Skull Session: Ryan Day Cracks Top-10 Highest Paid, Buckeye Basketball Will Scrimmage Ole Miss, and Ryan Day Wants Kickoffs Banned

Happy Friday, folks. This is your last Skull Session of the week because if the Buckeyes are taking a gameday off, I am too.

Word of the Day: Trepid.

MAKING MONEY. USA Today just updated its coaching salary database yesterday, and it turns out that Ryan Day's taking home a pretty solid paycheck.

But based on some of these other salaries, it looks like the Buckeyes are getting quite the discount for a guy that's never missed the College Football Playoff and just signed the best recruiting class in program history.

USA Today's 2021 coaching salary database is up. Hello, money.https://t.co/4Cn1zYdSj5 pic.twitter.com/UPHDCwqkXt
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) October 14, 2021

I mean, we live in a world where Ed Orgeron and David Shaw both make almost $3 million more than Ryan Day.

But by far the most obscene thing in this database is Jimbo Fisher's buyout, which could pay for an original Van Gogh or pay for an 18-year stay in the world's most luxurious hotel. His buyout is bigger than the top-12 annual coaches salaries combined! I would like to have his agent, please.

NO MORE KICKOFFS. Ohio State's been returning kickoffs much more frequently these days, which makes sense given that you've got the No. 3 kickoff return man in the country who seems like he's going to break on every time he touches the ball.

But that doesn't mean Ryan Day likes kickoffs. In fact, he wants them banned.

Ryan Day said last year, Ohio State generally opted to fair catch kickoffs and start at the 25-yard line whenever possible. With Emeka Egbuka this year, they're giving him more leeway to return kicks depending on hangtime and where the kickoff lands and try to make big plays.
— Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) October 14, 2021

I'm sure this will get folks riled up, but from everything I've heard and read, this is a fairly consensus #take among coaches these days. Sure, every now and then you'll hit a big return, but it's generally not seen as worth the injury risk or the practice time when the vast, vast majority of the time the ball ends up between like the 18 and 28-yard lines anyway.

The reality is, the game would barely change at all if you made this switch, but it would remove a lot of high-speed collisions from the game.

But until that happens, you can bet your ass Day's gonna give Emeka Egbuka a chance to house it.

SUPER-SECRET SCRIMMAGE. One of my favorite college basketball traditions are the super-secret preseason scrimmages that are absolutely not super-secret.

Chris Holtmann even made fun of them during his radio show appearance on Thursday.

"Somehow those closed scrimmages, it always leaks out who you're playing, where you're playing and even the final score," Holtmann said sarcastically. "So you'll hear all of that soon."

Well, somehow, that news did in fact leak just a few hours later – the Buckeyes will be scrimmaging Ole Miss.

Publicizing the game or broadcasting it is not allowed, a fact Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann alluded to as he addressed reporters while stating that the Buckeyes need to play as much as possible in order to be ready for the start of the season.

Holtmann couldn’t divulge the secret opponent, but The Dispatch has since learned that the Buckeyes will face Ole Miss in Nashville on October 24 behind closed doors. Last season, the Rebels went 16-12 and 10-8 in the SEC, earning a spot in the NIT before losing to Louisiana Tech in the first round.

Ole Miss was ranked No. 25 nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency last season according to KenPom.com and adds guard Daeshun Ruffin, the first McDonald’s All-American to ever sign with the program. This season, the Rebels were picked 10th in the 14-team SEC by Athlon Sports.

I'll tell you what, I'd be a hell of a lot more interested in this scrimmage if Marshall Henderson would be suiting up instead of just chilling on the sideline as a graduate manager. Let him play, cowards!

“GOOD MORNING MY GOOD BROTHER.” Folks, we got ourselves another JJB team poll, and you'll be pleased to know that you don't even need to be up on your pop culture references to understand this one.

You asked for it and its here pic.twitter.com/wdEiLJRJ0N
— Javontae Jean-Baptiste (@Javontae_JB) October 14, 2021

I want to know what the hell Jerron Cage has done or said to keep getting named here, and what did Nicholas Petit-Frere do to get named two separate times?

Let's keep this rolling, JJB, but give me a pleasant spin on this. Ask everyone who they'd call to bail them out of jail or if they needed a ride home at 3 a.m.

SONG OF THE DAY. "Spooky Scary Skeletons" by Disney.