Welcome to the Skull Session.
In six days, Ohio State will be talking to the beat writers at Big Ten Media Days. In 14 days, the Buckeyes start training camp.
This offseason seems like it has flown by.
Have a good Thursday.
WHAT-IFS. While ESPN's Bill Connelly sees Ohio State as a Big Ten title favorite and ranks the Buckeyes No. 1 in his SP+ rankings entering the 2026 season, he also handed out "what-ifs" for 21 different teams to potentially win a national championship this season.
Atop the list, OSU has three what-ifs:
If ... the portal delivered a pass defense. Matt Patricia inherited the best defense in the country (per SP+) last season and, if anything, improved it. But the Buckeyes' defense lost four top-40 NFL draft picks and seven picks in all. With four of his top five linemen and six of his top nine defensive backs gone, coach Ryan Day added two transfer ends, two tackles, two corners and two safeties. At least one of those in each position needs to become a stalwart in the lineup.
If ... Jeremiah Smith has batterymates. In Smith, Ohio State returns maybe the most-talented player in the country. But Julian Sayin's next two targets in 2025 (both high draft picks) are gone, and only two other returnees caught even five passes last season. Between veteran Brandon Inniss, four veteran transfers and blue-chip youngsters Chris Henry Jr., Jerquaden Guilford and Legend Bey, a lot of players will need to thrive in more important roles.
If ... new OC Arthur Smith can pick up the pace. Ohio State played at the second-slowest tempo last season (31.4 seconds per play) and averaged the third-fewest drives per game (9.9). It kept things calm and organized for Sayin, but when things turned urgent in their CFP quarterfinal loss to Miami, the pace never picked up, and the Buckeyes never produced the urgency necessary to deliver a comeback. With regular-season games against Oregon, Indiana and Texas, and a hopeful playoff run in its future, Ohio State should see a few more close-and-late situations this season. If all Smith does is improve the tempo when it needs improving, that's probably a net win.
Those are three of the biggest question marks Buckeye Nation has discussed throughout much of the offseason. They were also three of the biggest priorities for Ohio State this offseason that Ryan Day and Co. did their best to answer.
We'll see how it plays out, but the Buckeyes have put themselves in a good position for all three of those what-ifs.
NO LIES DETECTED. On "The Script" podcast with Cardale Jones, Dave Holmes and Beanie Wells, the trio discussed some of the events that have taken place at Michigan lately. Specifically, the sign-stealing saga and everything that has followed.
"There was this thing, it was talked about, you know, being a Michigan man, where it held so much regard, you have so much respect," Wells explained. "Well, that Michigan man certainly disappeared because now that Michigan man is a cheater. He's a liar. He's a schemer. He's a scammer. Like nobody wants to be a Michigan man anymore. It no longer has that same regard as what it once did."
With the podcast episode debuting on July 15, Wells predicted that Warde Manuel would no longer be the athletic director at Michigan for long.
"Mr. President, your ass is about to get impeached," Wells said.
Five days later, Michigan announced that Manuel would step down as the university's athletic director at the end of 2026.
TWO GOATS, ONE PODCAST. On Jim Tressel's latest "It's All About the Team" podcast, he had Thad Matta on to discuss all things college athletics, but more specifically, Ohio State. Throughout the 72-minute podcast, the pair discussed plenty of topics, and ended it with how they believe college athletics can be fixed, and even talked about a potential Super League.
Here are some of the most relevant topics that were discussed:
The Moment Matta Knew His Future In Basketball Was As A Coach, Not A Player
"My first ever open gym at Butler University was in August. And back then the Indiana Pacers would come and workout with us like really the month of September. Would open gym with us every day. And the first game I ever played in, I checked it up to this 6-7, 195-pound rookie named Reggie Miller. And I remember walking back to my dorm room, I looked myself in the mirror and said, 'You are not going to the NBA. You got to become a coach.'"
He later explained that he wanted to coach in the Big Ten: "My dream, my goal was to coach in the Big Ten. I wanted to play in the Big Ten but I wasn't good enough, so I wanted to coach in the Big Ten."
Tressel Explains Why Sports Provide So Much More Than Just Playing Games
"The value of sport is what it prepares you to do outside of sports. We've lost our way given the current state of affairs. That value of being that teammate, staying a little extra after practice, being a good role model, being there when it's tough. (You) learn lessons when that helps them – everything's not going to be perfect. You're going to have times when it's not going well."
Matta Describes What Makes a Great Strength and Conditioning Coach
"The greatest strength coaches I ever had were when (players) hated them for 59 minutes and then hugged them at the end. Because that means he got the most out of them."
Matta and Tressel Discuss Coaching Now Being A 365-Day-Per-Year Job
Matta: "Now you practice in the summer in college basketball. There's no dead time with your guys."
Tressel: "I don't know who came up with that rule because they did that in football, too. I think they wanted coaches to never have a day off the whole year or something."
Matta: "It was insanity. It really was."
Matta Discusses What's Most Important in Coaching, Leadership and Building a Team
"It's knowing your guys. And knowing – OK, a team goes on a 12-0 run, you take a timeout. Do I relax them and calm them down, do I rip them, do I make substitutions?"
Tressel Talks About Learning From Players Being Critical to Build a Team
"(Learning from the players) is so critical. So many leaders go in and they want to pontificate about all the wisdom they have and so forth. But learning the people who have lived it – now they have to be the right kind of guys – is so critical to learn from the people that we are trying to serve, lead and build into a team."
Matta on his First Year at Ohio State
"I went in, kind of as the young country boy, kind of naive. I had no idea how powerful Ohio State is. I had no clue in terms of the magnitude of what that university is.
"My first year was maybe one of the funnest years. ... That year helped me as a coach because it loosened me up because we weren't playing for anything (because we had a postseason ban). As time went on, I was a coach who wasn't afraid to lose, I was going to play to win. That year helped me a lot in terms of setting the tone.
"I go back to our last game of the year, we're playing Illinois, they're 29-0. We were supposed to have Greg Oden, Mike Conley and Daequan Cook at the game. I remember telling the coaches on Thursday, it was a Sunday afternoon game, 'Look, we just have to devise a game plan to keep this game close with these guys in the stands.'
"We hang around, hang around. With 12.3 seconds to go, we take the timeout. I'll never forget, we're down two, I turn to my staff and I said what should we do? 'Go down low to (Terence) Dials, go down low to Dials, go down low to Dials.' I said, fellas, do you really want to play the best team in college basketball for five more minutes? I said I'm going to go for the win, we're going to shoot a three. And Matt Sylvester made the shot.
"You think about defining moments in your coaching career – making calls to win games or whatever. ... It kind of solidified or stamped our program and from there, Ohio State basketball kind of took off."
Matta on What Made Greg Oden, Mike Conley and the 2006-07 Team Special
"The thing that made that group special was Mike Conley. I'll never forget, he and Greg came in and they were normal guys. We had really good players to go with them but that was one of the biggest challenges – I felt nervous when Greg Oden got there. I was like, what if I screw this up? And Greg came into my office when he first got there and said coach, whatever you do, just please coach me. I want to be the greatest, I want to be the best.
"Those guys took a chance on us and I'm forever indebted to them for choosing Ohio State like they did."
Now that's some good stuff.
SONG OF THE DAY. "Old Man" – Chase Johanson.
NO JOSHIN’, JUST LINKS. The 2026 Jazz & Rib Fest takes over downtown Columbus this weekend ... NHL to produce and distribute local game telecasts for Columbus Blue Jackets ... A Minnesota town now boasts the world's tallest nutcracker ... Erling Haaland's World Cup performance sparks a Viking-coded "babygirl" meme ... France becomes first European Union country to ban social media for kids under 15.
