force the issue very well. They can't knock opponents off schedule to take advantage of a good pass rush, and among 132 QBR-eligible QBs, Underwood ranks 95th in completion rate (60.9%) despite ranking 86th in air yards per attempt (7.6).

Indiana: Big-play glitches

Indiana has had a dynamite defense since Curt Cignetti and coordinator Bryant Haines moved to Bloomington, but when the Hoosiers give up a successful play, it's a very successful play. Usually that comes via run defense -- as evidenced by a 59-yard run for Penn State's Nicholas Singleton on Saturday -- but IU also gave up six completions of 19 or more yards against an iffy PSU passing attack, and, combined with an ill-timed interception from Fernando Mendoza, it almost cost them their unbeaten record.

I can’t speak much to Michigan and Indiana’s weaknesses — only that I’m hopeful the Buckeyes can jump out to an early lead against the Wolverines and make Underwood throw the ball as much as possible, and that Jeremiah Smith, Carnell Tate and Bo Jackson can generate enough explosives to smother the Hoosiers.

I can speak to Ohio State’s weakness, however, and it’s that the Buckeyes know about it and are actively working to address it.

Ohio State ran the ball a season-high 43 times against Purdue (the next highest total is 38 against Grambling State), and Ryan Day made it clear that the Buckeyes had emphasized establishing the run against the Boilermakers as a point of emphasis at practice last week.

“That’s been an emphasis point,” Day said on Saturday. “I thought we got better today because I thought they had more opportunities to run. These are young backs that we’ve got to continue to give them the opportunity to grow. I think we’ll get on the film and get better from this game.”

Moments later, Day added, “You could see that the emphasis of this game was to try and get these backs some carries and establish the run and continue to work on that. … We need to continue to improve in certain areas, and that was certainly an emphasis point in this game.”

We’ll see what improvements the Buckeyes make against a UCLA team with the No. 77 total defense (376.7 YPG) and No. 112 scoring defense (30.7 PPG) and No. 124 run defense (191.11 YPG) in the nation.

 WHAT MAKES CALEB DOWNS GREAT? Last week, Fox Sports’ Michael Cohen wrote an article titled “The Obsession That Built Caleb Downs — and Made Him College Football’s Top Defender.”

In his article, Cohen shared Downs’ story in four parts: The Subconscious, The Realization, The Maturation and The Future. Here’s an excerpt from each section — though I highly recommend you read the entire piece soon.

The Subconscious

In football, a sport Caleb was initially reluctant to try, Tanya recalled one particular touchdown where her son deliberately ran through the more crowded side of the field. Afterward, Caleb told his mother that he’d noticed some of the defenders’ shoes were untied, meaning they wouldn’t have caught him even if they tried. He was 6 years old. 

Such rationality from Caleb was in lockstep with Gary’s personality, especially when it came to their preferred subjects at school. In an academic sense, neither Caleb nor Gary had much use for anything theoretical or make-believe. They were unbothered by classic novels in language arts. Instead, both of them preferred social studies and history because those topics were rooted in knowledge they could absorb, analyze and apply. The self-improvement books and biographies that lined Gary’s bookshelves at home soon became Caleb’s favorites as well. 

"He was like, ‘I’m not going to read something where I get to imagine what the end of the story is,’" Tanya told me. "He just wanted facts. He’s always been about facts."

The Realization

[When Caleb was a high school sophomore], father [Gary] and son devised a plan inspired by the following words: "Put before your eyes that which you want to be," meaning if Caleb wanted to embody the top-ranked safety in the country, he needed to become an expert on players who fit that mold. His new list of study subjects included Ed Reed, Sean Taylor, Brian Dawkins, Troy Polamalu, Ronnie Lott and Eric Berry, a handful of the best safeties in NFL history. Caleb pored over highlight tapes, interview footage, feature stories and documentaries — anything and everything from which he might glean bits of what made those players into stars. 

"What types of plays they were making, what type of work ethic do they have, what did they stand for, who these people were to be considered great, to be considered the top in their field, elite in that category," Caleb told me. "I mean, that’s how I saw myself."

The Maturation

[Matt] Patricia quickly realized that Caleb had the unique ability to apply ideas and concepts on the field without first needing to see them drawn on a whiteboard. Caleb could visualize the moving pieces "like a chessboard," Patricia told me, to a degree that reminded him of interactions he’d had with NFL veterans, the types of players whose schematic catalogs should include twice as many entries as a college junior. 

...

Together, [Downs] and Patricia have formed a symbiotic brain trust powering the sport’s best defense. 

"He’s the best college football player — defensive football player — in the country, for sure," Patricia told me. "And as you’re going into the draft, we would always say, ‘Hey, our first-rounders better be the face of the franchise.’ And he is a guy that is going to be a face of your franchise."

The Future

The breadth of Caleb’s intellectual curiosity — from sports and real estate to finance and psychology — meant that there’s never been a consensus among those close to him about what he’ll do when football inevitably ends. They believe his talents are applicable to virtually anything. 

Said Gary: "I think he would be a business leader. And I think he would also be in [politics], whether that’s some kind of local, state or federal government."

Said [Downs’ sister] Kameron: "I feel like he would find something very niche that he could get really good at and then somehow create a business where he consults other people on how to be good at it."

Said [former Alabama safeties coach Charles] Kelly: "It wouldn’t surprise me if he was an owner of an NFL team one day."

Said [Downs’ mother] Tanya: "Figure out how to conquer the world. I think he wants to own a bunch of real estate and be a big real estate mogul."

Man, Downs is just so, so impressive. I thank Nick Saban every day for retiring and allowing Ohio State a second chance at landing him!

 DAILY DUBCAST. Today's Eleven Dubcast welcomes back Kyle Jones to preview the upcoming episode of Film Study after he described Ohio State's 34-10 win over Purdue last Saturday as "the most infuriating rewatch of the season" so far.

 SONG OF THE DAY. "All of Me" - John Legend.

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