Welcome to the Skull Session.
Ohio State men’s basketball is 3-0!
Another at home #GoBucks | #FightToTheEnd pic.twitter.com/7nsCk8oqcn
— Ohio State Hoops (@OhioStateHoops) November 12, 2025
Have a good Wednesday.
THE COMPUTERS! It’s Hump Day. You know what that means. For the second straight week, Ohio State is the unanimous No. 1 team in college football. The Buckeyes are ranked No. 1 in the CFP, AP Poll and Coaches Poll. They are also No. 1 in both the College Football Power Index and SP+.
College Football Power Index
RECORD
FPI
WIN OUT
WIN CONF
MAKE CFP
WIN CFP
Ohio State’s future opponents in the College Football Power Index: UCLA (68), Rutgers (60), Michigan (18)
SP+
RECORD
RATING
OFFENSE
DEFENSE
SPECIAL TEAMS
Ohio State’s future opponents in the SP+: UCLA (77), Rutgers (79), Michigan (18)
Matchup Predictor
DATE
LOCATION
PREDICTION
Movements from Week 11 to Week 12
- UCLA: 98.4% → 98.3%
- Rutgers: 97.2% → 96.8%
- Michigan: 79.6% → 79.3%
Ohio State’s game plan for the next three weeks seems simple to me: Take care of business the next two weeks, then avenge the fallen on Nov. 29.
Does that sound good to everyone?
I think that should sound good to everyone.
STOP STOP STOP. Ohio State’s streak of three straight weeks ranked No. 1 in stop rate is over, as Texas Tech took over the top spot in the metric.
FBS STOP RATE — BEFORE WEEK 12
GAMES*
STOP RATE
PTS/DRIVE
The Red Raiders and Buckeyes lead a new-look top five, which features Marshall Faulk went there San Diego State (80.6%), My mom is from there Toledo (77.9%) and They filmed High School Musical there Utah (77.3%).
The rest of the top 10 also experienced some shake-up, as Oregon now ranks No. 6 at 76.7%, followed by Indiana (76%), Texas (75.9%), Iowa (75.3%) and Oklahoma (73.9%).
ESPN’s Max Olson created stop rate to measure the percentage of a defense’s drives that end in punts, turnovers or a turnover on downs for all 136 FBS teams.
Given Ohio State’s current form, the Buckeyes’ next three opponents shouldn’t (keyword: shouldn’t, as all bets are off for Nov. 29 in Ann Arbor) pose a challenge. UCLA has the No. 103 total offense and No. 116 scoring offense in college football. Meanwhile, Rutgers ranks No. 41 and No. 57 in those categories, while Michigan ranks No. 51 and No. 68.
IN YOUR FEELINGS. ESPN’s Pamela Maldonado had one of the takes of all time in an article for the Worldwide Leader.
According to Maldonado, Julian Sayin has been too clean, too efficient and too good to win the Heisman this season. In order for him to take home the award, he needs to make the voters feel something, because right now, the quarterback who is completing 80.9% of his passes for 2,491 yards and 24 touchdowns has zero emotional imprint on the season.
Sayin’s path is tight, requiring a specific sequence that he has not shown yet. The gist is that Ohio State winning alone is not enough. If the Buckeyes beat UCLA, Rutgers, and even Michigan in the same 24-14, 38-14, 34-10 style they’ve done all year, that preserves their playoff seed but it doesn’t win the Heisman for Sayin.
Voters need to feel something and right now he has zero emotional imprint on the season. Sure, he’s efficient, clean and technically superior, but where’s the drama? Efficiency without drama is invisible in a Heisman race.
Sayin needs a defining snapshot, something that cuts through the noise. Right now, his whole resume reads like 24 passing touchdowns (none on the ground), 300 yards a game, zero chaos, no sweat. That’s solid pocket-passing but, for the Heisman, it’s vanilla. It’s beautiful in a coach’s office, or for NFL draft grades, but it’s not something voters remember when scrolling through ballots.
The Michigan game is the only shot left. If Sayin walks into Ann Arbor and delivers the moment, a dagger thrown, a two-minute drill, a fourth-quarter answer, breaking Michigan’s four-game run against them, that becomes the pivot. Even with Michigan being ‘weaker’, the rivalry carries weight. “Breaking the streak” is a narrative arc but it has to be him, not Jeremiah Smith.
And that brings us to the Smith problem. When I talk about Ohio State, I talk about Smith, not Sayin. The best highlight from your offense consistently belongs to your wide receiver, diluting the quarterback narrative. Sayin is the facilitator, and Smith is the spectacle.
So what does Sayin need in order to win? He needs Michigan to push Ohio State. Then he needs to respond with a defining drive or moment in that game, needs to be the reason the streak ends, needs a signature throw that belongs on the broadcast loop. Gus Johnson lost his mind with Mendoza’s pass. Can Sayin produce a similar reaction?
If Ohio State cruises and Sayin stays clear but unspectacular, he finishes second. If he delivers a standout moment at Michigan, and then potentially beats Mendoza head-to-head in the Big Ten title game, he could be the favorite.
Right now the story has been written without him. Sayin’s only path is to write the final chapter himself.
I don’t —
Hm.
I need a minute, or an hour? day? week? month? year? decade? lifetime? to think about that take.
I just —
Nope. I don’t have the words. I have to move on.
DRAFT STONKS. Last week, The Athletic’s Nick Baumgardner made headlines when he selected Arvell Reese as the No. 1 overall pick in his 2026 NFL mock draft. The Athletic’s Dane Brugler agreed with the assessment, ranking Reese as his top prospect in the 2026 class. Brugler also included Caleb Downs and Carnell Tate in his top 10, while Kayden McDonald and Sonny Styles joined them in the top 26.
No. 1 – Arvell Reese
Want to play him as a full-time edge rusher? Reese can do that. Prefer to keep him off the ball? He can do that, too. At 6 feet 4 and 240 pounds with long arms, Reese is just as comfortable setting the edge with violence as he is dropping in space to cover ground or using burst to capture the corner and close on the quarterback. I don’t know how realistic it is that Reese actually will be the first player (or first non-quarterback) drafted, but he is the best draft-eligible prospect I have studied in 2025.
No. 3 – Caleb Downs
Like Arvell Reese, I don’t think Downs will be drafted as highly as I have him ranked, because of positional value. Given how the NFL has drafted safeties in recent years, we can’t even call Downs a top-10 lock. But the Ohio State All-American is one of the best pure football players in this draft class. NFL coaches are going to love how he marries his athletic ability, field vision and toughness.
No. 10 – Carnell Tate
The wide receiver factory in Columbus, Ohio, has another stud ready to upgrade an NFL offense. For a taller receiver, Tate is incredibly meticulous in his routes and at his best on vertical stems, where he can use pacing and acceleration to win downfield. He has been dominant at the catch point this season — zero drops and a 92.3 percent contested-catch rate (12 catches on 13 contested targets).
No. 23 – Kayden McDonald
Although you’d like to see more of a pass-rush impact on his tape, McDonald has been a dominant run defender as a first-year starter for the Buckeyes. At 330 pounds, he plays with the power and hip snap to reset the line of scrimmage and the range to make plays in multiple gaps.
No. 26 – Sonny Styles
It is rare to find 6-foot-4, 240-pound linebackers who are freak athletes. Ohio State has two of them: Styles and Arvell Reese. A senior captain, Styles is still just 20 years old. He uses his range and speed to quickly react to what he sees, and he isn’t close to reaching his ceiling.
If Ohio State beats Michigan, wins a Big Ten championship and wins the College Football Playoff this season — and I hope it’s more like when for all three, especially the first — it will be because of these five dudes. Oh, and Heisman candidate Julian Sayin, Biletnikoff frontunner Jeremiah Smith and future All-Big Ten honorees Max Klare, Austin Siereveld, Caden Curry, Davison Igbinosun and Jermaine Mathews Jr.
DAILY DUBCAST. Today’s Eleven Dubcast brings on Dan Hope to discuss the four recruits Ohio State flipped to Columbus in the span of last Thursday to Monday and how the Buckeyes could potentially have more commitment flips in store after the UCLA game this weekend.
SONG OF THE DAY. “Everybody” – Backstreet Boys.
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