Skull Session: Gene Smith and Ryan Day Went All In on NIL This Offseason, Jesse Owens is the GOAT, Quinshon Judkins Gives Back and Sarah Sue Morbitzer Publishes a Children’s Book

By Chase Brown on May 9, 2024 at 5:00 am
Ryan Day and Gene Smith
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Welcome to the Skull Session.

Who said Ohio State football players don't come here to PLAY SCHOOL?

Have a good Thursday.

 RYAN DAY ON LINE 6. This offseason, Ohio State football added NOS to their NIL efforts. The Buckeyes managed to get TreVeyon Henderson, Emeka Egbuka, Donovan Jackson, Jack Sawyer, JT Tuimoloau, Tyleik Williams, Ty Hamilton, Cody Simon, Denzel Burke, Jordan Hancock and Lathan Ransom back for another season. They also landed massive names like Will Howard, Quinshon Judkins, Seth McLaughlin, Caleb Downs and Julian Sayin out of the transfer portal. (No offense, Will Kacmarek).

How did Ohio State make all of that happen?

Because Ryan Day called donors personally.

(That’s one of several reasons, I am sure, but it’s a big reason).

For a recent article for The Athletic, Cameron Teague Robinson interviewed Gene Smith. The Ohio State athletic director told Robinson that he “sketched out a long list of donors” that the Buckeyes needed to call. He passed that list on to his sixth-year head coach.

From The Athletic:

“Ryan, you need to call these guys,” Smith recalled telling Day. “I can answer the questions, but you’re the football coach.”

The program needed some upkeep on the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, and Smith expects to go to the Ohio State board in May with proposed changes before his June 30 retirement date. And whatever coaching changes Day needed to make, Smith was on board for those too. Day’s assistant salary pool is now $11.4 million, up from $9.3 million last season.

But most importantly, Ohio State needed to take a step up in the name, image and likeness realm. After taking it slow the first year or two, Smith and Ohio State more aggressively embraced NIL, with Day freed up to take a lead role.

“If I call, 99.9 percent of the time they know why I’m calling,” Smith said. “But if it’s Ryan, that’s a game-changer.”

A game-changer is exactly what it proved to be.

Mark Stetson, a longtime donor who founded The 1870 Society, said Day’s phone calls helped “tip the scales” for donors who had been on the fence. According to Stetson, it was less about Day asking donors for money and more about him explaining to donors the ways NIL can impact athletes.

“I think when you are communicating with a coach, you can feel the need, and that’s where you get a lot of the positives of NIL,” Stetson said. “You go across the non-rev sports, there are kids who work two or three jobs to be able to live, but with NIL they can focus more on athletic and academic hours. Hearing that from the coach is a direct line to see the impact.”

With Smith and Day “all in,” as Smith put in after an athletics department event last month, the Buckeyes’ collectives thrived in December, January and February. They have continued to thrive ever since.

“I think there’s been some real extraordinary support,” Stetson said. “There’s been a huge influx of $10 a month and the bigger ticket purchases, as well. Regardless of trending year over year, the support has been incredible.”

And that’s great.

But it bears mentioning that all of these donations come with the expectation that Ohio State will achieve its goals this season – that the Buckeyes will beat “That Team Up North,” win a Big Ten championship and win a national title in 2024.

Will the Buckeyes accomplish those goals?

Boy, I sure hope so.

That’s all I can say until Ohio State hosts Michigan in Ohio Stadium on Nov. 30.

That’s 206 days from now for those counting.

 THAT’S WHY HE’S THE GOAT! World Athletics will commemorate Jesse Owens and “The Day of Days” on Thursday.

Almost 90 years ago, on May 25, 1935, the then-21-year-old Ohio State track and field athlete set four world records in 45 minutes during the Big Ten Championships at Michigan’s Ferry Field in Ann Arbor. In his incredible performance, Owens ran a 9.4 in the 100 yards (tied world record), jumped 8.13m on his lone long jump attempt (world record for 25 years), and won both the 220 yards (20.3) and the 220-yard low hurdles (22.6), with times faster than the previous records for the 200-yard events.

To honor Owens’ accomplishments, Owens’ family and representatives from Michigan and Ohio State’s track and field teams will unveil a World Athletics Heritage Plaque (of which there are 12 worldwide) in Ferry Field’s southeast corner.

NOTE: Before I continue, I will warn you that the next paragraph includes a quote from persona non grata, Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel. You can scroll past the paragraph if you want, but Manuel – a former thrower for the Wolverines in 1990 – did call Owens an “icon,” so it could be worth reading.

“What Jesse Owens, an icon not only of American sport but also American ideals, accomplished here with four world records in a span of 45 minutes in May 1935 will never again be replicated,” Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel said in a 2018 press release. “We are proud to have such hallowed grounds open to the public as part of our campus, where future generations can retrace in awe the steps of an American hero.”

Warde’s “American hero” title for Owens is correct and true. 

One year after Owens broke the world records at Ferry Field, he represented the United States at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. In front of German leaders whose names I will not dignify in the Skull Session, Owens became the first American to win four gold medals in an Olympiad, winning the 100m, 200m, long jump and 4x100m relay. (I cannot comprehend the bravery and courage to accomplish those feats).

Later in life, Owens became an inspirational speaker, worked with underprivileged youth and was a board member and former director of the Chicago Boys’ Club. Owens was also presented with the US Medal of Freedom and the Living Legend Award at The White House.

So, yes, Owens is an American hero.

I am thankful his Day of Days will forever be remembered in Ann Arbor. 

Hopefully, the plaque has a touch of scarlet and gray. That would be a nice touch.

 A BUCKEYE GIVES BACK (AGAIN). OK, Quinshon. I see you.

In the Monday Skull Session, I mentioned that Ohio State running back Quinshon Judkins returned to his hometown of Montgomery, Alabama, and volunteered at the Alabama Kidney Walk and Celebration. There, a local business owner pledged to donate $1,000 for each touchdown Judkins scores for the Buckeyes in 2024.

Three days later, Judkins continued to give back to his community. This time around, he donated $10,000 to the Pike Road Quarterback Club, the booster organization for his alma mater, Pike Road High School. Judkins also helped coach the Patriots during Tuesday’s practice and taught players the tools he used to rush for 4,220 yards and 67 touchdowns as a high schooler.

You love to see it.

You love to see a Buckeye use his platform for good. Judkins has done that and then some – and good on him for it!

 HEART OF SCARLET AND GOLD. In March 2023, former Eleven Warriors writer Griffin Strom interviewed Ohio State women’s volleyball player Sarah Sue Morbitzer. 

He learned that Morbitzer was diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot, a chronic condition caused by a combination of four congenital heart defects, at two days old. She underwent open-heart surgery to repair three of her heart valves at four months old, and the procedure left her with a lifelong scar that she’s had since before she can remember.

Despite those circumstances, Morbitzer never let her condition keep her from pursuing an athletic career – one that has since led her to Ohio State. A four-year letterwinner for the Buckeyes, Morbitzer has appeared in 73 games (and 247 sets) since 2020, collecting 498 digs and 85 assists. 

As the Groveport, Ohio, native prepares for her fifth collegiate season in 2024, she wants to share more about her condition and how it shaped her life. She will do so in a new children’s book called “Sarah Scarbuck’s Heart Zipper: A Story of a Heart Surgery Scar.” 

Here is how Mascot Books, Morbitzer’s publisher, describes the book:

Young redhead Sarah Scarbuck finds it hard to be proud of what her parents call her badge of honor: her open-heart surgery scar.

Other kids don’t have an eight-inch scar. Even though Sarah’s parents remind her of the strength she got from her superhero scar, sometimes she wonders if she can do everything other kids do. When Sarah gets older, she falls in love with volleyball. She follows her mother when she coaches practices, and she always wants to play in the backyard with her brother. Her dream is to play volleyball in college and show others with badges of honor they can chase their dreams too. 

Where will Sarah Scarbuck and her superhero scar go?

I would love to know the answer to that question.

Morbitzer’s book is available for pre-order and costs $19.95 plus tax.

I purchased a copy on Wednesday and hope to see you do the same!

 SONG OF THE DAY. “Million Dollar Baby” - Tommy Richman.

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