Skull Session: Ryan Day Says Ohio State’s Roster is “Pretty Set” For the 2024 Season, and the Memorial Tournament Takes Over Central Ohio

By Chase Brown on June 6, 2024 at 5:00 am
Ryan Day
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Welcome to the Skull Session.

Rise and grind.

Have a good Thursday.

 “IT’S PRETTY SET RIGHT NOW.” Will Howard, Julian Sayin, Quinshon Judkins, Seth McLaughlin, Will Kacmarek, Caleb Downs and Keenan Nelson Jr. have been Ohio State’s scholarship transfer additions this offseason (the Buckeyes also added Shawn Lodge and Anthony Venneri as walk-ons). According to Ryan Day, those will be Ohio State’s scholarship transfer additions this offseason – or so he thinks.

Speaking with reporters at the “Faces of Resilience” event on Tuesday, the sixth-year head coach said he doesn’t expect any further additions to the Buckeyes’ roster with less than three months to go until Ohio State’s season opener against Akron.

“Barring the unforeseen, I would say that it’s pretty set right now,” Day said.

As it stands, Eleven Warriors knows of 81 scholarship players on Ohio State’s roster. Still, Day believes the Buckeyes will reach the NCAA’s 85-scholarship limit before preseason camp starts.

“There’s a lot of different ways to skin a cat,” he said.

Translation: Ohio State will offer its four remaining scholarships to walk-ons.

Tight end Patrick Gurd, the son of former Ohio State linebacker Andy Gurd, is a strong candidate to receive a scholarship following the departures of Cade Stover, Joe Royer and Sam Hart. He appeared in 10 games last season and recorded 39 snaps. Other candidates include, but are not limited to, defensive back Brenten “Inky” Jones – a 2023 Burlsworth Award finalist – running back TC Caffey, wide receiver David Adolph and kicker Jayden Fielding.

“There are so many different things right now when it comes to your roster,” Day said. “I feel like we have good balance. We looked really hard to make sure we have enough depth at every position.”

Ohio State also looked really hard into making sure it could keep its roster intact during the second transfer window. It accomplished that in spades, especially at the quarterback position.

“We’re excited about the guys we have,” Day said. “I don’t think it’s been a mystery that we plan on running the quarterback a little bit more this year, so having depth will be important. It’s not going to be the number one thing we do, but we want to make sure we have that depth in our room. I think we’ve done that at a high level.”

No arguments there.

 A CLASS ACT. Since he became Ohio State’s head coach in 2019, Ryan Day has embraced Buckeye Nation in several ways. One of them has been an annual appearance at the Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio, where he interacts with Jack Nicklaus (more on him in a moment) and patrons from across Ohio – who I have to assume are Buckeye fans because, if you live in Ohio and you aren’t a Buckeye fan, you’re doing it wrong.

On Wednesday, Day traveled to Muirfield Village Golf Club for the Pro-Am round of the Memorial Tournament. When he arrived, Day interacted with Nicklaus outside the clubhouse, where the duo discussed life and the Buckeyes.

More importantly, Day signed autographs and took pictures with the Golden Cubs, a group of former and current Nationwide Children’s patients who spent the morning and afternoon with all the Pro-Am stars.

Look, as a football coach, Day has been good (he has a 56-8 overall record as Ohio State’s head coach) and bad (he has three consecutive losses to Michigan and a 1-3 record against the Wolverines). However, there is no dichotomy when it comes to Day as a person. The 45-year-old head coach is a good man and a class act. Small moments like the one with the Golden Cubs are but one example of that truth.

 THE GOLDEN BEAR. Jack Nicklaus loves Ohio State and Columbus. He always has. He always will.

On Tuesday, Nicklaus held a press conference before the Memorial Tournament. There, Spencer Holbrook of Lettermen Row asked the Golden Bear to describe his time at Ohio State, where he won the 1959 and 1961 U.S. Amateur titles and the 1961 NCAA Tournament individual championship that propelled him toward a legendary career in the PGA.

“Ohio State is a great school. Columbus is a great town,” Nicklaus told Holbrook. “They have a lot of really good golf courses in Columbus, Ohio. It’s a great place to come and be part of. Obviously, I had, you know, offers from a lot of schools to play golf elsewhere, and I wanted to go to Ohio State because I loved Ohio State. … I wanted to be an Ohio State student. I loved going to the football games and basketball games, being part of the fraternity life and school life. That’s what I wanted to do. That was just as important to me as playing on the golf team.”

Following his collegiate career, Nicklaus went on to win 18 majors (he finished runner-up in another 18!) and 73 PGA tournaments. He was also named the PGA Tour Player of the Year in 1967, 1972, 1973, 1975 and 1976, and he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974 – well before his career ended.

Despite Nicklaus’ unprecedented success, he never forgot his roots and returned to Columbus several times throughout his career. 

Following his retirement, Nicklaus oversaw renovations for Ohio State’s Scarlet Course, restoring the vision of its original architect, Dr. Alister MacKenzie. Nicklaus also became increasingly invested in Buckeye golf. Nicklaus said Tuesday he was impressed with the men’s team’s performance at the 2024 NCAA Tournament.

“I am pleased to see the program (succeed), and Coach (Jay) Moseley’s done a nice job with it,” Nicklaus said. “And the golf course – they got a good golf course to play on and practice on. They’ve got a good golf course to develop a golf game.”

Did Nicklaus pat himself on the back with that one?

I think he did.

Ah, well.

He’s the GOAT. He does what he wants.

 PARTY AT THE SHOE? Soon after Nicklaus’ press conference concluded, the Golden Bear took the Memorial Tournament’s 73 professionals and 81 amateurs to Ohio Stadium for THE Workday Pro-Am party at Ohio Stadium. PGA Tour star Rory McIlroy – an Irish golfer with 26 PGA Tour wins and four majors – shared some photos from the event to his social media on Tuesday.

According to consensus lines from The Action Network, McIlroy has the second-best odds to win the Memorial Tournament behind Scottie Scheffler (+360) at +800. McIlroy has never won the event. On Tuesday, Jack Nicklaus said he needs to before his career ends.

“I think it’s a pretty good tournament to win to fill out a resume,” Nicklaus said. “I don’t think there’s any question about that. … Tiger (Woods) won five times here. I mean, a tournament’s resume is not too bad if Tiger’s winning it five times.”

 SONG OF THE DAY. “The Bare Necessities” - The Jungle Book.

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