Skull Session: Ryan Day Details Ohio State’s Elite Recruiting Standards, Jake Butt Tabs Caleb Downs As the Top Player in the 2026 NFL Draft and Jeff Brohm Sees Upside in Lincoln Kienholz

By Chase Brown on April 13, 2026 at 4:55 am
Ryan Day
Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images
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Welcome to the Skull Session.

Ohio State plays a football game this week.

OK, an exhibition.

OK, OK, an intrasquad scrimmage.

But still (!) it’s football in the Shoe.

Also, Rory McIlroy won another Masters, and I’m a happy camper.

Have a good Monday.

 THE STANDARD IS THE STANDARD. I thought I had moved past Ryan Day’s appearance on Cam Heyward’s podcast. I thought wrong.

Day’s comments about Ohio State’s recruiting standards made waves on social media over the weekend. Here’s what he said: “Across the board at Ohio State, there’s an expectation when you come here, you are coming to be a first or second rounder regardless of your position. That’s it. Just like if we don’t win games and championships, they’re gonna find a new coach. Well, if you’re not a first or second rounder, then this probably isn’t the right place for you. That’s just the reality of it.”

Anonymous X accounts with limited comprehension skills grilled Day for the remarks. Steele Chambers explained what his head coach meant.

When someone asked Chambers whether it was him or Master Teague who split carries with J.K. Dobbins in 2019, Chambers said it was Teague, whom he called “the Mighty Morphin Master Ranger.”

Chambers has quickly become one of my favorite former Ohio State players in the media. For those who don’t know, he replaced Anthony Schlegel on the Bobby Carpenter Show after Schlegel joined the Buckeyes’ strength and conditioning staff this offseason. He’s been excellent in relief — and I think (?) good enough to earn a full-time role.

While I’m on the topic, I’ll share a post he made on April 3 in which he tried to name as many Ohio State players as possible during a two-hour flight. He got to 287, starting with Mitch Rossi and ending with Jayden Fielding.

I love — just love — that Rossi was the first name he rattled off.

That rocks.

 “THAT’S CALEB DOWNS.” I view Jake Butt as the consummate professional. Still, it’s a treat to hear a Michigan Wolverine praise an Ohio State Buckeye whenever it happens.

In a conversation with Covers’ Joe Osborne last week, Butt called Caleb Downs the best player available in the 2026 NFL draft.

“Look, I think (Notre Dame running back) Jeremiah Love has a case, but I think the best player is a guy that will not get drafted inside the top five and maybe not inside the top 10, and it’s Ohio State safety Caleb Downs,” Butt said. “I think the ultimate compliment you can give somebody is to be just a pure football player, and I covered Caleb Downs at Ohio State, and that Buckeye defense, which was the best in the country, was built around what he could do. He played middle-high safety. He played nickel at times, linebacker, he lined up at the line of scrimmage, he lined up over the center, he did everything. 

“He is one of the most intelligent football players I’ve ever covered, and I think a lot of people echo that. He’s not a 6-foot-4, 220-pound, 4.4 (second 40-yard dash) freak of nature. He’s a little bit undersized, but I still think that does not matter at the next level. NFL teams want to be able to play two-high shell coverage but still be able to defend the run. You need extremely smart and quick-triggered safeties to do that successfully. That’s Caleb Downs.”

Butt added one more thought, wondering if teams might start rethinking the value of safeties after the Seattle Seahawks weaponized 2025 second-round pick Nick Emmanwori en route to a Super Bowl this past season.

“This is a copycat league, and maybe the positional value of safeties starts to come back a little bit because of what the Seahawks did,” Butt said.

I agree with everything Butt just said, except one thing: Downs will be a top-five pick in 10 days. If he’s still on the board at No. 5, the New York Giants will have their pick submitted to the league seconds after the team is on the clock.

 “NEVER REALLY DID THIS.” Sonny Styles broke down his film with ESPN’s Benjamin Solak last month. Last week, Arvell Reese followed suit.

“You want to see your fastest play all year?” Solak asked in a clip posted to social media.

“Yeah, let me see that,” Reese responded. “Literally, like, I didn’t have a name for what I just did.”

Solak played a clip from Ohio State’s win over Penn State. The Cleveland native zoomed past left tackle Drew Shelton and reached a top speed of 18 miles per hour as he pursued quarterback Ethan Grunkmeyer.

“Even when I did this, I didn’t even have a name for what I just did, but now that I’m working on pass-rushing right now and studying everything, I’m realizing right here I showed power, which made him shoot his hands, and that’s when I threw the cross-chop,” Reese said.

After Solak broke down the play, Reese shook his head.

“This was just kind of, like, out the blue. Never really did this,” Reese said. “I did a couple of times at practice, but I never really perfected this move to go out there and do it. But, yeah, that’s what this is here — that cross-chop.”

You’re telling me Reese is about to be the No. 2 overall pick and was just out there relying on power and instinct alone? That’s a testament to his talent, but it also raises a question: how did Matt Patricia, James Laurinaitis and Larry Johnson arrive at that approach? I’d like to know more about how they came to that conclusion. Was it a matter of prioritizing other parts of his development or simply trusting his natural ability to take over?

 “LINCOLN’S HUNGRY.” Jeff Brohm sees potential in former Ohio State quarterback Lincoln Kienholz.

“Lincoln’s definitely in that position where he’s paid his dues, sat behind somebody, learned and absorbed information, and now he knows it’s time to go out and show what he’s all about,” Brohm told On3’s Pete Nakos last week. “And you throw in that aspect with the fact that he’s got a good arm and he’s really athletic. He can do a great job for us.”

Kienholz flashed enough at Ohio State to make Brohm and his staff believe Louisville can win with him. According to Nakos, the Cardinals held off Cincinnati and others to land the Ohio State transfer. They identified Kienholz as their target early in the portal process and know he could help Louisville win games.

“We try to identify a group of quarterbacks as we go searching the portal for what we think can help us win,” Brohm said. “They’re all different, and it’s not that we necessarily need a certain exact type — we just ask, do we think this guy can help us win? He had some qualities we liked. From what we’ve seen, he could throw the football, he had a good arm, and he had a lot of athleticism, which we have not had a whole lot of at that position here. That was very unique."

Brohm said he and his offensive staff will spend the entire offseason committed to quarterback development. That means film sessions, one-on-one meetings and a rolodex of different on-field drills. Brohm told Nakos he will personally oversee Kienholz’s growth along with his coaches.

“We don’t try to lock ourselves into, ‘Hey, I need a guy with a strong arm,’ or ‘I need a guy that can run,'” Brohm explained. “We identify — whether that’s watching film, seeing people throw in person, or getting information from people we trust — a group of guys we feel like we can win with.

“Once we get them, between myself, my brother and our people here, we spend a lot of time with our quarterbacks in the offseason — going over football, watching video, working on the field. To me, even though it’s the offseason, that's a full-time job, and we make sure it doesn't get overlooked. Normally, the individual is willing and ready to put in the work, especially when they’re hungry. Lincoln’s hungry. Miller Moss — it didn’t work out the way he wanted, so he came in hungry with one year left to play. Tyler Shough — it didn’t work out the way he wanted. He had one year left, he wanted to prove himself, so I knew he was hungry. How much does this guy really want it? That matters. As much time as they want to spend on the ball, we do that.”

Kienholz remains one of the more intriguing Buckeyes I’ve covered in the past five years. A three-sport standout in South Dakota, he was named USA TODAY High School Boys Athlete of the Year at T.F. Riggs. He dominated on the football field as the nation’s No. 191 overall prospect, but he could also windmill dunk on the basketball court and strike out the side on the mound.

I’m more than comfortable with Julian Sayin as Ohio State’s QB1 — he is a Heisman finalist, after all — but Kienholz’s athleticism always made him a fascinating option if called upon.

I wish him the best in Kentucky. I have a feeling he’s going to be really good.

 NEW DUBCAST AT 8 A.M. ET ON YOUTUBE. The first Eleven Dubcast of the week discusses the continued trend of praise around Legend Bey from Ohio State staff members this spring and if the situation surrounding the health of the running backs could lead to him featuring in the spring game this weekend.

 SONG OF THE DAY. "Buckeye Battle Cry" - TBDBITL.

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