Happy hump day boys and girls and welcome to the latest installment of Skull Session.
I know a fraction of you expressed angst over the fact we've gone to a standard logo (despite its ultra-heady freshness) but I'm hoping that concern will be alleviated with the news that Pam has reportedly gotten said logo tatted and will be showing it off as she thrusts brownies into your collective mouths at the event of the century, Eat Too, Brutus, on October 29th.
If you're a thirsty donor, you can even wash that brownie down with your choice of Coke, Pepsi, Shasta1 or a shot of Brush Fire sauce via the fine folks at City Barbecue.
Hell, you can even pretend you are back in the little league baseball days and order a suicide. Delish.
Pat Haden isn't afraid to hide his lemming ways. Like virtually every other non-OSU fan with any level of interest in sports, USC AD Pat Haden became the latest to apparently have an issue with separating fact from fiction when it comes to the OSU case in general and certainly no ability to accurately compare the situations that unfolded at both schools.
Trying to carefully choose his words at the PAC-10 media day, Haden made it pretty easy to read between the lines:
"They know a lot more than I do, so it's dangerous for me to say, 'Are you kidding me?''" Haden said at Pacific 12 Conference Media Day, adding that Ohio State will have its hearing before the NCAA on Aug. 12. "It will be interesting to see what comes out of that."
I dunno. I guess, "are you kidding me?" is a fair question. As in, "Pat Haden is an AD and made a comment like that? Are you kidding me?"
Still Pat wasn't done sounding foolish. When asked if he thought other schools had learned from USC about how not to effectively deal with the NCAA, he added:
"You can always learn from others -- how some schools have done it well and how some schools have not done it well, so I'm sure everybody has looked at the way we handled the situation and made their own determination that they’re going to do it similarly or take a different tack."
Uh...I'm pretty sure everyone has made the determination they'll take a different tack. Thanks for the anti-blueprint, Mike Garrett and company. Oh, and enjoy the Lane Kiffin Era, I know the rest of us are.
Nate Oliver is a linebacker. This according to Buckeye safety (and according to his Twitter profile, actor) Zach Domicone, who is now openly recruiting for the safetybacker position.
Oliver, a senior, has seen action here and there, but has not been able to find his way onto the field on a regular basis. There's a chance Dorian Bell won't play a down this season and Jonathan Newsome is perpetually on the verge of leaving the program, so Oliver will see plenty of reps in August.
Is anyone sober in South Carolina? Typically, alcohol related news out of the Gamecock camp is reserved for QB Stephen Garcia but the sloshy quarterback recently reinstated to the SC football team has a partner in the drunk tank in QB coach G.A. Mangus.
Standing in the wet spot, Mangus, 42, was observed by Greenville PD taking a leak in the street while using a railing to steady his buzzed up jelly-legs. I'm not meaning to throw stones - I'm sure most of us have been there - but hopefully our transgressions occurred at a much younger age.
Having observed him as "unsteady on his feet" with eyes that were "dilated and glazed over" in addition to his failure to provide "straight answers" as to what he had been up to, police charged Mangus with nuisance conduct.
With little choice in the matter, Spurrier announced Mangus is suspended indefinitely which I think means he can only pee on the side of his house until he pays a fine and is reinstated.
Dane was nails. He will be sorely missed.
So, I guess I'm a Bears fan now. Despite the disappointment of not seeing him drafted, it was great to see that Dane Sanzenbacher basically had his choice of which team he wanted to try and make upon being sought after by 25 of 32 NFL teams.
In typically intelligent fashion, Dane chose the Chicago Bears for reasons not of the dead presidents variety.
Forgoing a $20k signing bonus offered by at least one other team, Dane weighed his options and determined Chicago gave him the best opportunity to stick with a team long term thanks to a thin corps of receivers and his perceived ability to be a natural fit in Mike Martz' offense.
That logic certainly sounds, well, logical but there are no guarantees at the next level. Hopefully, Dane can carve out a niche in Chicago as a cerebral, fearless, dependable receiver in Martz' system and become a favored target of Jay Cutler.
Dane wasn't alone in going the UDFA route as Brandon Saine signed with Green Bay, Bryant Browning and Jake McQuaide went to St. Louis, Justin Boren to Baltimore, Devon Torrence inked with the Vikings and Dexter Larimore joined the Saints. Good luck to all these Buckeyes as they fight to make rosters.
The Dougies. With the B1G deciding not to hold coaches and media voting this year for preseason POY's and conference champions, the Plain Dealer gives you a little taste asking 24 conference writers to weigh in on a few topics including best coach, players of the year and which teams will win their respective divisions.
The first category is Best Coach. Since the best coach is no longer employed, there's no decisive winner though Bret Bielema emerged victorious. How sad is the current roster of B1G coaches? Bielema won out despite just a 27-13 conference record in five seasons with one championship. Here's the full breakdown. Note 1st place votes are in parenthesis, then total points.
- Bielema (7), 35
- Ferentz (6), 31
- Pelini (3), 30
- Fitzgerald (4), 27
- Dantonio (4), 18
Geesh. Who would you take? I think I'd take Fitzgerald. After Fickell, of course.
Picking the division winners was a breeze with Wisconsin and Nebraska the decisive choices. Meanwhile, offensive and defensive POY selections were also clear cut with Denard and Jared Crick taking top honors. John Simon was the highest ranked Buckeye, finishing sixth.
Smorgas-bored. Bacon sculptures would be cooler but it's the fair so you gotta temper expectations... A melting dog... The Flaming C movie trailer... Can't think of a caption but wanted to share.
- 1 As this event will take place on campus, there will be no alcoholic beverages. The fine folks from Buckeye Vodka and Oval Brewing Company will be on hand, however, to ahem... educate you on their products.
