Skull Session: Bruce Thornton is an All-Time Great Buckeye, Ohio State Football Starts Spring Practice This Week and Michael Jenkins Reflects on the Impact of “Holy Buckeye”

By Chase Brown on March 9, 2026 at 4:55 am
Bruce Thornton
X / @OhioStateHoops
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Welcome to the Skull Session.

This photo is iconic.

Have a good Monday.

 AN ALL-TIME GREAT. I posted this on X when it happened, and I’m still thinking about it over 24 hours later: Bruce Thornton breaking Dennis Hopson’s all-time scoring record was incredible. 

Thornton being all business while the crowd collectively lost its mind perfectly encapsulated the kind of humble, team-first player he’s been throughout his entire Ohio State career. He is an all-time Buckeye!

Here are some of my favorite social posts about Thornton after he broke the record:

Now, it's time for the Big Ten Tournament.

Then, it's time to Dance!

 BACK IN ACTION. Ohio State football returns to the practice field this week.

The Buckeyes will hold their first two spring practices on Tuesday and Thursday. After a week off for spring break (March 16–20), they’ll resume workouts on March 24, 26, 28 and 31, followed by April 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 13, 15 and 17 before wrapping up the early offseason with the spring game on April 18.

Eleven Warriors will be on campus for interviews after most of Ohio State’s practices. Dan Hope, Andy Anders and I will take photos and record videos during Tuesday and Thursday’s sessions, and we’ll also speak with Ryan Day on Tuesday and Julian Sayin and Kenyatta Jackson Jr. on Thursday.

From elevenwarriors.com articles to YouTube videos and Facebook, Instagram and X posts, stay tuned to Eleven Warriors for complete coverage of the spring practices.

 THE STARS WERE ALIGNED. I had a blast on the latest 12th Warriors Happy Hour with Michael Jenkins. The Ohio State legend joined members of Eleven Warriors’ selfless perks program on Thursday to discuss his college career, NFL career and life after football.

I could share many details about the call — and I likely will in the future — but I have to start with Jenkins’ breakdown of Holy Buckeye. Eleven Warriors ranked last offseason as Ohio State’s No. 1 play since 2000, which Jenkins called “special.”

“It’s pretty wild to think of,” Jenkins said. “When you go back and look at the magnitude of that play with everything on the line, and kind of the way Tressel Ball had been — 3 yards and a cloud of dust, take a deep shot, and it works out — I’m glad I caught it. You think of everything that’s happened since then in Ohio State history, and for that to be up there in a lot of Buckeye memories and minds, it’s very special.”

The play call for Holy Buckeye was King Right 64 Y-Shallow Swap. Jenkins said it was designed for tight end Ben Hartstock, who hauled in a 13-yard reception the play before. However, as we all know now, that’s not how it worked out.

“You’re really thinking that Ben Hartstock is going to get the little crossing route. We’d just get the first down and keep going down the field,” Jenkins said. “But the crazy part was the Swap for us. When you run the tight end on the Shallow, I always ran the Dig, and then (Chris) Gamble or the Z would run a Post. 

“So, Swap, you know, we obviously swapped what we were doing. I’m supposed to run the post, and then Gamble’s supposed to run a Dig. But if you look at the film, like I just ended up running a Go and Gamble’s running a post. So we didn’t even run what we were supposed to run. And so that just lets you know, as my Dad always says, the stars were aligned that season.”

Yes, they were!

 OLYMPIC VILLAGE. The Winter Olympics have ended and the Winter Paralympics are in progress, but Ohio State’s Olympic sports never stop.

Except for the latter part of June and all of July.

But that’s besides the point!

Ohio State women’s hockey defeated top-ranked Wisconsin, 2-1, on Saturday to win the WCHA Final Faceoff championship. The Buckeyes also earned the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament and will host Minnesota Duluth and Yale in the Columbus Regional from March 12-14 at the OSU Ice Rink.

Ohio State is the No. 1 seed for the first time since 2024. This year marks the Buckeyes’ seventh consecutive NCAA tournament appearance and eighth overall. They’ve reached the Frozen Four in five straight tournaments, winning national championships in 2022 and 2024 while finishing runner-up in 2023 and 2025.

The Buckeyes have faced the Badgers in three straight national championship games, with Wisconsin holding a 2-1 edge in that series.

Elsewhere in Olympic sports, Ohio State wrestling finished second at the Big Ten Championships. Ben Davino (133) and Jesse Mendez (141) won individual titles, while Ethan Stiles (149) finished runner-up. Davino was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year, Mendez — now a two-time conference champion — was named Big Ten Wrestler of the Year and Tom Ryan was named Big Ten Coach of the Year. All three honors were well deserved, though I’m especially excited about Mendez’s recognition, as it’s another data point strengthening his case for the Dan Hodge Trophy.

Several Buckeyes wrestled for bronze on Sunday, including Nic Bouzakis (125), Brandon Cannon (157), Carson Kharchla (174), Luke Geog (197) and Nick Feldman (HWT). Bouzakis, Kharchla, Geog and Feldman won their consolation bouts, while Cannon fell short.

While Tom Ryan’s squad couldn’t dethrone Penn State at the Big Ten Championships, the Buckeyes will look for redemption in a bigger field next week at Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage Arena, which will host the NCAA Championships for the first time in 2026.

All 10 Ohio State wrestlers qualified for the NCAA Championships, marking the second consecutive season the Buckeyes had a qualifier in each of the 10 weight classes.

 SONG OF THE DAY. "All We Got" - Chance the Rapper.

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