Good morning Buckeye faithful and welcome to your Tuesday Skull Session.
It must hurt to be an LSU player right now. They won the battle this season, but they lost the war. Alabama got their revenge on the biggest stage last night in the Superdome.
Whether or not I thought Alabama deserved to be in the title game last night, it is clear to me that the best two teams in college football played last night. I say congratulations to Alabama and their fans.
Here's looking forward to next season.
FOR YOUR FOOTBALL WITHDRAWAL. Adam Rittenberg and Brian Bennett of ESPN ranked their top five players from the Big Ten on offense and defense to look out for next season. Both lists have one Buckeye on them, in the form of quarterback Braxton Miller for the offense and linebacker Ryan Shazier for the defense.
Shazier, Rittenberg writes, is more of a projected pick because he's only been seen in a starting role for a limited amount of games. Rittenberg goes on to say that he believes Shazier's role will only increase next season even with the coaching change taking place because Luke Fickell will still be on the sidelines for OSU.
Bennett writes that Miller was a pretty obvious choice for him to make because of how well the soon-to-be sophomore played this year. Bennett also includes how he believes Miller's transition into Meyer's offense will be one of the top B1G stories going into next season.
Bennett is right that Miller is an obvious choice and he will only continue to get better with Meyer by his side. But I think I'm more excited to see how Shazier plays in a more increased role next year. His play down the stretch of the regular season should make people believe that this guy can be a leader on defense for years to come.
RING AROUND THE POSEY. Since we barely got to see DeVier Posey play this season, you might want to watch him the next time he steps onto a field. Where will that be, you ask?
Posey will be taking his talents to the Senior Bowl on January 28 in Mobile, Alabama. However, Posey will not be the lone Buckeye playing, as Dan Herron, Mike Brewster, and Mike Adams will be trying to impress NFL scouts.
While I certainly hope all the other Buckeyes play well, my attention will be focused on Posey. We never really got a chance to see how Posey has developed as a player due to his poor off-the-field decisions and the fact that he was playing with a freshman quarterback when he did play this season.
It will be interesting to see how NFL scouts react as they get their first in-depth look at Posey.
Snubbed.
ALL-AMERICAN SNUB. The Football Writers Association of America released its Freshman All-American Team yesterday.
Zero Ohio State players made the team and only two players from the Big Ten were selected. The only Buckeye snub I can think of off the top of my head would have to be Braxton Miller.
With all due respect to Sean Mannion, the quarterback selected to the team, he threw 18 interceptions this season and led his team to a 3-9 record. Miller, on the other hand, led his team under a lot of pressure to a 6-6 record and a bowl game while only throwing four interceptions on the year. Not to mention, Miller also had a combined 20 touchdowns this season, with 13 through the air and seven on the ground.
SULLY BOUNCES BACK. Since coming back from injury, Jared Sullinger has played phenomenal. Last week, he finally put together two fantastic games against Nebraska and Iowa. He was rewarded for his play by being announced as the Big Ten Player of the Week.
Sully becomes the second Buckeye this season to win the award after Deshaun Thomas won it back on December 19, 2011. The sophomore center averaged 23.5 points and 10 rebounds in OSU's last two wins.
Ohio State was also rewarded as a team this week, as they snuck back into the top five in the polls after Duke and Georgetown fell this weekend. OSU is currently ranked #5 with #6 Michigan State and #7 Indiana not far behind.
TALKING ABOUT PLAYOFFS? ESPN is reporting that 11 conference commissioners and Notre Dame's athletic director will meet today to discuss serious changes in the structure of Bowl Championship Series.
The changes being discussed range from eliminating automatic bowl berths to the creation of a playoff system. However, the report states it would be unlikely to see anything greater than a four-team playoff scenario come out of this. Additionally, nothing is guaranteed to change after this meeting.
A major opponent of any type of playoff system is Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, whose opinion has not changed since the last time a playoff scenario was discussed.
LOS LINKS. As we already learned this year, punching and basketball don't end well... Not cool, media, not cool... Do I stay, or do I go is what's going through RG3's head... Jordan perhaps doesn't believe he can fly... Penn State's staff takes shape.
