Welcome to the Skull Session.
Jeremiah Smith, Patrick Gurd and Josh Fryar are Ohio State's DUDES of the Week.
More Dudes of the week
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) July 29, 2024
@Jermiah_Smith1 @gurd45 @joshfryar2 pic.twitter.com/aeS502ZTL9
Have a good Wednesday.
“HE SAID SOMETHING ABOUT BEATING MICHIGAN.” Last week, I named Curt Cignetti as the head coach I wanted to hear from the most at Big Ten Media Days. However, Ryan Day, Emeka Egbuka, Jack Sawyer and Denzel Burke’s press conferences, breakout sessions and other media appearances were still the main source of Big Ten Media Days #content in the Skull Session.
Until now.
When Indiana introduced Cignetti as its next football head coach during a men’s basketball game in December, he fired shots at Purdue, Michigan and Ohio State.
“I don’t plan on taking a back seat to anybody,” Cignetti said. “Purdue sucks – but so does Michigan and Ohio State.”
"Purdue sucks so does Michigan and Ohio State"
— PFF College (@PFF_College) December 2, 2023
Welcome to the Big Ten, Curt Cignetti
pic.twitter.com/EdgaJilNy7
When asked to explain those comments at Big Ten Media Days on Thursday, Cignetti said he wanted to assure Indiana fans like a former Ohio State head coach once assured Buckeye Nation that his team could beat the Michigan Wolverines.
“We are in the entertainment business,” Cignetti told Nathan Baird of the Indianapolis Star last week. “It’s coaching, but it’s entertainment. I remember Jim Tressel, when he went to Ohio State, he said something about beating Michigan. … I just ramped that up a little bit I guess. You’ve got 17,000 people in the basketball arena and I’ve got to get them excited. … The first part was easy, but why stop there and set the bar at 6-6? We’re going after these two. We want to be the best.”
Cignetti referenced Tressel’s 2001 guarantee, also made at a basketball game, that Ohio State’s football team would make its fans “proud in the classroom, in the community and most especially "in 310 days in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on the football field." Before Tressel’s speech, the Wolverines had won 12 of the previous 16 games against the Buckeyes. After Tressel’s speech, Ohio State won The Game in 2001 –and 16 of the next 18 matchups after that.
Now, all of that said, while I appreciate Cignetti harkening back to Tressel’s legendary comments, Indiana will not beat Ohio State in Columbus on Nov. 23. The Hoosiers will battle for all four quarters – I have no doubt about that – but the Buckeyes win streak over them will improve from 28 to 29. I also have no doubt about that.
“OHIO STATE IS LOOKING GOOD.” The Ohio State-Michigan rivalry has gone international.
This summer, former Ohio State wrestler Kyle Snyder and former Michigan wrestler Adam Coon will represent the United States in the Paris Olympic Games. According to Chase Goodbread of Tuscaloosa News, Snyder and Coon will chirp back and forth about their alma maters while the Buckeye and Wolverine prepare for their Olympic competition to begin on Aug. 5.
“It’s pretty cordial between us. There’s not really too much trash-talking,” Coon told Goodbread. “Maybe a couple of jabs here and there, but nothing that gets too heated.”
Snyder disagreed.
“It has been a tough couple of years for Ohio State, but everybody knows what’s gonna happen the next 10 years because Michigan lost all their players and their coaches,” Snyder said with a laugh. “It’s going to be rough. Ohio State is looking good.”
“Like I said, a couple of jabs,” Coon continued.
Kyle Snyder is heading to the @Olympics!
— Big Ten Wrestling (@B1GWrestling) June 20, 2024
Will the @wrestlingbucks star take home another ?#B1GWrestling x @Snyder_man45 pic.twitter.com/t5TCkUlZbV
The Paris Games will mark Snyder’s third Olympics and Coon’s first. Though the wrestlers will compete in different disciplines in France – Snyder in the 97kg freestyle and Coon in the 130kg Greco-Roman – they once faced off on the same mat in college.
In February 2018, Coon defeated Snyder, 3-1, in Ohio State and Michigan’s regular-season dual, handing the Buckeye wrestler his first loss in three years. Weeks later at the Big Ten Championships and NCAA Championships, Snyder beat Coon 4-2 for his third consecutive conference title and 3-2 for his third consecutive national title.
In other words, he returned the favor.
Snyder (and all of us) hope the Ohio State football team can do the same when the Buckeyes and Wolverines face off on Nov. 30 in Columbus.
ONE OF THE GOOD ONES. Marvin Harrison Jr. is a great dude.
I wrote that line last week when former Ohio State and current Syracuse quarterback Kyle McCord shared details of his conversation with Harrison following the viral Hard Knocks video, in which Harrison declined to complain about one of McCord’s bad throws to New York Giants coaches and scouts.
After reading a recent article from Doug Haller of The Athletic, I’ll have to write that line a second time, as Haller explained how Harrison came to meet Devin Fitzgerald, the son of Arizona Cardinals legend and Pro Football Hall of Famer Larry Fitzgerald.
A couple of months ago, Devin Fitzgerald was about to leave Texas Roadhouse when he spotted a familiar face inside the Tempe restaurant. It was Marvin Harrison Jr.
The Arizona Cardinals had selected Harrison with the fourth pick of April’s NFL Draft, injecting immediate excitement into the Valley of the Sun. The Cardinals won only four games last season, but they showed promising signs under first-year coach Jonathan Gannon. A receiver such as Harrison was exactly what they needed.
Devin, 16, wanted to talk with Harrison, but Harrison looked like he was dining with his mother. Devin left the restaurant and waited. He thought of a couple of questions and typed them into his phone. He had much in common with Harrison. Like the former Ohio State star, Devin, 6-foot-2 and 185 pounds, also was a receiver. Devin had started getting college attention after a strong finish to his sophomore season at Brophy College Preparatory in Phoenix. He was listed as a three-star prospect by 247 Sports with scholarship offers from schools including Arizona, Washington State and Pittsburgh. Brophy coach Jason Jewell considered Devin among the program’s most improved players, growing in size and skill.
But Devin and Harrison were also linked in a more complicated way. Devin is following in the footsteps of his father, Larry Fitzgerald, who played 17 seasons with the Cardinals, finishing as one of the game’s great receivers, a future Hall of Famer. Harrison is doing the same, following Marvin Harrison Sr., who played 13 seasons for the Indianapolis Colts, earning Pro Football Hall of Fame induction in 2016.
After 15 minutes, Harrison walked out of the steakhouse. Devin approached and introduced himself, explaining that he was Larry Fitzgerald’s son.
“I was wondering if I could just talk to you for a second?” he said.
“Yeah, for sure,” Harrison said, according to Devin. “I haven’t met your dad yet, but I’m looking forward to it.”
The two sat on a bench outside the restaurant, located a mile from the Cardinals practice facility. Devin expected to spend maybe five minutes with the Cardinals rookie. Instead, they talked for 45.
Devin asked Harrison when Harrison started to feel like his own person, and not just Marvin Harrison’s son. Harrison agreed that both their fathers had made a great impact in football and that establishing an identity inside the game had been difficult. Harrison said it wasn’t until his final college season that he felt completely free from his father’s shadow. Devin asked Harrison how he dealt with the pressure of being a Hall of Famer’s son. Harrison told him “you just kind of use it in your own way.” He said he used it as fuel, which pleased Devin because that is what he tried to do at Brophy Prep.
By the time the two finished, it was after 9 p.m., and the Texas Roadhouse parking lot was nearly empty. Devin could not believe how easy it had been to talk with Harrison and how generous he had been with his time. He admired Harrison. He wanted to follow a similar path. He couldn’t wait to tell his dad.
Marvin Harrison Jr. is a great dude.
He is one of the good ones.
"HE'S NEXT UP." Some have called Jeremiah Smith the next Marvin Harrison Jr. at Ohio State. If the No. 1 overall prospect in the 2024 class wants to live up to those massive expectations, he’ll need a mentor to show him what it takes to transition from high school standout to college star.
Enter Harrison’s teammate of three years, Emeka Egbuka.
“I can’t speak for Jeremiah, but I know when Chris (Olave), Garrett (Wilson) and Jaxon (Smith-Njigba) would lift me up, that gave me tremendous confidence,” Egbuka said at Big Ten Media Days last week. “Their ability to uplift me did more than they even knew at the time.”
Egubka wants to complete a similar task for Smith, who has been the talk of Columbus since he arrived on Ohio State’s campus in January.
College is hard,” Egbuka said. “You go through times where you have doubts and you’re like, ‘Am I cut out for this? Can I do this?’ But when you receive that confidence from someone you know is not lying to you and someone you put in the work with, it’s really encouraging. We try to do that for the younger guys. We let them know they’re in the right spot and that they’re doing everything the right way. They just have to continue at it.”
Denzel Burke has adopted a different approach in his mentorship of Smith: trash-talking. While Burke’s approach may not be as positive as Egbuka’s, the heart behind both are the same.
“We talk the most trash,” Burke said of Ohio State’s secondary. “We want to get in your head. We want to get under your skin. But, man, it’s just love. We want to get you better.”
After seeing how Smith has responded to BIA’s chirps, the senior cornerback believes Smith is bound to have an excellent career at Ohio State.
“He’s like that. He’s next up,” Burke said. “I’m really excited to see his ceiling the next few years and what he’ll bring to the table for our team this year, too. He has a little bit of Marv in him, and he’s only a freshman now, so imagine what he’ll be like in his third year. It’s gonna be nuts.”
SONG OF THE DAY. "Everywhere, Everything" - Noah Kahan, Gracie Abrams.
CUT TO THE CHASE. Princess Leia bikini costume from set of "Star Wars" movie sells at auction for $175K... The flickering glow of summer’s fireflies: too important to lose, too small to notice them gone... Should you stretch before exercise? After? Never? Here’s what to know... Snoop Dogg's winning NBC Olympics commentary is pure gold... The remarkable reinvention of Chase Budinger.
