Skull Session: What Could Have Been

Welcome to the Skull Session.

Folks, Indiana may win the national championship...

... in college football!

Curt Cignetti is locked in @IndianaFootball pic.twitter.com/QcE8v2BdyY
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) January 1, 2026

Have a good Friday.

NEVER TELL ME THE ODDS. ESPN's Bill Connelly shared this probability chart from the Cotton Bowl in a Thursday article:

The odds favored Ohio State until Miami’s do-it-all defensive back Keionte Scott intercepted a Julian Sayin screen pass and took it 72 yards for a touchdown. Sayin deserves some blame for the turnover, but we also need to hold Jeremiah Smith accountable here. Had he blocked Scott, Sayin completes his pass to Brandon Inniss and the Buckeyes’ drive continues toward the end zone.

KEIONTE SCOTT PICK SIX

"TAKE IT TO THE CRIB" ~ @DariusJButler #PMSCFP pic.twitter.com/T0opqwHP1D
Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) January 1, 2026

While Ohio State clawed back into the Cotton Bowl with a 1-yard touchdown run by Bo Jackson and a 14-yard touchdown by Jeremiah Smith, a phantom holding call on Phillip Daniels and an Ohio State punt on 4th-and-27 created the perfect conditions for a Hurricane. A CJ Daniels third-down conversion on Miami’s final drive proved to be the dagger for the Buckeyes, who surrendered a touchdown to CharMar Brown two plays later.

WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN. Ohio State always has national championship expectations. Still, after the 2024 team won a title and sent 14 players to the NFL draft, a College Football Playoff semifinal appearance felt like a reasonable goal for a roster breaking in a first-year starting quarterback surrounded by Jeremiah Smith, Caleb Downs and Sonny Styles.

Then the expectations changed.

Julian Sayin emerged as a legitimate Heisman candidate. Carnell Tate blossomed into a true WR1B. Ohio State’s defense became generational, built around Downs, Styles, unanimous All-American Kayden McDonald and consensus All-American Arvell Reese. Suddenly, the Buckeyes weren’t just contenders, they were the best team in college football, the clear national championship favorites.

But now, after losses to Indiana and Miami, Buckeye Nation is left wrestling with a familiar, haunting question — one it has asked too many times since 1969: What could have been?

Ohio State will be well-positioned entering 2026. Sayin, Smith and Bo Jackson will be the team’s stars, and the offensive line should have experience across the board with redshirt juniors Austin Siereveld, Luke Montgomery, Joshua Padilla and Phillip Daniels as well as redshirt senior Carson Hinzman.

The defense has more questions, but I have confidence Matt Patricia will return as Ohio State’s coordinator, which makes being one of the nation’s best units a baseline for the Buckeyes.

I was optimistic about Ohio State entering 2025, then the Buckeyes somehow managed to exceed my expectations and let me down in the same season.

That’s a champagne problem, I guess.

“MASS KICKS ASS.” Miami coach Mario Cristobal appeared on ESPN’s College GameDay the morning after the Hurricanes beat Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl, and his back-and-forth with Nick Saban was worth your time.

“Your team on the line of scrimmage, whether it’s the defensive line or the offensive line — which I think that’s how you win games this time of year, when you can dominate the line of scrimmage — your guys have done that tremendously in both games,” Saban said. “Against A&M, you ran the ball at will. (On Wednesday), Ohio State, who is supposed to be a really physical team, you guys dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. You built the program that way.”

Saban asked Cristobal, his assistant at Alabama from 2013-16, how important the trenches will be for Miami during the remainder of its College Football Playoff run.

“Well, I mean, it was one of the greatest lessons under you at Alabama. You used to tell us all the time, mass kicks ass, right? We did get some big, massive guys,” Cristobal said. “I guess the best way to say it, Coach, is just we’re getting better. We’re getting better quality football players, better quality human beings, elite competitors, and we’re starting to stack ‘em up. Honestly, the best part of our team right now is the guys that got here year one when we were getting our faces kicked in. In 2022, we’re getting beat by Middle Tennessee out there, we’re getting smacked around by teams by 30 or 40 points. They’re the foundation. They’ve been through that. They’re great leaders. They set the tone on a daily basis, and they sure as hell don’t let people slip.”

I hope the quote reaches Ryan Day and teaches him two lessons.

One: mass kicks ass. It’s a great line and even better advice. Ohio State must be better in the trenches next season if it wants to accomplish its goals. There’s a careful line to toe here — the Buckeyes can’t revert to the empty “toughness” rhetoric that preceded losses like The Game in 2024. Be tough with your play, not with your words.

Two: Cristobal made it clear that Miami’s leaders are the players who got their faces kicked in back in 2022. Ohio State’s offensive and defensive lines had their faces kicked in against Indiana and Miami (Caden Curry excluded against Indiana, Kayden McDonald excluded in both), and now it’s on Day to identify leaders from those rooms to set the foundation for the offseason. Those players must set the tone — and make sure no one slips.

ONCE A BUCKEYE, ALWAYS A BUCKEYE. I need to smile. How about we all smile? Here’s a clip of former Ohio State and current Texas defensive tackle Hero Kanu pancaking Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood.

Hero Kanu: Once a Buckeye, always a Buckeye pic.twitter.com/rkixUyRBB3
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) December 31, 2025

After the Longhorns beat the Wolverines in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl — Texas woke up feeling the cheesiest — Kanu posted this on X:

Beat that TUN!!
— Hero Kanu (@HeroKanu) January 1, 2026

Once a Buckeye, always a Buckeye.

NEW DUBCAST. The first Eleven Dubcast of 2026 enlists Andy Anders to discuss the end of the Ohio State football season at the hands of the Miami Hurricanes, the biggest disappointments of the Cotton Bowl and where the Buckeyes go from here.