Welcome to the Skull Session.
Ohio State went retro on Thursday.
bucks pic.twitter.com/FdY2wQJNcg
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) July 27, 2023
Scarlet and gray always looks great.
Let's have a good Friday, shall we?
OK, MARVIN! Marvin Harrison Jr. sent a clear message about NIL to Ohio State recruits on Wednesday: You come to Columbus to beat Michigan, win Big Ten championships and win national championships. Not for name, image and likeness.
On its face, Harrison's message may have sounded like a knock on the Buckeyes' NIL scene, the one I said thrived in 2023 behind a record year for over 2,000 Ohio State athletes from the school's 36 varsity programs. But fear not, dear reader, the star wide receiver provided context to his bold proclamation for the top prospects in America.
“We’re here to be great receivers, be here to beat the Team Up North, win national championships,” he said. “If your main focus is NIL, this isn’t the place for you. But I think that’s definitely part of it now in college football. I think the Columbus market is really great. Ohio State, the brand itself, is one of the best brands in college football that you can be attached to.”
The 6-foot-4, 205-pound receiver has partnered with the Ohio State-driven Cohesion Foundation to do charity work with the Ronald McDonald House. He signed with the other Buckeyes-driven collective, The Foundation, too. ... While he has yet to sign with any representation, he signed with Mark Wahlberg Chevrolet of Columbus at the end of February and received the keys to a Chevrolet Tahoe. Harrison has added agreements with ZOA Energy and Dr Teal’s Epsom salt in the last 10 days.
Ohio State has been able to open up some doors for Harrison. While the Buckeyes cannot facilitate any NIL agreements, the brand itself has drawn Columbus businesses into the NIL space.
"The brand is so big, they can kind of connect them with the right people,” Harrison said. “When you’re doing business like that, you just want to be attached to the right people and do things for the right reasons.”
I love this.
My pet peeve with the new era of name, image and likeness, especially in the recruitment of top high school prospects and transfer portal targets, is that athletes prefer cash in hand before they have proven their worth to a program.
In my opinion, what Harrison proposed on Wednesday is how NIL should work. I am pleased Ohio State has embraced that mindset – for the most part. The individual Buckeyes, like Harrison, prove their worth on the field and receive their reward. They benefit from their name, image and likeness built up from their on-field performance, which should involve wins over Michigan, Big Ten championships and national titles.
Cheers to Harrison for making that stance at Big Ten Media Days.
ONE OF THE GOOD ONES. I like Luke Fickell. He's one of the good ones. An Ohio State defensive tackle from 1993-96 and assistant coach from 2002-16, Fickell is a Buckeye to his core. He coached Cincinnati from 2017-22, leading the Bearcats to the CFP in 2021. Now, he starts his newest endeavor with the Wisconsin Badgers in 2023.
Fickell conducted a televised press conference at Big Ten Media Days on Thursday, where he received a question about how former Ohio State head coaches John Cooper, Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer have influenced his career and coaching over the past three decades.
“Borrowed, stole, become a part of — they’re all those things. And I think those opportunities, those situations have all shaped me. I was very fortunate to be in one place for a very long time but really be with three Hall of Fame coaches. From Coach Coop, who I played for, to Coach Tressel to Coach Meyer – three hall of fame coaches that have done it in many different ways. And that’s probably the greatest thing that I learned, that there are many different ways to do this. There are many different ways to lead. There are many different ways to win and to grow a program.
"But it needs to be you. It needs to be authentic. And it needs to be consistent and all those things. Taking things from each and every one of those guys that I was fortunate enough to spend a lot time with, whether it was five years, six years, 10 years — that’s a lot of experience.
“But the eight or nine months where I had the opportunity to do things on my own (as the interim head coach) really showed me how important the true leadership behind all that we do is. And the failures that I had, especially in those eight or nine months [as interim head coach in 2011], probably as much as all those other times with those other guys, really helped me be who I am.”
That is a lot of experience. And it came with three of the best coaches in the business from 1998-2018, when Cooper, Tressel and Meyer combined for a 300-74-4 record, 12 Big Ten championships and two national championships as Ohio State's three head coaches across 30 college football seasons.
Fickell took what each coach passed down and made it his own. He blended Cooper's U.S. Army discipline, Tressel's buttoned-up disposition and Meyer's relentless mindset all in one, and he added his personal touches here and there to become one of the sport's best coaches. For that reason, I will root for him to succeed at Wisconsin, except when the Buckeyes face the Badgers, of course.
And about the Buckeyes' matchup with the Badgers in 2023, Fickell was asked on Thursday about welcoming Ohio State into Camp Randall Stadium on Oct. 28, which the Action Network has reported will start at 7:30 p.m. on NBC.
“I’ll tell you what, the most important thing is I want to make sure it’s not about anything about me. … If that can take the focus off of, hopefully the emphasis of how important and how big the game is, then so be it, but it’s still going to be about the guys on the field. That’s to me, what I want. We’ve talked about, and we do things on rivalries, and I’m not trying to create a new rivalry. We all know you have to beat the best to be the best, and at some point in time you’re going to get those opportunities to play Ohio State, or play Michigan, who’s won it the last two years, and that’s when you have to be at your best as well.
“I know for me, I’ll have a lot less friends. You know, because there’s no in-between like, ‘Hey, we’re rooting for you all year, all games but one,’ but then, I’m not sure I have a whole lot of room for friends anymore. But I’ve kind of known that. I’ve only got a few select, really good friends. I assume that they’ll be rooting for (Wisconsin), but I’m not even going to ask.”
Wait – did Fickell call me out at the end of that quote?
Guess we're not friends.
His loss.
WHO'S IN CHARGE? Beyond the quarterback competition between Kyle McCord and Devin Brown and question marks about the offensive line, one of the most prominent storylines from Ohio State's offseason surrounded Ryan Day's role as offensive play-caller in 2023 after Brian Hartline was promoted to offensive coordinator.
Throughout spring practices, Day had a wait-and-see approach about Hartline in the role. He remained the team's lead play-caller in March and April but wanted to see the Buckeyes' wide receiver coach take the reins from time to time. As Ohio State prepares for its first preseason practices of 2023 next week, it seems Day will stick to that approach until the team's season opener with Indiana on Sept. 2.
“Nothing has really changed from the spring,” Day said on Wednesday. “We’ll see how the preseason goes and see how it all shakes out – the chemistry. It’s allowed me the opportunity to bounce around a little bit more. Also, with naming Quinn Tempel our chief of staff, he’s kind of taken some things off of my plate. He’s done a really good job there.”
Day admitted it would be challenging for him to avoid the offense. Still, he (correctly) said it’s necessary for Ohio State's success this fall that he not become too offensive-minded as the team's head coach. In other words, that Day can ensure the defense doesn't allow 1,000 explosive plays against Penn State, Michigan or in the postseason and cost the Buckeyes another chance at a national championship.
“The way our staff is designed, I think we have a great staff, and it has allowed me to jump around a little bit more," Day said. "Once we get into the teeth of the season, I know how it’s going to go probably for me. I’m going to end up being right involved with it again, but that being said, as the season wears on, I have to be conscious this year of not getting too locked into the offense and making sure that I have a handle on everything that’s going on.”
It sounds like, in Day's perfect world, he relinquishes his play-calling duties but continues to share his offensive brilliance with Hartline as he maintains a CEO-like approach. Perhaps that could be how the Buckeyes break through and beat Michigan, win a Big Ten championship and a national title in 2023.
That all sounds good to me. Pretty, pretty good.
DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR. I always want to be open and honest about the fact that I do not know it all. But I know this: Pat Narduzzi has lost his marbles. I reached that conclusion after the Pittsburgh head coach spewed nonsense at the 2023 ACC Football Kickoff this week.
“It’s interesting,” Narduzzi said. “I spent eight years in the Big Ten before coming here. Obviously as a defensive coordinator, not a head coach. Now eight years in the ACC. I personally — again, it’s no slam to the Big Ten at all because it’s a heck of a conference as well, but I look at the quality of players in the ACC. Maybe it’s because it stretches down the Atlantic coast from Miami up to Boston, but just the quality of athletes, it’s different.”
“I look at it in the defensive perspective, some of the receivers that we got to defend, I felt like we didn’t have to defend that back in the day in the Big Ten. Then I think when you look at the quarterbacks, I think we had 12 different quarterbacks start in the NFL from the ACC last year. That’s impressive. We have one right next door in Kenny Pickett.
“I think the quality of quarterback — we know the game starts with the quarterback play, correct? You can have a left guard or a center position or a defensive tackle, but when you talk college football and some of the best football, it comes to quarterbacks. You look at Trevor Lawrence and all the quarterbacks that the ACC has produced.
“I look back in the Big Ten and look at — we had one of the premier guys in Kirk Cousins, but when you look at the Big Ten in the last really 16 years, who are those guys that are starting in the NFL? Kirk Cousins is probably the most popular one that you think of at this point. I may have missed somebody, but no disrespect."
I mean, what?
While I will accept Narduzzi's point that the ACC has produced more NFL-caliber quarterbacks recently, as the conference has five professional starters – Lamar Jackson, Deshaun Watson, Trevor Lawrence, Daniel Jones, Kenny Pickett – compared to the Big Ten's four starters – Russell Wilson, Kirk Cousins, Justin Fields and C.J. Stroud – I will not accept any other point Narduzzi made in his comments.
Outside the one season Pitt made a New Year's Six Bowl with Pickett and Jordan Addison, the ACC has been mediocre outside of Clemson, who cruised through its cupcake conference schedule to seven ACC championships and two national titles since Narduzzi started his tenure with the Panthers in 2015.
Ohio State dominated the Big Ten in the same timeframe Clemson ruled over the Atlantic Coast, so I don't mean to make the Big Ten seem better than it was. However, at least Michigan and Penn State have been competitive over the years, with one-off seasons here and there from Wisconsin, Iowa and, heck, even Minnesota, Purdue and Northwestern.
The Big Ten may not be the SEC, but it certainly isn't worse – or "different," as Narduzzi put it – than the ACC. That is a certified cold take – one that Narduzzi can take back with him to Steel City and keep to himself.
SONG OF THE DAY. "As The World Caves In" by Matt Maltese (Sarah Cothran Cover).
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