Welcome to the Skull Session.
Buckeye Stripes are in the game.
Buckeye Stripes in EA Sports College Football 27 pic.twitter.com/h0YDJSBBb9
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) June 5, 2026
Have a good Friday.
HOW YA FEELIN’? Each offseason, I looked forward to The Athletic’s Ohio State fan survey. It puts a hand on the pulse of Buckeye Nation, which sometimes — but not always — differs from that of the Eleven Warriors audience.
This year, The Athletic’s Cameron Teague Robinson tackled “the state of the program, the Michigan rivalry, the 2025 season, potential College Football Playoff expansion and more.” I’ll pass along some of his survey results in this section. Let me know how you would answer them in the comments below.
How would you grade Ryan Day’s performance in seven years as Ohio State’s head coach?
- A — 81.7%
- B — 16.7%
- C — 1.2%
- D — 0.4%
- F — 0%
What would constitute as a successful season for Ohio State?
- Win the national championship — 25.3%
- Big Ten championship, national title appearance — 34.3%
- Big Ten championship, CFP appearance — 21.5%
- Win a playoff game — 10.9%
- Playoff appearance — 0.8%
- Just beat Michigan — 7.3%
With 51 new players on the roster, which newcomer are you most excited to see?
- Chris Henry Jr. 68.4%
- Terry Moore 3%
- Earl Little Jr. 13.4%
- Christian Alliegro 4.2%
- Ja’Kobi Jackson 5.5%
- Others: 5.5%
What are you most worried about regarding Ohio State this season?
- Offensive line — 47.3%
- Replacing eight starters on defense — 32.6%
- Arthur Smith as the offensive play caller — 9.1%
- Special teams — 5.5%
- Schedule — 0.6%
- Defensive line — 0.3%
- Others 4.6%
Which game are you most excited about?
- at Texas (Sept. 12) — 20.8%
- at Iowa (Oct. 3) — 0%
- at Indiana (Oct. 17) — 29%
- at USC (Oct. 31) — 1.9%
- Oregon (Nov. 7) — 6.5%
- Michigan (Nov. 28) — 41.7%
What will Ohio State’s regular-season record be?
- 12-0 — 9.6%
- 11-1 — 48.1%
- 10-2 — 38.1%
- 9-3 — 4.1%
- 8-4 — 0%
Will Ohio State win the national championship?
- Yes — 42.2%
- No — 57.8%
My answers to these questions are...
- A
- Win the national championship (anything less is tolerated, not celebrated)
- Other, Legend Bey
- After last season? Offensive line by a mile
- I’m choosin’ Texas
- Heart says 12-0, brain says 11-1
- Yes, of course
Yeah, I like those answers.
“I DON’T TAKE BACK WHAT I SAID.” Eric Weddle has doubled down: Michigan’s Bryce Underwood is a no-good, very-bad quarterback.
OK, that’s not exactly what he said, but it’s close.
“Don’t be surprised if the backup’s playing early because that Underwood kid, I don’t think he can throw or play quarterback,” Weddle said on a podcast last month.
During a Tuesday appearance on The Rich Eisen Show — which came after he revealed on another podcast that Michigan fans had sent death threats to him and his family over his criticism of Underwood — Weddle stood by his original comments about the Wolverines’ $10 million man.
“I don’t take back what I said,” Weddle told Eisen. “Hearing it doesn’t come off very well, but the point is, you have to play quarterback a certain way to win a national championship. My understanding of Michigan is that they expect national championships. These kids are paid to play a certain way. What I saw from two games last year, and (when) I went out to spring ball, I saw not very good QB play.”
Weddle got an up-close look at Underwood during a visit to Ann Arbor with his son, Gaige, a top-100 prospect in the 2028 class (and an Ohio State target!). His assessment remains that Underwood is athletic and immensely talented but far from a finished product.
“Is he talented? Yes. Is he a freak of nature? Yeah. No one’s denying that,” Weddle told Eisen. “I’m not naive to that, but I do know what high-level championship quarterback play looks like. I tried stopping these guys my whole career. My expectation when I watch quarterbacks is, ‘Can he lead this team to a championship or not?’”
Weddle played at Utah from 2003-06, overlapping with Michigan coach Kyle Whittingham, who served as his defensive coordinator for two seasons and head coach for two more. If Weddle is willing to make these comments publicly, I wonder what he’s saying privately to one of his longtime mentors.
In his interview with Eisen, Weddle shifted responsibility for Underwood's shortcomings away from Whittingham and Michigan quarterbacks coach Jason Beck, who coached under Whittingham at Utah before joining the Wolverines' staff.
“I know the coaches that are coaching (him) and doing the best they can,” Weddle said. “I don’t know (Underwood) from anything. I just go off what I see, and what I saw was not good.”
Oh, this does put a smile on my face.
JEREMIAH SMITH, COVER STAR. Jeremiah Smith will grace another magazine cover in 2026.
One year after Smith and Alabama's Ryan Williams appeared as cover athletes for EA Sports College Football 26, the record-breaking Ohio State wide receiver has landed on the Midwest/Northwest edition of ESPN's College Football Preview magazine.
Unfortunately, Smith isn't alone.
The 128-page season preview also features Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr and ... Bryce Underwood.
ESPN launches '26-'27 #CFB preview magazine
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) June 4, 2026
Special edition features 128 pages, 3 different regional covers
Available on newsstands & Amazon (https://t.co/QjKHmJ6z3v)
More: https://t.co/KVtfuZnYz3 pic.twitter.com/b1xhZCDOv3
A shame, really.
Maybe you can cover Underwood up with some Wite-Out.
Better yet, grab a pair of scissors and cut him out entirely.
Either option works!
THE UNGOVERNABLE COLLEGE FOOTBALL. In fall 2025, MAC commissioner Jon Steinbrecher shared his growing resentment toward the Big Ten, SEC, Big 12 and ACC for calling all the shots in college football.
“Moving forward, it is becoming more and more clear that the path to success is less fragmentation, more collaboration among all of us — certainly among the 10 FBS (conferences), and certainly among the five or six non-autonomous FBS (conferences),” Steinbrecher said at a MAC football kickoff event.
Less than a year later, college football feels like a pipe bomb with a lit fuse.
Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard has essentially dared the Big Ten and SEC to break away from the rest of the sport and create a Super League. Georgia coach Kirby Smart seemingly wants to do it, with or without the Big Ten.
Essentially, it’s every conference for itself — and every school for itself.
The House v. NCAA settlement was intended to bring stability by limiting how much schools could spend on their rosters and by creating a new entity, the College Sports Commission, to vet third-party NIL deals and ensure compliance with the settlement terms.
Apparently, that wasn’t enough to make the wealthiest schools play by the rules they helped create, so the chaos continued. Maybe — just maybe — the Protect College Sports Act can rein it in, but don’t count on it.
“If you look up the term ‘ungovernable,’ I am convinced a handful of conference logos pop up, and they’re all autonomy logos,” Steinbrecher said.
Fed up with what he called a “consistent and persistent power grab” by the biggest conferences, Steinbrecher turned to country music to describe the state of college sports. The song, a duet between Kacey Musgraves and Willie Nelson, is called “Uncertain, TX,” about a place where “nobody ever makes up their dusty old love-bombin’, snake charmin’, bull-s—in’, heart-breakin’, god-forsaken, dumbass mind.”
As the leaders mull over decisions, the fuse gets shorter.
Steinbrecher doesn’t want to see the bomb go off.
At this rate, college football may not have much choice.
CONCERT OF THE DAY. Jon Bellion Live at Forest Hills Stadium.
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