Skull Session: Michigan Must Decide If It’s Serious About Change, David Gabriel Georges is Still Deciding Where He’ll Commit and Sports Illustrated Leaves Archie Griffin Out of Its Top 20 All-Time College Football Players

By Dan Hope on July 14, 2026 at 4:55 am
Warde Manuel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
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Welcome to the Skull Session.

A good problem to have: Ohio State’s running out of room on its wall of first-round NFL draft picks after adding four more this year.

Have a great Tuesday.

 RECKONING OR REPRESSION? The University of Michigan has a big decision to make this week about both the future and the past of its athletic department.

On Sunday, it appeared Michigan was ready to move toward change and transparency. Reports from national college sports reporters like Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger and ESPN’s Dan Wetzel, as well as media personalities from the state of Michigan like Justin Spiro and John U. Bacon, indicated that the U of M was moving toward parting ways with longtime athletic director Warde Manuel and that the university would release the findings of its investigation into its athletic department culture during its Board of Regents meeting on Thursday.

Come Monday, however, it became less clear whether Michigan would take any action at all this week.

Manuel told Dellenger on Monday that he has had “several great conversations over the past couple of days” with Michigan president Domenico Grasso and that “there are no plans for me not to continue to be the athletic director for the near future.” The agenda released Monday for Thursday’s board meeting includes no mention of athletics or the investigation. And even though Michigan reportedly paid Chicago-based law firm Jenner & Block more than $11 million for the investigation it commissioned after Sherrone Moore’s December firing as football coach, there will reportedly be no written report on the investigation.

All of that begs the question: After years of one scandal after another, does Michigan actually want to change the culture of its athletic department?

Nothing that was reported Monday precludes Michigan from taking real action this week. Manuel’s “near future” as athletic director could still be as short as a couple of days if he is actually negotiating the terms of a buyout with the university. The board’s agenda includes time for “public comments on non-agenda-related topics,” time that could be used for discussion on the Jenner & Block investigation and Manuel’s future.

If Michigan doesn’t release the findings of the investigation, however, it will certainly create the appearance that there’s more the university is trying to hide – especially in the wake of lawsuits by multiple former staffers.

Paige Shiver, the executive assistant with whom Moore had the extramarital affair that led to his firing, sued the university last week for denying public records requests related to Moore’s termination. In a separate lawsuit for wrongful termination, former Michigan assistant coach Chris Partridge alleged that Manuel and other leaders knew about Moore’s relationship with Shiver “for years without taking action to protect the employee.” 

Partridge also alleged that Manuel and former Michigan president Santa Ono became aware of the football program’s impermissible sign-stealing scheme in early 2023 during an investigation into computer crimes by former co-offensive coordinator Matt Weiss, but failed to report it to the NCAA.

If Michigan chooses to be transparent about the investigation this week and make concrete changes to how its athletic department operates, it has a chance to begin changing the narrative about its culture. Continue to withhold as much information as possible while keeping the same leadership in place, however, and there will be reason to wonder what the point of the investigation was at all.

 “IT’S SORT OF 50-50.” Ohio State and Tennessee fans have spent the last several weeks looking for any clue they can find to decipher where David Gabriel Georges will commit later this month, but the five-star running back says he still doesn’t know where he’s going himself.

As part of a lengthy feature on Ohio State’s top running back target published by On3’s Chris Low on Monday, Gabriel Georges said he plans to announce his decision at 5:30 p.m. next Wednesday, July 22, but that he’s still feeling a pull in both directions as he chooses between the Buckeyes and Volunteers.

“It’s complicated,” Gabriel Georges told On3. “It’s hard. You feel this way, like you know, and then it’s sort of 50-50. People will say the 22nd of July is far off, but honestly, for me, it’s pretty close. So, yes, you feel like you know, and then I will call my mom and dad, and they’re like, ‘We love both. It’s your decision.’ I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I need something (laughing) because I’m going to be playing there for the next three years and live there.’”

Gabriel Georges’ comments differ from those made last week by his uncle, Jean Agenor, who told Rivals’ Steve Wiltfong that Gabriel Georges “already made his decision.” Agenor’s comments gave Tennessee fans reason to believe the Volunteers had won the battle for DGG, as Agenor told Wiltfong that his family had “the best relationships overall” with Tennessee and suggested that Gabriel Georges would make a bigger impact on Tennessee’s program than he would at Ohio State.

Agenor told Gabriel Georges, however, that he “was just having a conversation and wasn’t trying to say one school was better than the other.” And Gabriel Georges said his family hasn’t tried to push him to one school or the other.

“I know it got crazy after my uncle had that conversation (for the Rivals story), but it’s still going to be my decision,” Gabriel Georges told Low.

As such, Carlos Locklyn and Ohio State will continue to push as hard as ever for the next eight days to try to land their top target in the 2027 recruiting class – who isn’t dropping any hints about what school he’ll choose, though he did reveal Sunday that he’s sporting a new haircut.

 A QUESTIONABLE RANKING. In the 91-year history of the Heisman Trophy, Archie Griffin is the only winner to be named college football’s most outstanding player twice. Somehow, that wasn’t enough for Sports Illustrated to rank him as one of the top 20 players in college football history.

In its list of the 50 best college football players of all-time published late last week, Sports Illustrated ranked Griffin as only the No. 21 overall player in college football history.

Griffin was ranked behind the following 20 players:
1. Jim Brown (Syracuse RB/DB/K, 1954-56)
2. Herschel Walker (Georgia RB, 1980-82)
3. Barry Sanders (Oklahoma State RB, 1986-88)
4. Jim Thorpe (Carlisle RB/DB/K/P, 1907-08, 1911-12)
5. Cam Newton (Auburn QB, 2010; Florida QB, 2007-08)
6. Bo Jackson (Auburn RB, 1982-85)
7. Dick Butkus (Illinois LB/C, 1962-64)
8. Tim Tebow (Florida QB, 2006-09)
9. Red Grange (Illinois RB/DB, 1923-25)
10. Orlando Pace (Ohio State OT, 1994-96)
11. Earl Campbell (Texas RB, 1974-77)
12. Hugh Green (Pittsburgh DE, 1977-80)
13. Joe Burrow (LSU QB, 2018-19; Ohio State QB, 2015-17)
14. Deion Sanders (Florida State CB, 1985-88)
15. Reggie Bush (USC RB, 2003-05)
16. Roger Staubach (Navy QB, 1961-64)
17. Tony Dorsett (Pittsburgh RB, 1973-76)
18. Charles Woodson (Michigan CB/WR, 1995-97)
19. Vince Young (Texas QB, 2002-05)
20. Ricky Williams (Texas RB, 1992-95)

All of those 20 players are college football legends in their own right, but most of them shouldn’t be ranked above Griffin, who finished his Ohio State career as the NCAA’s all-time leading rusher with 5,589 yards and still holds the record for the most consecutive 100-yard rushing games (31) in FBS history. Above all, Griffin’s feat of winning back-to-back Heismans has now remained unmatched for 50 years – and at least until someone does, Griffin belongs on any Mount Rushmore of college football’s best players of all-time.

Nearly all of the players ranked above Griffin by SI had better NFL careers than Griffin, but in a list focused solely on college football greatness, Griffin’s ranking belongs much closer to where he was ranked in 2020 by ESPN, which named Griffin as the fourth-best player in college football history behind only Brown, Walker and Jackson.

 ANOTHER BIG LEAGUE BUCKEYE. In Monday’s Skull Session, we shared the news that the Seattle Mariners selected Ohio State catcher Mason Eckelman in the eighth round of this past weekend’s MLB draft. As it turns out, Eckelman won’t be the only member of last year’s Ohio State baseball team – or the only member of his family – joining the Mariners organization.

Ohio State shortstop Henry Kaczmar, Eckelman’s cousin, signed with the Mariners as a free agent on Monday. It continues what’s been an intertwined baseball journey for the cousins since high school, as both attended Walsh Jesuit High School before enrolling at Ohio State.

Kaczmar’s MLB opportunity comes after a senior season in which he earned second-team All-Big Ten honors. Kaczmar hit .316 for Ohio State last season with 12 home runs, 26 doubles (a single-season program record), 47 RBIs, 50 runs scored and seven stolen bases.

 SONG OF THE DAY. “Stand” – Rascal Flatts.

 HOPE YOU’RE STILL READING. 150 Buckeyes, including four football players, named Big Ten Distinguished Scholars ... Florida State hires former Ohio State assistant, Texas head coach Tom Herman to coaching staff … Gianni Infantino says FIFA will examine possibility of 64-team World Cup ... Tourist seriously injured after Yellowstone bison launches man eight feet in the air … Fellow passengers pull back man partly sucked out of broken window on a flight from Greece.

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