Skull Session: Ryan Day Thinks Iowa Plays “Complementary Football,” Brian

The second half of the season is about to begin. The Buckeyes have a job to do.

pic.twitter.com/881YRkUXHN

— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) October 17, 2022

Let’s have a good Friday, shall we?

 WELL, NOT EXACTLY. On more than one occasion this week, Ryan Day has described Iowa as “complementary,” even claiming that the Hawkeyes are “as complementary as anybody” in his weekly radio show on 97.1 The Fan.

Ryan Day on Iowa’s offense:

“Their style is similar to some of the teams we’ve played. They want to control the game,” he said. “They play complementary football… They’ve done that for a long time, and it’s a winning recipe.”

— Chase Brown (@chaseabrown__) October 18, 2022

I by no means expect Day to trash his opponents, therefore offering them bulletin board material in the days leading up to the matchup with the Buckeyes. However, I think he could afford to use a little less coachspeak when talking about them each week, especially when describing the Iowa offense in tandem with its defense.

Out of 131 FBS teams, the Hawkeyes rank No. 124 in offensive efficiency, No. 128 in explosiveness, No. 131 in points per scoring opportunity and No. 129 in rushing marginal explosiveness. Meanwhile, they rank No. 13, No. 1, No. 2 and No. 1 in those respective defensive categories.

Iowa is, in fact, the least complementary football team to ever exist in my non-official and unresearched estimations. I mean, come on, Coach, you can’t look at this metric and say the Hawkeye offense holds up its end of the bargain every week.

Three @OhioStateFB players have more offensive TDs this season than the entire Iowa offense combined

Which player will have the most TDs when they face off this weekend? pic.twitter.com/6wAM5geIpe

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) October 20, 2022

I understand that Day and some of the other coaches have scars from the 2017 game. The Iowa offense was nothing special that year, either, and it ended up dropping a 55-bomb on Ohio State’s head. But it’s been five years, and the Hawkeyes are somehow even worse at moving the ball up the field and scoring points.

It’s bad, folks.

On Saturday, Bill Landis of Rivals said we will watch “Ohio State’s offensive assault against Iowa and Iowa’s assault against all of us.” I couldn’t put it better myself. The Buckeyes will have no mishaps against the “complementary” Hawkeyes as they cruise to a comfortable victory with Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt on the call for FOX Big Noon.

 BEST IN THE BIZ. Speaking of Klatt, his content has made for some excellent Skull Session material in recent weeks. He continued that streak before the Iowa game, claiming that Brian Hartline is the best position coach in college football.

And, well, he’s not wrong.

“I think Coach Hartline is the best position coach in all of college football”@joelklatt has some high praise for the @OhioStateFB WR coach

(via @JoelKlattShow)