\n Welcome to the Skull Session. <\/p>\n
\n\tWork week (almost) done.\n<\/p>\n
\n\t\tDaily deposits pic.twitter.com\/JyKe2GANb1<\/a>\n\t<\/p>\n \t\u2014 Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) June 18, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n \n\tHave a good Friday.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u201cWE\u2019VE GOT TO BE REALLY GOOD AT THAT.\u201d To navigate Ohio State\u2019s brutal 2026 schedule, Ryan Day knows the Buckeyes need to be \u201creally good\u201d in the fourth quarter.\n<\/p>\n \n\tThose are the words Day chose when discussing the topic with ESPN\u2019s Adam Rittenberg<\/a>, who interviewed the head coach and several of his players during Ohio State\u2019s 7-on-7 tournament on Wednesday.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to win games in the fourth quarter this season,\u201d Day said. \u201cLook at the schedule that we have. We\u2019ve got to be really good at that.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\t2025 captain and winter Iron Buckeye Brandon Inniss agreed. He said the Buckeyes fell short in that area last season, especially in the team\u2019s losses to Indiana and Miami.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe lost two games at the end of the year because of the fourth quarter,\u201d Inniss said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t finish. That was our fault. We could have won that Miami game. We could have won the Indiana game.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\tThose painful losses have fueled more than just Inniss. Payton Pierce said the defeats are \u201call that we\u2019re thinking about\u201d during offseason workouts with strength coach Mick Marotti. That\u2019s made the players edgy (as Day would describe them), and it\u2019s led to some fights, too, Pierce said.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThere\u2019ll be some confrontations, there\u2019ll be some little bit of yelling, a little bit of guys getting after one another, and it\u2019s so good for us, because you have to play in the chaos in the fourth quarter, and you\u2019ve got to have mature guys who are at their very best,\u201d Pierce said. \u201cI think guys are going to be ready this season to go dominate in the fourth quarter.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\tIf Ohio State wants to have success in the final 15 minutes, Julian Sayin will need to be the best version of himself. His performances in the Big Ten Championship Game and Cotton Bowl weren\u2019t the only reasons the Buckeyes lost to Indiana and Miami, but he wasn\u2019t close to the player who earned an invitation to New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony, and that mattered.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe didn\u2019t start the way we wanted to, obviously, but we still had an opportunity in the fourth quarter, and I feel like we just didn\u2019t play our best,\u201d Sayin said. \u201cWe all came to Ohio State to be in big-time matchups and be in games that matter, fourth-quarter games, two-minute drills. So we\u2019re all really excited about it, and we\u2019ve just been building toward that this offseason.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\tThat\u2019s the good stuff.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \n\tOhio State\u2019s players still feel those losses. They haven\u2019t moved on from them, and they don\u2019t want to. A team with national championship aspirations shouldn\u2019t be comfortable after falling short in the biggest moments.\n<\/p>\n \n\tThe Buckeyes know their 2026 schedule will present plenty more fourth-quarter tests. If the lessons from Indiana and Miami have truly stuck, if the edge Day, Pierce and Inniss describe is real, and if Sayin plays like the quarterback everyone expects him to be, Ohio State should be better equipped to handle them when they arrive.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0THEY DON\u2019T KNOW BO. Also from ESPN, Eli Lederman and Max Olson<\/a> ranked college football\u2019s top 10 running backs entering 2026. Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly?), Bo Jackson did not make the cut.\n<\/p>\n \n\tComing off a season with 1,090 rushing yards and six touchdowns, Jackson appeared in the Others Receiving Votes tier behind Georgia\u2019s Nate Frazier, Rutgers\u2019 Antwan Raymond and\u2026 Michigan\u2019s Jordan Marshall\u2026 balright<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n \n\tLederman and Olson\u2019s top 10 is, in order: Kewan Lacy (Ole Miss), Jadan Baugh (Florida), Ahmad Hardy (Missouri), Mark Fletcher Jr. (Miami), Isaac Brown (Louisville), Hollywood Smothers (Texas), Raleek Brown (Texas), Justice Haynes (Georgia Tech), LJ Martin (BYU), Caleb Hawkins (Oklahoma State) and Nate Shepphard (Duke), with the latter two tying for 10th.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n\tFirst and foremost, Jackson is indubitably a top-10 running back in the sport, and this is a miss from the Worldwide Leader.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n\tSecond, I have no concerns about Jackson entering the 2026 season. I do, however, have questions about his backups. Who will emerge as Ohio State\u2019s RB2 this fall? It was Isaiah West late last season, but the Buckeyes now have Florida transfer Ja\u2019Kobi Jackson and potential freshman phenom Legend Bey to think about.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n\tWe\u2019ll likely see a committee in the season opener against Ball State, but it will be interesting to see who Ryan Day and Carlos Locklyn lean on when the Buckeyes travel to Austin for a top-tier showdown with Texas on Sept. 12.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0I\u2019M #NOTICING\u2026 Ohio State has named Dudes of the Week twice this summer \u2014 and Luke Montgomery has been featured both times.\n<\/p>\n \n\tThe veteran Ohio State offensive lineman earned his second honor this week alongside Alabama transfer defensive end Qua Russaw, walk-on defensive back Ryan Rudzinski and walk-on offensive lineman Jaxon Powell.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\tDudes of the Week<\/p>\n @lukeMonty8<\/a> \t\u2014 Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) June 18, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n \n\tMontgomery started all 14 of Ohio State\u2019s games in 2025, logging 870 snaps and earning a 73.7 overall grade from Pro Football Focus. He went on to earn second-team All-Big Ten honors after the season, while the American Football Coaches Association named him a second-team All-American.\n<\/p>\n \n\tThe 6-foot-5, 312-pound lineman looks poised to start at left guard again as a senior. He and Carson Hinzman figure to anchor the interior of an offensive line that will likely feature some combination of Austin Siereveld, Phillip Daniels and Ian Moore rounding out the starting five, though Joshua Padilla and Gabe VanSickle could also push for the right guard spot as they did late last season.\n<\/p>\n \n\tEither way, Montgomery projects as one of Ohio State\u2019s top players up front. He\u2019s already earned preseason All-Big Ten and All-American recognition<\/a> from Phil Steele and will be in position to add to that list if he and the Buckeyes meet expectations this fall.\n<\/p>\n \n\tMontgomery\u2019s work in the weight room is a strong indicator he\u2019s trending toward that potential in 2026, when he\u2019ll face a loaded slate of defensive fronts from Texas, Iowa, Indiana, USC, Oregon and that Team Up North.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0OLYMPIC VILLAGE. Ohio State is PWHLU.\n<\/p>\n \n\tSix Ohio State women’s hockey players were selected in the 2026 PWHL Draft on Wednesday, including two first-round picks.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\tAnother successful PWHL Draft for the Buckeyes #GoBucks<\/a> | #DevelopedHere<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/Sj731gD6pF<\/a>\n\t<\/p>\n \t\u2014 Ohio State Women’s Hockey (@OhioStateWHKY) June 18, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n \n\tDefenseman and captain Emma Peschel was the first Buckeye off the board, going No. 7 overall to the New York Sirens. A first-team All-WCHA selection last season, Peschel recorded 10 goals and 29 assists while anchoring Ohio State’s blue line.\n<\/p>\n \n\tFellow defenseman Sara Swiderski followed shortly after at No. 9 overall to the Minnesota Frost. The breakout senior totaled eight goals and 19 assists in 2025-26, nearly matching the 31 points she combined for across her freshman, sophomore and junior seasons.\n<\/p>\n \n\tGoaltender Andrea Braendli and forward Sloane Mathews weren’t far behind, selected at Nos. 15 and 16 overall by Detroit and San Jose, respectively. Both franchises are set to begin play as PWHL expansion teams in 2026-27 and have yet to unveil nicknames.\n<\/p>\n \n\tBrooke Disher became Ohio State’s fifth draft pick when the Toronto Sceptres selected her No. 32 overall in the third round, while Hailey MacLeod rounded out the Buckeyes\u2019\u00a0half-dozen selections at No. 48 overall to the Montreal Victoire.\n<\/p>\n \n\tOhio State had 22 players on PWHL rosters in 2025-26, including 21 coached by two-time national champion head coach Nadine Muzerall.\n<\/p>\n \n\tIs that good?\n<\/p>\n \n\tI think that\u2019s good.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0SONG OF THE DAY.\u00a0“Brain Stew\/Jaded” – Green Day.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0CUT TO THE CHASE.\u00a0Brazilian soccer fans at the World Cup heed warning not to dress Rocky statue in team gear<\/a>…\u00a0An ancient oak tree said to have sheltered legendary Robin Hood has died<\/a>…\u00a0TSA isses warning as foreign World Cup fans fall in love with American condiment<\/a>…\u00a0“Pink Planet” is surrounded by salty clouds, researchers using Webb telescope find<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n
@rudzinski_ryan<\/a>
@QuaRussaw<\/a>
@JaxonPo97150467<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/8N9h7haIZl<\/a>\n\t<\/p>\n