Welcome to the Skull Session.
Andy filling in for a briefly vacationing Chase today. In case you haven't heard, Ohio State has some good players on its team.
AP Preseason All-American Buckeyes
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) August 21, 2023
| @tommyike41 @emeka_egbuka @MarvHarrisonJr @D_jack78 @JT_Tuimoloau | pic.twitter.com/32T5whn77k
We‘re a mere 11 days away from those good players showcasing their skills against Indiana.
Let's have a good Tuesday, shall we?
NOT MUCH OF A NEW DAY AFTER ALL. It appears Ohio State head coach Ryan Day will still be the driving force behind the Buckeyes' offense in 2023, as he'll still handle "the majority" of the team's offensive playcalling this season.
“Brian's going to certainly at times make some calls, and we're going to discuss it in between series, but I think early, I’ll do the majority of it,” Day said. “Brian is going to have an opportunity to call it as well as time goes on, and I think the thing for Brian is that he's done an excellent job of helping organize the offense. He's done a good job of installing for the first time in this preseason in offense. That's a big part of being a coordinator."
It's hard to tell what impact this has, good or bad, for the team this year without being behind the scenes. It felt like Day had the best defense in the country in a schematic blender during the Peach Bowl to close 2022, but there were also times the offense felt stagnant against Penn State and Michigan – even if they finished among the very best attacks in the nation.
As the season wears on and defenses get film, it's hard for a head coach to stay inventive every week while also maintaining focus on the big-picture items that a coach has to focus on. Day is only one person and there's only 24 hours in a day, after all.
Maybe the secret to unlocking Ohio State's true potential is cloning technology?
TERRY SUFFERS INJURY SCARE. Former Ohio State and current Washington Commanders wide receiver Terry McLaurin went down with a toe injury against the Baltimore Ravens in NFL preseason action Monday.
The play where Terry McLaurin appeared to injure his toe. pic.twitter.com/U11L1dwLmH
— Nicki Jhabvala (@NickiJhabvala) August 22, 2023
The good news for McLaurin, Commanders fans and I'm sure many of you in fantasy football is that his X-rays came back negative. Hopefully he'll be back to full health entering the regular season. The only scares he should be part of is the fear he strikes into opposing defensive backs.
Commanders said WR Terry McLaurin has a toe injury and will not return to tonights game. X-Rays on McLaurins toe were negative.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 22, 2023
VIDEO GAMES ON ICE. Ohio State's social media team debuted the latest of its "Cold Talks" videos on Monday, this time the subject was “favorite video games.”
pt.5 pic.twitter.com/J7pvkn1UG7
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) August 21, 2023
Special shoutout to Davison Igbinosun, a man of culture, for picking NCAA14, the greatest video game ever created. Personally, I'd have included Star Wars: Battlefront II on the original Xbox as well, but perfection is a hard thing to obtain.
Curious words from Lathan Ransom calling Madden “unrealistic,” I couldn't agree more. Maybe it's time for the NFL to drop their exclusivity rights as a “simulation football game” when the gameplay gets further from simulating football every year?
Sorry for the tangent, but I want EA to finally actually put out a decent game that isn't only tailored to Ultimate Team. At least that's one humble writer's opinion.
HAPPY BELATED, ARCHIE. One of the greatest players in college football history celebrated his 69th birthday on Monday.
Wishing a happy birthday to the only two-time Heisman Trophy winner, Archie Griffin! pic.twitter.com/b1kJXTV07u
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) August 21, 2023
My parents were roughly in the first grade when Archie was at the height of his powers at Ohio State, but even still I owned a No. 45 Ohio State jersey as a kid. Take a quick drive down memory lane to the 1970s with this quick Big Ten Icons piece:
Or to earlier this year when Archie scored his latest touchdown in an Ohio State uniform as a 52nd-year senior:
SONG OF THE DAY. I couldn’t do the Skull Session without choosing a rap song here, so take a walk through the old West (and some mental health growth) with Denzel Curry's “Walkin.”
AROUND THE WEB WITH ANDY. Gannett is having AI write some bad, repetitive high school sports stories... Snake discovered in a Target shopping cart gets a permanent home... Dinosaurs race on a horse track... ‘Hank the Tank,’ a bear with a nasty B&E record, is finally apprehended.
