Wednesday Skull Session

Good morning sports fans and welcome to your Wednesday Skully. 

In case you haven't scrolled down 11W, turned on ESPN, or checked much twitter lately, let me be the first to tell you that Ohio State and Oregon have agreed to a 2020-2021 home-and-home series.

That's right, your Kirby Smart-coached Buckeyes will be taking on the Dana Holgorsen-led Ducks in a futuristic rematch of the 2010 Rose Bowl. You, uh, heard it here first. 

Most people are concerned about Oregon's future uniforms:

If you thought the Oregon uniforms were spaceship-like now, just imagine what these two teams will be donning 2,920 days into the future. Chip Kelly's offensive play calls will be telepathically transmitted to the quarterback's brain, thanks to a chip installed by Nike.

I personally don't see how you could be against a matchup like this. Sure, who knows if Oregon will still be relevant by 2020 (they will), but the game's storyline kind of writes itself – even assuming the teams don't see each other in the Rose Bowl in the meantime. 

After dropping Georgia from the 2020-2021 slate, it's good to see Ohio State move aggressively in scheduling a (the?) marquee Pac-12 opponent as well as the (currently rebuilding) largest Big 12 school. San Diego State might be your lower-tier BCS opponent after Vandy decided to save itself from embarrassment next year. 

 A LOOK AT THE FUTURE. A few Skullies ago, Boxley asked in the comments about the quickstrike and quicksand scores for our remaining opponents. OP will surely deliver:

So what all does this mean? 

Michigan has the best points-per-play offense, scoring an average of approximately half a point per play, while Illinois has the worst of the remaining opponents (and in the country at 114th in scoring offense). 

Penn State has the best points-per-play defense at .232 points per play, while Illinois has the worst defense remaining as well. 

Some takeaways: 1. The Illinois game looks like it'll be a blast. Hopefully this time next week we'll be talking about it as a "trap game" after a big Penn State win and before the bye week. 

2. Penn State's defense is pretty legit, but so are the defenses of three of the last four teams we face. Penn State has the 37th ranked pass defense and the 21st ranked rushing defense in the country. Hopefully we can push those numbers down a bit this week. The yards per play statistic agrees:

Using yards per play, the B1G has 3 offenses in the top 25 (Nebraska, Michigan, Ohio State.) Also has 3 in bottom 25 (Illinois, Iowa, MSU)

— Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) October 23, 2012

3. The commentariat certainly seems divided over whether Michigan is overrated or not this year – at least statistically (which doesn't tell the whole story, certainly) Michigan offers quite a challenge, with the second-best remaining defense and the best points-per-play offense. 

Penn State head coach BOB's offense is putting up better numbers than Penn State is used to (and even then they're still not fantastic) but the linebackers will definitely be tested in matchups with the PSU tight ends. 

 HEISMAN CLARITY. As the season rolls on the Heisman race gets a little bit tighter. The big matchup from last weekend saw Collin Klein take a lead over long-time straw-poll leader Geno Smith. Your token defensive player for this week or so is Manti Te'o, followed by AJ McCarron at third and Braxton in a tie for fourth. 

A couple thoughts: No way does AJ McCarron seriously contend for the Heisman. Alabama's system just doesn't ask the quarterback to go out and win individual awards like that. Te'o might get invited, but I don't seem him winning it either. If Braxton is healthy, I can seem him bouncing back in to the top 3 this week. 

Just goes to show that we probably shouldn't cover the Heisman race until October, at the very least. 

Do we really have to be worried about this guy passing?

 IF I HEAR INELIGIBOWL ONE MORE TIME... As they say, when the bowl game goes away, bloggers will write incessantly using bad puns. Or something like that. 

Some writers are convinced that this game is taking on a bowl game-like feel this year. 

Others, like Adam Jacobi, think that Penn State might actually be the best team in the conference even at 5-2. 

PSU Linebacker Mauti thinks that we're in different situations. 

Is this a bowl game to you? Is Penn State even in your top 2 biggest rivals? Wisconsin certainly makes a convincing argument for number two for me...

 WHAT NOT TO SAY. One thing we haven't really seen under Urban the regime yet is a player run his mouth about something stupid, which is exactly what Mark Richt's Bulldawgs are dealing with right now. Safety Shawn Williams so brilliantly fed this to reporters: 

"It seems like we need the coach from the Saints, it seems like we need him. It seems like we need a pay-for-play system. That's what it seems like we need though. We need Sean Payton."

He was candid, at least, about pretty much every position on defense:

"We've gotta stop playing soft. We're playing too soft defensively," Williams said. "That goes for D-line, linebackers, corners, safeties. I don't know, we're not playing with the same attitude we played with last year. I don't know what it is."

Yeah, it's obvious that the Saints reference was stupid and he should be running plenty of laps at practice for that boneheaded statement, but I wonder if the national callout will galvanize an underperforming defense.

Hmmm...underperforming defense. Does that sound familiar? Can you imagine if a Buckeye called out his defensive teammates like that? I'd be pretty worried about the cohesion of the team, personally. It's clear that this Buckeye team, while struggling at times defensively, at least stands together instead of calling each other out. 

SIR LINKS-A-LOT. Have I used that pun before? Anyway... This week's meltdown group has West Virginia burning, Tennessee in okay guy pitiful acceptance meltdown, and South Carolina leaning masochistic... The comments on this article for "a real southern" tailgate are just incredible... So iHear that some new iProducts were iLaunched yesterday, and I have a feeling iPad Minis are going to be in a LOT of stockings this year... Bad refs and pitiful ACC stuff (not B1G for once!) take up the majority of your Lowlights this week... Toussaint is sentenced with some fines.