Skull Session: Decisions, Decisions

Welcome to the Skull Session.

Happy New Year.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And the days of auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld lang syne
We'll drink a cup of kindness yet
For the sake of auld lang syne
And surely you will buy your cup
And surely I'll buy mine!
We'll take a cup of kindness yet
For the sake of auld lang syne
We two have paddled in the stream
From morning sun till night
The seas between us Lord and swell
Since the days of auld lang syne
For old acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind
Should old acquaintance be forgot
For the sake of auld lang syne?
For old acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind
Should old acquaintance be forgot
In the days of auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld lang syne
We'll drink a cup of kindness yet
For the sake of auld lang syne

Word Of The Day: Change.

HELP WANTED. Let me tell you something you already know...

This offseason, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day needs to fire Parker Fleming. Period. Point blank. He also needs to ask Corey Dennis to kindly leave and have a conversation with offensive line coach Justin Frye about his future with the Buckeyes if his position room does not improve in 2024.

For Ohio State to have success next fall – and for Day to remain the team's head coach after 2024 – the Buckeyes can't have another season without a win over Michigan, a Big Ten championship and a College Football Playoff appearance.

Over the next few weeks, Day needs to be ruthless, like he was to Kerry Coombs, Matt Barnes and Al Washington after the 2021 season. Two years ago, Day needed more from his defense, defensive backs and linebackers. Now, he needs more from his special teams, quarterbacks and offensive line. Changes need to be made.

That's step one for Day.

As for step two, Eliah Drinkwitz may have offered Day the blueprint before Friday.

Amid a pre-Cotton Bowl press conference that featured Day and Drinkwitz, someone asked the Missouri head coach why he stopped calling offensive plays for the Tigers and focused on his role as the team's head coach in 2023.

His response?

“I wasn’t doing the best that I could for our football team. We have a sign in our building that says, ‘Do your job. Put the team first. Embrace your role. Put the team first.’ I wasn’t doing that. I wasn’t embracing my role as the head coach,” Drinkwitz said. “I was trying to hold onto my ego of being the play caller. I needed to step back. The job of the head coach is to build this team, empower other people to do their jobs and really build connections from player to player, coach to player and our team to the university and community.

“It begins with investing in your guys. I didn’t have the time I needed to do that. So that really became my mission. How could I support our strength and conditioning staff? How could I be around our players more? How could I engage our coaches in a real way? How could I engage our players in a real way to create a more connected team? We needed to be more connected. … It really came down to me having integrity, not just talking about it but being about it and putting the team first and embracing my role as the head coach.”

*ahem*... Coach Day... *ahem*

It's time.

This offseason, Day needs to hire an experienced play caller who can take the reins of Ohio State's offense. Such a move will allow Day to build his program from the top down. He could empower the Buckeyes' coaches and players to be the best version of themselves. His staff and players already love him. How much could that love increase if he was focused on relationships rather than X’s and O’s?

As for step three... well, I need another section for that.

DECISIONS, DECISIONS. When the Cotton Bowl ended, and Ohio State fell to Missouri, 14-3, Devin Brown hobbled over to Lincoln Kienholz and put his arms around him. Brown whispered words of affirmation into the freshman quarterback’s ear. He then limped toward the Buckeyes’ locker room.

After Kyle McCord entered the transfer portal in December, the Cotton Bowl was supposed to be The Devin Brown Game – an audition for the 6-foot-3, 216-pound signal-caller to become Ohio State’s QB1 in 2024. Instead, he left the contest after four possessions due to a high ankle sprain.

Brown’s audition was hardly an audition at all.

Now, Ryan Day must decide (in addition to all the other decisions he must make): Transfer portal or no transfer portal? Or, perhaps more accurately, Will Howard or no Will Howard?

“This isn’t what we expected,” Day said after the game. “We didn’t have a game to look at, go through and evaluate. We know what we see (from Devin) in practice, but it’s different in a game. So it’s disappointing we don’t have that. So we’ll get back to work and figure that part of it out. But again, I don’t have a great answer on that right now, because we didn’t have a game from Devin.”

What makes Day’s decision difficult is that Brown, a top-50 prospect in the 2022 class according to the 247Sports composite, embodies all Buckeye Nation could want in a starting quarterback in terms of leadership.

After Brown went down in the second quarter, he battled to get back on the field. When the pain became too much to bear, Brown didn’t feel sorry for himself. He cheered on Kienholz. He clapped for his teammates. He did what he could.

Brown’s professionalism mirrored how he handled himself after McCord won the quarterback competition in September. His temperament was never about entering the transfer portal or leaving the program. He wanted to compete. He received another chance to do that when McCord moved on to Syracuse. Day handed the keys to Brown for a test drive. The Buckeyes’ quarterback was poised to keep the car between the lines – maybe even see how fast the Buckeyes’ Ferrari could get from 0 to 60 mph.

However, like in spring practice and during the regular season, Brown suffered an injury that kept him from competing when it mattered most.

That sucks. Pardon my French.

“Devin wanted to play in this game worse than anybody,” Day said. “After he hurt himself, he wanted to get back, but it wasn’t fair to him. He couldn’t move. He wasn't supposed to be in the game at that point. He had a great attitude the whole time. He’s a great young man and a great teammate.”

Brown seemingly has an “it“ factor that wins over his teammates and Ohio State fans. The “Rounders” tweets and “Burn the Boats” posts are proof of his charisma. But his play on the field, albeit in small sample sizes (he has played less than 100 snaps in two seasons), leaves much to be desired, especially when you compare his performance to Dwayne Haskins, Justin Fields and C.J. Stroud.

The Gilbert, Arizona, native will return to Ohio State in 2024 with Kienholz. Five-star quarterback Air Noland will arrive in a number of days, as could a transfer quarterback like Howard, a three-year star and Big 12 champion at Kansas State.

It’s easy to feel bad for Brown. I sure do.

He’s talented. He’s a leader. His coaches and teammates love him. But his body has failed him at the most inopportune times, which leaves Day with a huge question mark at quarterback – a position that had been an undeniable strength for Ohio State since he arrived in 2017.

While Brown burned the boats, Day did not. With 2024 being a make-it-or-break-it year for the head coach, Brown could be the captain or a stowaway on Day’s vessel. Which role Brown assumes next season will be one of the more crucial developments of the offseason.

JACK SAWYER, EVERYONE. Jack Sawyer was Ohio State's best player in the Cotton Bowl, recording four total tackles with three sacks in the Buckeyes' loss to the Tigers.

Finally, some Ohio State fans commented as Sawyer had what they considered a "breakout game" or "coming-out party."

I'll push back on that.

In Ohio State's matchups with Minnesota, Michigan and Missouri, Sawyer was – without a doubt – the best Silver Bullet in the Buckeyes' chamber, collecting 16 tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss, five sacks and, according to Pro Football Focus, 14 quarterback pressures in those three games alone.

The Jack Sawyer Game pic.twitter.com/2Lxa4VENP0
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) November 18, 2023

For Ohio State’s final three games of the season, he was dominant.

If Sawyer ultimately chooses to return for another season at Ohio State, something he hinted was likely before the Cotton Bowl, it would be a real blessing for Jim Knowles, Larry Johnson and the Buckeyes.

FAREWELL, CAPTAINS. Each of Ohio State’s three captains, Cade Stover, Tommy Eichenberg and Xavier Johnson, had memorable moments at the Cotton Bowl.

Well, memorable to me, at least.

Before halftime, Stover – an in-your-face, say-what-you-mean-mean-what-you-mean kind of captain – laid into Ohio State's offensive linemen for their performance. ESPN’s cameras captured some of Stover’s wrath in real-time.

Cade Stover was livid before halftime. pic.twitter.com/bo6dGt9ECy
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) December 30, 2023

When the clock reached 0:00, Eichenberg – a lead-by-example, man-of-few-words kind of captain – grieved Ohio State’s loss with his teammates. As those Buckeyes walked off the field, Eichenberg embraced and encouraged each of them one-on-one.

He is a man of few words but his actions speak for him.

After the game an emotional Tommy Eichenberg stood outside the locker room and hugged every single teammate.

The Buckeye captain has meant so much to the rebuild of the Silver Bullets: pic.twitter.com/qfESepxvJP
— Adam King (@AdamKing10TV) December 30, 2023

When press conferences arrived, Johnson – a servant-leader, been-there-done-that kind of captain – held back tears as he reflected on the past six seasons at Ohio State, where he started his career as a walk-on, played cornerback, running back and wide receiver and became the Block O recipient in 2023.

Really touching moment here with Xavier Johnson.

Credit to @Dan_Hope for the question. pic.twitter.com/P2yYWzY5b3
— Andy Anders (@AndyAnders55) December 30, 2023

Cheers to Stover, Eichenberg and Johnson for all they accomplished at Ohio State. Their presence, both on and off the field, will be missed next season and beyond.

SONG OF THE DAY. “Auld Lang Syne” - The Tenors.