Skull Session: Spring Football Was a “Learning Experience” for Will Howard, Men's Basketball Plays Kentucky in the CBS Sports Classic, Urban Meyer and James Laurinaitis Nominated for the College Football HOF

Welcome to the Skull Session.

For one morning only, local man Garrick Hodge is taking a break from writing Hodgepodge columns and covering recruiting to fill in for the guy who actually knows what he's doing in the Skully, Chase Brown. Suffer with me for today and I promise Chase will return to your regularly scheduled programming on Wednesday.

LEARNING EXPERIENCE FOR POSSIBLE QB1. Expectations couldn't have been higher for Kansas State transfer quarterback Will Howard the moment he set foot on campus. And hell, they're still pretty high.

But following an up-and-down spring, it's not a given that Howard will beat out Devin Brown (or Lincoln Kienholz, Julian Sayin and Air Noland) for the starting quarterback role when Ohio State kicks off Week 1 against Akron in late August, even though he's still the odds-on favorite. Regardless of whether you're convinced Howard will thrive under center or not in 2024, I think there's some context to remind ourselves of that I myself was guilty of forgetting at times this spring. Especially when he had a few underwhelming moments in the select few practices that were open to the media.

Howard has proven to be, at worst, a capable Power Five starter at Kansas State without the caliber of weapons he'll have in Columbus.
Regardless of how experienced he may be, that doesn't mean he's not learning an entirely new offense and getting to know the strengths/weaknesses of his new teammates. That's not going to happen overnight. Also, while this may not be an end-all, be-all considering it's still Ryan Day's offense, he hasn't played a down of football for OSU and has had two offensive coordinators in his Buckeye tenure.

Howard joined The Bobby Carpenter Show on Sunday evening and touched on his transition with Ohio State, which I thought offered some pretty interesting insight.

"When I first got here, my head was spinning a little bit," Howard said. "Obviously being in the same place for four years and doing things the same way, you get into a little bit of a routine. But I was excited. I knew coming here was a huge opportunity for me and the guys really embraced me when I came in.

"Now that I got through that first semester, I really feel like I'm pretty well ingrained with the team. Spring ball really helped me a lot, but it was definitely a learning experience a little bit. Especially through the first four to five practices. I've played a lot of football and done a lot of things, but I was just figuring out how coach Day and coach Kelly coach me and how they want to do things and how I feel myself fitting into this offense. Honestly coming out of spring ball, I felt like I wanted to have more practices and get more reps towards the end of it. But it's been really good, I feel great now."

Expectations for the 2024 Buckeyes are sky-high, and no one will or should shy away from them. Especially since the only question marks on the roster entering the year are at quarterback and offensive line. If there's continued uncertainty at quarterback deep into fall camp, that will be an interesting discussion for another day. But, for now, I'm willing to give Howard the benefit of the doubt and look forward to seeing what he can do this fall.

OSU HOOPS FACING BLUE-BLOOD ON NATIONAL TV. For a while, we knew that Ohio State men's basketball would be on national television during the CBS Sports Classic in December. On Monday, we learned who, when and where the Buckeyes will play in that showcase, thanks to a report from national college basketball reporter Jeff Goodman.

This years matchups for CBS Sports Classic, which will be on Dec. 21, source told @thefieldof68.

Kentucky vs. Ohio State

North Carolina vs. UCLA

Likely to be held at Madison Square Garden, per source.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) June 3, 2024

It'll be a battle of first-year coaches as Jake Diebler takes on Mark Pope and the blueblood Kentucky Wildcats at Madison Square Garden. Color me intrigued by this matchup (and if the team bounces back in Diebler's first season after missing the NCAA Tournament for two straight seasons). But there is a downside.

Dec. 21 is the same day three College Football Playoff games will be broadcast, which might put the casual basketball fan in a bind. Especially if Ohio State is playing football that day, though the hope is the Buckeyes will win the Big Ten and earn a first-round bye.

My advice, even if OSU football isn't playing? Invest in a two-TV screen setup. Problem solved.

TWO BUCKEYE LEGENDS NOMINATED FOR CFB HOF. On Monday, we learned two Ohio State legends are on the 2025 College Football Hall of Fame ballot: Urban Meyer and James Laurinaitis.

Meyer is on the coaches’ ballot for the first time, and there's no doubt he should be a first-ballot Hall of Famer. I feel like I don't even really need to argue this, so I won't!

Laurinaitis is on the player ballot for the sixth year in a row and deserves strong consideration from the National Football Foundation members and Hall of Fame inductees with votes, in my humble opinion. He's just one eight players in Ohio State history to earn first-team All-American honors three times. He was also a two-time Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, the 2007 Butkus Award winner and the 2006 Bronko Nagurski Trophy winner, recording 375 tackles across his four-year Buckeye career (2005-08).

Simply put, he belongs in the Hall of Fame.

One last thing while we're on the subject of the Hall of Fame, even if it's a bit off-subject to OSU. I had the pleasure of covering the late Mike Leach for one season at Mississippi State before I moved to Columbus to work for Eleven Warriors.

Leach was no doubt one of the most entertaining coaches in the sport, and he was a pretty damn good coach, too. He's currently ineligible for the Hall of Fame ballot because you're required to have a career-winning percentage of .600 as a coach, and Leach finished at a 59.6 percent clip. Even if he did have a .600 winning percentage, he wouldn't be put on the ballot for another year, so it would be cool if the foundation could make a one-time exception here.

IS OSU GONNA GET ANOTHER HOME PRIMETIME GAME? As of now, we know that Ohio State's season-opener against Akron will be at 3:30 p.m. on CBS, the Week 2 matchup against Western Michigan kicks off at 7:30 p.m. on the Big Ten Network and The Game will be on Big Noon Kickoff per usual.

That said, are any of OSU's other five home games going to be in primetime? If the rumored NBC primetime slate from The Action Network's Brett McMurphy is accurate, another home night game might not be in the cards for the Buckeyes.

NBCs preferred primetime lineup sources told @ActionNetworkHQ

Sept 21 Iowa at Minnesota
Sept 28 Illinois at Penn St
Oct 5 Michigan at Washington
Oct 12 Ohio St at Oregon
Oct 19 Iowa at Michigan St
Oct 26 Penn St at Wisconsin
Nov 2 USC at Washington
Nov 9 FSU at Notre Dame
Nov
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) June 3, 2024

The game time options for OSU's home game against Nebraska on Oct. 26 have been set at noon, 3:30 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. (really narrows it down, huh guys?), so that may be the best bet going head-to-head against Penn State at Wisconsin. If you look at the Cornhuskers' schedule before they face Ohio State, it's not impossible they're undefeated or at worst have one or two losses. Stop laughing. I'm serious. Go look at it.

The other best option is the Iowa game on Oct. 5, but I have a hard time with NBC preferring offense-challenged Iowa to a Michigan vs. Washington game on the West Coast.

Getting only one home primetime game in a year like 2024 would be a bummer for fans, but we'll see how things shake out.

SONG OF THE DAY. “Welcome to the Jungle” – Guns ’N Roses. This song gets the honor only because it was used in the new upcoming EA College Football '25 video game trailer. While some may have given that a bit of side-eye because it had a few anti-Ohio State highlights, the important thing to remember is for the first time in 11 years, you can (virtually) hang 100 on Michigan at your own leisure in about a month-and-a-half.