Skull Session: Ryan Day Thinks “There’s a Great Energy Around This Team,” Julian Sayin is “Ready to Develop” at Ohio State and Air Noland Donates Backpacks and School Supplies to Kids in Atlanta

By Chase Brown on July 30, 2024 at 5:00 am
Ryan Day
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Welcome to the Skull Session.

The time has (almost) come.

Now, we wait.

Have a good Tuesday.

 “THEY KNOW WHAT THEY WANT.” Ohio State’s mission is clear: beat Michigan, win a Big Ten title and win a College Football Playoff national championship. With 48 hours to go until the Buckeyes start preseason camp, head coach Ryan Day believes his team has what it takes to complete said mission.

“There’s a great energy around this team,” Day said at Big Ten Media Days. “They know what they want. There’s an urgency. There’s a purpose. They’ve come together. You can see it.”

While Ohio State’s 2024 schedule has at least three tough opponents – Oregon on the road, Penn State on the road and Michigan at home – the team’s toughest opponent could be... itself? 

Even with those three regular-season contests, a (potential) Big Ten Championship Game appearance and a (potential) College Football Playoff run, I think the Buckeyes are at the greatest risk of losing to the Buckeyes.

And I think, in his heart of hearts, Day believes that, too.

“We don’t want to create distractions for this team. We want to continue to focus on what matters,” he said last week.

What matters?

The mission.

And that mission starts on Thursday.

“We have to earn all we get next year. Nothing will be given to us,” Day said. “That’s gonna start on Aug. 1 from the transition from the summer to the preseason. Here we go.”

And hereeee weeeeeeee go.

 “I’M READY TO DEVELOP.” Two weeks ago, Adam King of 10TV attended a NIL event at Ohio Stadium and interviewed Will Howard, Jeremiah Smith and Julian Sayin.

In a past Skull Session, I wrote about Will Howard’s comments that Ohio State is “tired of hearing how talented we are” and Jeremiah Smith’s remarks that all he wants to do is “win games and win the national championship.” But in this here Skull Session, it’s time to discuss what Julian Sayin shared with King.

The No. 1 quarterback and No. 6 overall prospect in the 2024 class, Sayin could have been an immediate starter at most FBS programs across America. Instead, he committed to Nick Saban and Alabama and later transferred to Ohio State after Saban retired in January. As he approaches his first season with the Buckeyes, Sayin described what he wants to accomplish as a freshman in Columbus.

“I’m ready to develop and learn from Coach Day, a great quarterback whisperer,” Sayin told King. “I’m ready to be a part of the group and learn from the coaches, building confidence out there. We go against the best defense in the country every day in practice, so it’s good to build your confidence when you’re able to make plays on them.”

Sayin will be one of five scholarship quarterbacks on Ohio State’s roster this fall, along with Howard, Devin Brown, Lincoln Kienholz and Air Noland. Given the rare circumstances of the room – especially in college football’s transfer portal and name, image and likeness era –Day said last week that the Buckeyes will “roll reps” through the first four practices of preseason camp. Depending on how Sayin performs in those sessions, he could position himself behind Howard and Brown in the team’s quarterback competition.

“Once we get done with that fourth practice, then we’ll kind of stop with (rolling reps),” Day said. “But it allows us to get almost double the amount of reps in a less amount of time. The more reps we can get for all five of those quarterbacks, we’re gonna do it. But team work will probably be a (two-quarterback) mentality. But then after those first four practices, we’ll take that Monday off, and then we’ll get back on one field and kind of go from there. At that point, we’ll probably be a little bit more deliberate about how we parse out the reps.”

Time to see what the California kid is made of.

 YOU LOVE TO SEE IT. Since I mentioned Sayin in the Skull Session, I’ll also mention Noland – however, it won’t be for his on-field expectations or performance. No, in this section, I must share what Noland did off the field on Sunday, as Phillip Dukes of On3 revealed that Noland donated 250 backpacks and “a ton of school supplies” to kids on the south side of Atlanta.

Air Noland... What a man, what a man, what a man, what a mighty good man.

 DILLON DINGLER. Former Ohio State baseball star Dillon Dingler made his MLB debut on Monday. The Massillon, Ohio, native started at catcher for the Detroit Tigers in their AL Central showdown with the Cleveland Guardians, recording one hit, one RBI and one walk in four plate appearances.

The No. 38 overall pick in the 2020 MLB draft, Dingler has spent the past three-and-a-half seasons in the minors. Before he arrived in Detroit, Dingler appeared in 71 games for the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens this summer and recorded a .308/.379/.559 slash with 18 doubles, 17 home runs, 52 RBIs and 30 walks.

In three seasons at Ohio State, Dingler recorded a .270/.360/.401 slash with 17 doubles, three triples, seven home runs, 36 RBIs and 46 walks. As a sophomore in 2019, he earned second-team All-Big Ten and Big Ten All-Tournament Team honors.

As of Tuesday, Dingler is one of three active Buckeyes in the MLB, along with outfielder Dominic Canzone (Seattle Mariners) and pitcher Ryan Feltner (Colorado Rockies). The St. Louis Cardinals also called up pitcher Jacob Bosiokovic last month but sent him back down to Triple-A after a couple of weeks.

 SONG OF THE DAY. "Here We Go" - NSYNC.

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