Skull Session: Matt Rhule Calls Ohio State an “Unbelievable Team” and Georgia Shows Jim Knowles How to Make the Buckeye Defense Less Antiquated

By Chase Brown on October 22, 2024 at 5:00 am
Jim Knowles
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Welcome to the Skull Session.

Ryan Day is one of the more brilliant offensive minds in college football. But as Ohio State searches for answers on the other side of the ball, the head coach has directed most of his attention to the defense.

We'll see how that works out for the Buckeyes.

Have a good Tuesday.

 THE PATH MOVING FORWARD. Before we turn our attention to Ohio State’s matchup with Nebraska this weekend, I want to look back at Ohio State’s loss to Oregon for the last time – well, at least I think it will be the last time.

On his radio show last week, Ryan Day shared how the Buckeyes responded to their one-point loss to the Ducks and how he kept the team from feeling “too down” in the week that followed.

“It’s OK to get too down early on,” Day said. “One thing about being in a bye week is, like I said (Monday), we’re not gonna come out there and move on. I know the sun came up, but I just wish we wouldn’t have lost that game. It hurts. And it’s gonna hurt. That’s the way it goes. But at some point, you’ve gotta move on. We did that (Wednesday). We came out, and we said, ‘OK, here’s the plan moving forward. Here’s the path moving forward. That is what we have out in front of us.’”

In regard to the schedule, here’s what’s out in front of the Buckeyes for the rest of the regular season: Nebraska, Penn State (in State College), Purdue, Northwestern (in Chicago), Indiana and Michigan. Each of those teams – but especially Penn State, Indiana and Michigan – deserve Ohio State’s undivided attention and will require the Buckeyes to “move on” from their loss to the Ducks. However, that doesn’t mean the coaches and players will forget about it any time soon.

“That game is not gonna be something we reference a ton, but it’s gonna stay in the back of our mind. We understand that if we don’t do the things we talked about (win the turnover battle and limit explosive plays), this is the result,” Day said. “That’s everybody in the building. It’s a combination of those things. I think having a bye week allows you to kind of chew on it and work on it and try out some of those issues more than if you didn’t have a bye week.”

Ohio State practiced a handful of times last week. Those sessions allowed the Buckeyes to direct their negative emotions toward positive change.

“The guys have been great. Their attitude, they’re edgy. We’re all edgy. The coaches are edgy. That’s the way it should be. It’s just you get that awful taste in your mouth. It’s just gonna be like that all the time, ” Day said. “By the way, it’s not like – this is not a wakeup call at all. Guys have been going after it. We’ve been playing hard. We’ve been doing those things.”

Ohio State played hard against Oregon. But it didn’t win the turnover battle, it didn’t win the rushing battle, and it didn’t limit explosive plays. Had the Buckeyes won in any of those three areas, perhaps the team would still be undefeated and ranked No. 1 in America.

“We gotta find a way to win the game in the fourth quarter,” Day said. “We gotta take care of the football. We gotta win the rushing yards. We gotta hold them to fewer (explosive) plays than we did. Now, those aren’t the only areas. We’ve got other things we gotta clean up as well. And winning the game in the fourth quarter is what it’s gonna come down to in some of these bigger games.”

 TAKE NOTES, JIM. OK, I know I said I would mention Ohio State’s loss to Oregon one more time. However, after I completed the first section, I realized I had another item to address from the Buckeyes’ defeat in Eugene, so I think this will be the last time I mention it. (I think!)

Last week, former Alabama head coach Nick Saban made headlines for his comments about Ohio State’s defense. According to Saban, who knows a thing or two because he’s seen a thing or two, the Buckeyes’ scheme was “antiquated” against the Ducks.

“They didn’t affect the quarterback in any way. … They didn’t even pressure,” Saban said. “I mean, there was just four guys (on the) rush, which, you know, that’s kind of an antiquated way to play defense. And I’m not being critical of somebody’s philosophy at Ohio State, but there’s so much four-man simulated pressure – (but you’re) still able to play the coverages you play (when you) drop different people, rush somebody that’s not supposed to be dropping, drop somebody that’s supposed to be rushing. These things are ways to get pressure without giving up anything in coverage. And I think in this day and age of football, you’ve got to go down that road a little bit, or you’re gonna be behind the 8-ball.”

I hope Jim Knowles heard those last few sentences.

I also hope Jim Knowles watched Texas-Georgia on Saturday.

Former Skull Session writer Kevin Harrish said it best, “God, I’ve seen what you’ve done for others…”

Man, oh, man. Could you imagine a disguised six-man blitz that features JT Tuimoloau, Tyleik Williams, Jack Sawyer, Cody Simon, Sonny Styles and either Caleb Downs or Lathan Ransom? 

One of those dudes would get home. 

They’d have to!

 “REALLY OUTSTANDING FOOTBALL TEAM.” OK. OK. Now, let’s talk Nebraska.

On Monday, Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule held a press conference to discuss his team’s blowout loss to Indiana and how the Cornhuskers will prepare for their road game against Ohio State this weekend. 

While Rhule spent more time on the former than the latter – for obvious reasons – the second-year coach still made a few comments about Ohio State in which he called the Buckeyes an “unbelievable team” that Nebraska needs to challenge on Saturday. If it doesn’t, Rhule’s team will “get our face beat in,” he said.

On Nebraska’s mindset entering the Ohio State game

“We have a heck of a challenge ahead of this week. If you go out there against Ohio State and you don’t challenge them and you just want to bail and play off-coverage and, you know, hope that you don’t get beat, you’re gonna get run off the field by those guys. You got to go out there and compete. If a team beats you because they’re better, they beat you because they’re better. But we’ve got to go challenge people. We weren’t that way on Saturday (against) Indiana to many degrees, so we have to be better.”

On his desire for Nebraska to challenge Ohio State

“Indiana came out and challenged us. I don’t know how well we challenged them. I’m taking that personally. Now you’re facing the best team in the country, the best roster in the country — whatever they are, No. 4? Unbelievable team. If we spend the whole game playing Ohio State looking at the scoreboard hoping to win, we’ll get our face beat in. If we go out there and challenge them — because we all think we’re good football players and we want to play in the NFL, and their players are gonna play in the NFL, so if you’re an NFL player and I’m an NFL player, then I should compete with you — if we go out there and complete, we’ll see what happens.”

On how revenue sharing could impact Ohio State-Nebraska in the future

“I want to first give credit to Ryan Day in that those guys are at Ohio State because Ohio State wins, and players want to go to a winner. While there is a NIL component to everybody, Ryan has won, Urban (Meyer) won, Jim Tressel won. Ohio State has won a ton, so kids want to go be a part of one of the best programs in the country. (They’ve had) the best receiving corps over the last however many years and first-round quarterbacks. But I don’t know if we know how revenue sharing is gonna work yet. There’s still no manual that’s been handed out. … But to me, Ohio State’s roster is not about NIL. It’s about guys saying, ‘Hey, I want to go play at a place that competes for championships.’ For us to get to that point, we’ve got to win enough to justify players taking a chance on us until we’re at the top of the mountain and everyone wants to come. So, you can’t have many 56-7 games. You’ve got to go compete at a high level. But we’ll get there.”

On what stands out about Ohio State’s offense

“Their run game. It’s Chip Kelly, right? He’s gonna find a way to run the ball. They can run the ball any which way. They have an elite offensive line and defensive line. They have elite guys up front. But they’re not spread tempo anymore. They have a quarterback run game. They’ve got two great tailbacks. Their tailbacks are special. They create all different kinds of angles. They’re gonna run a lot of different run schemes. They’ll play with two tight ends. And then they’ve got outstanding receivers where if you play one-on-one they’ll go them. They’ve got great, great players. They start with the run game to create one-on-ones to throw the ball. Then they have the QB run game, which is a great equalizer. Really outstanding football team.”

I like Matt Rhule…

I think Ohio State will beat his team’s face in on Saturday…

But I like Matt Rhule!

 HM, THAT’S INTERESTING! I’m gonna leave this here…

See you tomorrow.

 SONG OF THE DAY. “Sailor’s Song” - Gigi Perez.

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