Skull Session: 13-10

By Chase Brown on December 8, 2025 at 5:00 am
Ryan Day
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Welcome to the Skull Session.

I’ve been at Eleven Warriors a long time. You know the script for this Skull Session. A picture that is worth 1,000 words, a section that is 1,000 words and some other stuff. As is tradition — one I am not fond of — Johnny Cash’s Hurt claims a spot at the bottom of the article, followed by some links.

As always, thanks for reading.

Have a good Monday.

 A PICTURE IS WORTH 1,000 WORDS.

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1,000 Words

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 13-10. For the second straight year, Ohio State will enter the College Football Playoff coming off a 13-10 loss.

Last season, the Buckeyes rebounded from an inexplicable defeat to Michigan with wins over Tennessee, Oregon, Texas and Notre Dame. This year, they’ll have to recover from a far more explainable loss to Indiana by beating — if the bracket holds — Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl, Georgia in the Fiesta Bowl and Indiana in the national championship game in Miami.

Immediately after Saturday’s game, with Indiana’s celebration echoing through the Lucas Oil Stadium tunnels, Ryan Day said the loss would make his team more “hungry.” But he wasn’t ready to say whether this group would rally the way last year’s did.

“Every year is different. Every group is different,” Day said. “But, yeah, there’s gonna be a lot of hard conversations here over the next couple of weeks, for sure. This is not gonna sit well with anybody. It’s going to sting. We can’t let this game beat us twice, but we can use it as an opportunity to get better and grow from. But that’s only going to happen if we get to work and do it. It isn’t gonna magically happen.”

After the CFP reveal on Sunday, Day sounded more assured about how his team would respond to the adversity.

“We’re gonna respond like men. We’re not gonna sit around and point fingers and feel sorry for ourselves. We lost. We were not at our best,” Day said. “Everybody, including myself, including the coaches, everybody. That’s what you have to do. You got to address what the problems are and get them fixed. When you lose a game like that, you can’t just feel sorry for yourself or point fingers — you have to get the issues fixed. Certainly the red zone was one of them, balance on offense, there’s some things I know the guys on defense want to get addressed as well, and special teams.”

As Day mentioned, there are several reasons the Buckeyes could point fingers.

Ohio State converted on two of four red zone trips and scored 10 points. The Buckeyes' first whiff came when the offense drove 70 yards in 10 plays, only for plays 11 and 12 to be an incomplete pass and a quarterback sneak for no gain, the latter resulting in a turnover on downs. The second whiff came on the ensuing drive, when the offense drove 81 yards in 13 plays, only for plays 14 and 15 to be an incomplete pass and a missed 27-yard field goal.

“We went down there two times and ended up with zero points,” Day said on Saturday. “That’s how you lose the game.”

Balance was another problem. After finding success with 13 and 14 personnel in The Game, Ohio State went back to the well against Indiana. It didn’t work. The primary reason was that the offensive line couldn’t block the Hoosiers’ front seven — like, at all — and allowed five sacks after surrendering seven in the team’s first 12 games. Combine that nightmare with heavy personnel, which takes one or both of Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate from the field, and the Buckeyes couldn’t move the ball when it mattered. Well, they didn’t move the ball when it mattered. I would have like to see Sayin hand the ball to Bo Jackson in the red zone. Of Jackson’s 17 carries, six came from inside the Indiana 20-yard line, resulting in a combined 20 yards.

Ohio State’s defense looked both dominant and vulnerable against Indiana. Caden Curry, Kayden McDonald, Sonny Styles and Caleb Downs were out of this world. So was Kenyatta Jackson Jr. I separated him from the pack because, seriously, what does that man need to do to draw a holding penalty?!

But a few plays will linger. Charlie Becker — son of former Buckeye linebacker Dave Becker and the Indiana player who shouted O-H-F-U — beat Lorenzo Styles Jr. for a 51-yard catch that set up a 17-yard Elijah Sarratt touchdown. Later, he got Jermaine Mathews Jr. for 33 yards on a route with shades of “Third and Jeremiah.”

Yes, Becker and Sarratt had a future Heisman Trophy winner throwing them the ball. But none of Fernando Mendoza’s throws were beyond what Texas A&M’s Marcel Reed or Georgia’s Gunner Stockton can make. Styles and Mathews will need to tighten things up if they want redemption against Indiana — assuming the Hoosiers get there.

Special teams? I almost don’t have the stomach to write about it. My heart breaks for Jayden Fielding, but this is Ohio State. You have to hit a 27-yarder. You just have to. I don’t know what Fielding’s future with the Buckeyes looks like. He responded well after the Michigan game last year, making 4 of 5 kicks in the CFP — including one that sealed a national title — and he could have a similar redemptive arc in 2025, but a move to Ball State transfer Jackson Courville is not out of the question.

Last but not least, I have to believe this week’s distractions impacted Ohio State’s performance against Indiana. An emotional win over Michigan, Brian Hartline, Chris Henry Jr., Big Ten awards — for an Ohio State team rooted in routine, the Buckeyes looked off-kilter in Indianapolis. Day’s mission over the next three weeks will be to have his team back in sync.

“The goal is to be at maximum speed, effort, violence, really peaking at the end of the month here,” Day said on Sunday.

Last week, I called Day the best coach in college football, and I still believe that. I hope he proves me right on Dec. 31 and beyond.

 "THE HOOSIERS ARE FLIPPIN' CHAMPS!" Big Ten Ben said it best: "The Earth is 4.543 billion years old, and YOU are alive at a time when the Indiana Hoosiers are the No. 1 team in the country in college football. Count your lucky stars."

Indiana is not just good, it's great. I picked an Ohio State blowout, 34-17, and Curt Cignetti, Fernando Mendoza and the Hoosiers made me eat my words. I wasn't familiar with their game — and now I look forward to seeing it in person once again in the national championship.

 I DON'T LOVE IT! I’ll acknowledge immediately that this could be an overreaction, but I don’t love the optics of Brian Hartline smiling on a private jet less than 24 hours after Ohio State’s worst offensive performance of the season.

Look, I understand USF has every right to promote its new hire. That’s part of the deal, and Hartline taking the next step in his career is nothing to begrudge. But there’s a difference between accepting a job and immediately stepping into the public-facing role of that job — especially when you’re still Ohio State’s offensive coordinator and your unit is under heavy scrutiny.

For Hartline’s sake, it probably would’ve been better to keep things quieter until after the dust settled. When you’re overseeing an offense that just scored 10 points in the Big Ten Championship Game, a photoshoot on the way to Tampa doesn’t play well, fair or not. It raises questions about focus and timing — questions that wouldn’t exist if the Buckeyes had cruised or if the trip had stayed under wraps.

None of this means Hartline won’t lock back in for the playoff or that he’s abandoning Ohio State. But perception matters. And right now, the perception isn’t doing him any favors.

 DAILY DUBCAST. The first Eleven Dubcast of the week recaps the first loss this season for Ohio State at the hands of Indiana in the Big Ten Championship and assesses optimism that the Buckeyes can follow a similar path to a title that they did in the College Football Playoff a year ago.

 SONG OF THE DAY. "Hurt" - Johnny Cash.

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