Welcome to the Skull Session.
Cardale Jones narrated the Oregon Game Trailer?!
Oh, that's chef's kiss.
2014 national champion Cardale Jones narrates Ohio States Oregon Game Trailer
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) October 10, 2024
You want to see greatness? You want to leave a legacy? It's time to let it all go ... The past has paved the road of greatness in the spirit of scarlet and gray.
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Have a good Friday.
“SO MUCH LOVE FOR OHIO STATE.” This Skull Session will start with an appreciation post for Lathan Ransom.
In almost five years at Ohio State, Ransom has suffered two significant injuries, including a broken leg in the 2022 Rose Bowl and a Lisfranc injury in the 2023 Wisconsin game. Because he’s had football taken him from twice, Ransom said he has had a great appreciation for the game. This season, he’s helped his teammates have the same appreciation whenever they take the field.
“That’s one thing I try to emphasize to all the young dudes and everybody on the team. I appreciate every time I’m on the field, every time I’m in a meeting, every time I’m in practice and workouts,” Ransom said on The Ryan Day Radio Show. “I’ve had it taken from me twice, and man, (I have) so much love for Ohio State, so much love for the team, the culture. Going into this game, I got emotional just because I’ve had it taken away. Every game, I get really emotional because I appreciate everything about this school and everything about this game so much.”
I can’t wait to see Ransom fly around on Saturday!
“WE’RE GONNA WORK A LITTLE HARDER.” This week, Bruce Feldman of The Athletic wrote a feature on Jeremiah Smith. Rather than write a 2,000-word article on coaches and scouts gushing over Smith’s one-handed catches and impressive statistics, Feldman used a different approach to characterize the Ohio State freshman: he told the story of when Smith was cut from his youth football team.
Chris Smith was sitting in the park with some of his buddies when his 7-year-old boy ran up to him crying.
“What happened?” Smith asked his son, J.J. “Why are you crying?”
It was a typically hot, steamy South Florida summer day in 2013. With tears streaming down his face, Jeremiah (J.J.) Smith, who had spent the week in youth tackle football tryouts, said he got cut from his team, the Miami Gardens Vikings.
The news surprised Chris. In kindergarten, when the school had its field day, J.J. would win all the ribbons. Other little kids would come up to Chris after they found out he was J.J.’s dad to ask: How did he get so fast? This time, Chris was the curious one. He walked over to the coaches to see what happened. Turns out, the football coach knew Chris and told him he didn’t realize J.J. was his son. He said J.J. should come back to the team. He wouldn’t cut him.
Chris Smith told the coach not to worry about it: “It’s OK. We’re good. He doesn’t have to play.”
Chris knew his son was good enough to play on that team and could feel him hurting, but he didn’t want J.J. to get a spot like that. On the 20-minute ride home in his gray Impala, Smith wanted to send a different message to J.J., who was still sobbing. He comforted his son and told him it wasn’t his fault.
“We’re gonna work a little harder,” Chris told him, “and you ain’t gonna have to worry about that again.”
…
“Whatever God did that day, I think was meant to happen,” Chris Smith said. “Just him hearing that he got cut did something to him.”
The younger Smith said from that day on, he was determined that he would never be outworked.
“That just motivated to take everything that I do very seriously,” J.J. Smith said. “I still really remember that moment of the hurt feelings of being a 7-year-old kid that just wanted to play football and didn’t get the chance to that year, so I don’t take anything for granted anymore.
“That moment made me tougher. I think about that moment each and every day. It’s something that I keep in my mind while I’m playing, or if I ever feel like I’m slacking off, I remember that moment and that feeling.”
So, Jeremiah Smith is the next Michael Jordan.
Got it.
In all seriousness (though I am kind of serious about the Jordan comparison – just kind of!), Smith said he became the wide receiver he is now because of that moment 11 years ago. So, really, Ohio State can thank the 7U Miami Garden Vikings coaching staff for Smith, an 18-year-old freshman phenom who has collected 23 receptions, 453 yards and seven total touchdowns in five games for the Buckeyes.
No, that offers the coaches far too much credit.
Instead, it’s Smith who deserves credit for all the hard work he put in over the past decade – the work that had him running routes “like an 11-year NFL vet” at 11 years old, as DeMarcus Van Dyke told Feldman; the work that led him to bench 355 pounds, squat 530 pounds, broad jump 10 feet, 11 inches, vertical jump 36 inches and clock a max speed of 23.39 miles per hour this past summer; and the work that has allowed him to produce must-see viral moments each week this season.
I hope to see another viral moment – or just a handful of great moments – from Smith on Saturday in Eugene. The Buckeyes will need them against a talented Oregon secondary and a talented Ducks defense.
“THE STUTTER DOESN’T STOP ME.” You know a lot about Davison Igbinosun — that he’s an Ohio State cornerback, an All-Big Ten honoree, a leader and a trash talker. But you may not know that Igbinosun has a stutter, and because of that, you may not know that Igbinosun has never let that stop him from being himself.
“The stutter doesn’t stop me,” Igbinosun told Whitney Harding of NBC4 this week. “I always feel the need to express myself.”
From NBC4 (with a video!):
Igbinosun said he has never had lessons on how to overcome his stutter; instead, he’s found tips and tricks that work for him.
“I try to use different words probably, like skip over it, I would say,” he said.
The thing is, sometimes he doesn’t have the luxury to take a breath, especially in the high-emotion atmosphere of a game.
“If I’m asking for the play call and I’m like, ‘What, what, what’s the play?’” he said, demonstrating an extreme amount of stutter and laughing. “It’s funny, though! If I stutter crazy or excessively, then I laugh.”Igbinosun does admit that having a stutter and being different hasn’t always been a laughing matter. Let’s face it: kids will be kids and sometimes can be mean.
“Of course, but that doesn’t stop me, though,” he said with a shrug. “I’ve always been a talker on the field. Like, being from New Jersey, I feel like I grew up talking on the playground, going against all the other guys. We just naturally talk trash to each other.”
Instead of the hyper-competitive and intense football environment making things harder for Igbinosun, he said that is where he finds clarity. He makes people listen to him with his play, and his cornerback position is where he finds peace.
“I feel like it’s away from everyone else,” he said. “You have to be good on an island by yourself. If I didn’t play as well, people would think of me differently or think of me as but I feel like because I play well on the field, they overlook it and accept me.”
That’s the message he wants to send to others, especially youngsters who may stumble: embrace who you are, all of you, and know you stand out in more ways than your stutter.
“Don’t let it stop you, don’t let anything stop you,” Igbinosun said. “It’s not going to be easy. I tell myself that all the time. I’m still growing up as a young man so I’m not all the way there yet. Just stay the course.”
Look at Igbinosun, man, so inspirational.
But seriously, he is inspirational!
“WE ALL JUST KNOW.” In the Thursday Skull Session, I discussed Will Howard’s “Team Up North” comments on The Triple Option podcast. This morning, I’ll return to The Triple Option well to look at Howard’s belief that Ohio State’s 2024 season is “national championship or bust” for the Buckeyes.
“I don’t think that conversation happens a lot, but I think we all just know,” Howard said when asked if Ohio State needs to win it all. “I think being at a place like Ohio State, I know that we say it’s natty or bust this year, but I feel like it’s really like that every year. Like, it’s one of those places where you got to win them all. It’s the standard. The expectations are so high. I knew that coming in.”
Howard said Ohio State’s veterans – Lathan Ransom, Jack Sawyer, Emeka Egbuka, JT Tuimoloau and TreVeyon Henderson – helped him understand the urgency the Buckeyes have this year. (Howard didn’t name other experienced Buckeyes, such as Denzel Burke, but given Burke’s “I ain’t come back for no BS” comment this offseason, I think the message extended past the five he mentioned.)
“I knew (winning a national championship) was the outlook on the season for us. I knew that’s why Lathan Ransom came back. I knew that’s why Jack, Emeka, JT and Tre came back. All of those guys came back for this reason and we all kind of bonded together in that,” Howard said. “We’re not here to lose any football games. We’re here to win them all.”
That’s quite a shot to call the week leading into a top-three showdown with Oregon, but Howard feels confident Ohio State’s “process” will lead the Buckeyes to have success each week no matter the strength of their opponent.
“We’re taking it as a week-to-week process, but in the back of our minds, we’ve drilled it into our heads. Our goals are big and we want to beat ‘The Team Up North,’ we want to win a Big Ten championship, we want to win a natty – and that’s it,” he said. “Anything else doesn’t really matter. That’s what we got in the back of our heads.”
A win over Oregon would be a significant step for Ohio State’s championship aspirations. We’ll preview that game one final time in the Gameday Skull Session on Saturday, so return to Eleven Warriors tomorrow morning as we prepare for the Ducks to get dumped.
SONG OF THE DAY. "We Will Rock You" - Queen.
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