Welcome to the Skull Session.
Work week (almost) done.
Daily deposits pic.twitter.com/JyKe2GANb1
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) June 18, 2026
Have a good Friday.
“WE’VE GOT TO BE REALLY GOOD AT THAT.” To navigate Ohio State’s brutal 2026 schedule, Ryan Day knows the Buckeyes need to be “really good” in the fourth quarter.
Those are the words Day chose when discussing the topic with ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg, who interviewed the head coach and several of his players during Ohio State’s 7-on-7 tournament on Wednesday.
“We’re going to have to win games in the fourth quarter this season,” Day said. “Look at the schedule that we have. We’ve got to be really good at that.”
2025 captain and winter Iron Buckeye Brandon Inniss agreed. He said the Buckeyes fell short in that area last season, especially in the team’s losses to Indiana and Miami.
“We lost two games at the end of the year because of the fourth quarter,” Inniss said. “We didn’t finish. That was our fault. We could have won that Miami game. We could have won the Indiana game.”
Those painful losses have fueled more than just Inniss. Payton Pierce said the defeats are “all that we’re thinking about” during offseason workouts with strength coach Mick Marotti. That’s made the players edgy (as Day would describe them), and it’s led to some fights, too, Pierce said.
“There’ll be some confrontations, there’ll be some little bit of yelling, a little bit of guys getting after one another, and it’s so good for us, because you have to play in the chaos in the fourth quarter, and you’ve got to have mature guys who are at their very best,” Pierce said. “I think guys are going to be ready this season to go dominate in the fourth quarter.”
If Ohio State wants to have success in the final 15 minutes, Julian Sayin will need to be the best version of himself. His performances in the Big Ten Championship Game and Cotton Bowl weren’t the only reasons the Buckeyes lost to Indiana and Miami, but he wasn’t close to the player who earned an invitation to New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony, and that mattered.
“We didn’t start the way we wanted to, obviously, but we still had an opportunity in the fourth quarter, and I feel like we just didn’t play our best,” Sayin said. “We all came to Ohio State to be in big-time matchups and be in games that matter, fourth-quarter games, two-minute drills. So we’re all really excited about it, and we’ve just been building toward that this offseason.”
Ohio State’s players still feel those losses. They haven’t moved on from them, and they don’t want to. A team with national championship aspirations shouldn’t be comfortable after falling short in the biggest moments.
The Buckeyes know their 2026 schedule will present plenty more fourth-quarter tests. If the lessons from Indiana and Miami have truly stuck, if the edge Day, Pierce and Inniss describe is real, and if Sayin plays like the quarterback everyone expects him to be, Ohio State should be better equipped to handle them when they arrive.
THEY DON’T KNOW BO. Also from ESPN, Eli Lederman and Max Olson ranked college football’s top 10 running backs entering 2026. Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly?), Bo Jackson did not make the cut.
Coming off a season with 1,090 rushing yards and six touchdowns, Jackson appeared in the Others Receiving Votes tier behind Georgia’s Nate Frazier, Rutgers’ Antwan Raymond and… Michigan’s Jordan Marshall… balright.
Lederman and Olson’s top 10 is, in order: Kewan Lacy (Ole Miss), Jadan Baugh (Florida), Ahmad Hardy (Missouri), Mark Fletcher Jr. (Miami), Isaac Brown (Louisville), Hollywood Smothers (Texas), Raleek Brown (Texas), Justice Haynes (Georgia Tech), LJ Martin (BYU), Caleb Hawkins (Oklahoma State) and Nate Shepphard (Duke), with the latter two tying for 10th.
First and foremost, Jackson is indubitably a top-10 running back in the sport, and this is a miss from the Worldwide Leader.
Second, I have no concerns about Jackson entering the 2026 season. I do, however, have questions about his backups. Who will emerge as Ohio State’s RB2 this fall? It was Isaiah West late last season, but the Buckeyes now have Florida transfer Ja’Kobi Jackson and potential freshman phenom Legend Bey to think about.
We’ll likely see a committee in the season opener against Ball State, but it will be interesting to see who Ryan Day and Carlos Locklyn lean on when the Buckeyes travel to Austin for a top-tier showdown with Texas on Sept. 12.
I’M #NOTICING… Ohio State has named Dudes of the Week twice this summer — and Luke Montgomery has been featured both times.
The veteran Ohio State offensive lineman earned his second honor this week alongside Alabama transfer defensive end Qua Russaw, walk-on defensive back Ryan Rudzinski and walk-on offensive lineman Jaxon Powell.
Dudes of the Week
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) June 18, 2026
@lukeMonty8
@rudzinski_ryan
@QuaRussaw
@JaxonPo97150467 pic.twitter.com/8N9h7haIZl
Montgomery started all 14 of Ohio State’s games in 2025, logging 870 snaps and earning a 73.7 overall grade from Pro Football Focus. He went on to earn second-team All-Big Ten honors after the season, while the American Football Coaches Association named him a second-team All-American.
The 6-foot-5, 312-pound lineman looks poised to start at left guard again as a senior. He and Carson Hinzman figure to anchor the interior of an offensive line that will likely feature some combination of Austin Siereveld, Phillip Daniels and Ian Moore rounding out the starting five, though Joshua Padilla and Gabe VanSickle could also push for the right guard spot as they did late last season.
Either way, Montgomery projects as one of Ohio State’s top players up front. He’s already earned preseason All-Big Ten and All-American recognition from Phil Steele and will be in position to add to that list if he and the Buckeyes meet expectations this fall.
Montgomery’s work in the weight room is a strong indicator he’s trending toward that potential in 2026, when he’ll face a loaded slate of defensive fronts from Texas, Iowa, Indiana, USC, Oregon and that Team Up North.
OLYMPIC VILLAGE. Ohio State is PWHLU.
Six Ohio State women's hockey players were selected in the 2026 PWHL Draft on Wednesday, including two first-round picks.
Another successful PWHL Draft for the Buckeyes #GoBucks | #DevelopedHere pic.twitter.com/Sj731gD6pF
— Ohio State Women's Hockey (@OhioStateWHKY) June 18, 2026
Defenseman and captain Emma Peschel was the first Buckeye off the board, going No. 7 overall to the New York Sirens. A first-team All-WCHA selection last season, Peschel recorded 10 goals and 29 assists while anchoring Ohio State's blue line.
Fellow defenseman Sara Swiderski followed shortly after at No. 9 overall to the Minnesota Frost. The breakout senior totaled eight goals and 19 assists in 2025-26, nearly matching the 31 points she combined for across her freshman, sophomore and junior seasons.
Goaltender Andrea Braendli and forward Sloane Mathews weren't far behind, selected at Nos. 15 and 16 overall by Detroit and San Jose, respectively. Both franchises are set to begin play as PWHL expansion teams in 2026-27 and have yet to unveil nicknames.
Brooke Disher became Ohio State's fifth draft pick when the Toronto Sceptres selected her No. 32 overall in the third round, while Hailey MacLeod rounded out the Buckeyes’ half-dozen selections at No. 48 overall to the Montreal Victoire.
Ohio State had 22 players on PWHL rosters in 2025-26, including 21 coached by two-time national champion head coach Nadine Muzerall.
Is that good?
I think that’s good.
SONG OF THE DAY. "Brain Stew/Jaded" - Green Day.
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