Friday Skull Session

King Urban Meyer had his weekly call-in show yesterday, and as usual, his interactions with the unwashed offered general insight into the state of the program peppered with moments of awkward humor. Here's the rub-down taken directly taken off Kyle Rowland's Twitter feed (it's not plagiarism because we're on the same team):

• Lack of focus did not contribute to Ohio State's "closer-than-expected" 60-35 win at Illinois.
• Ohio State is closing in on level of defense seen in previous decade but not quite there yet.
• Curtis Grant's lateral movement is still hampered by a high ankle sprain.
• Ohio State might have to play a freshman defender who hasn't played yet this season due to plethora of injuries.
• Evan Spencer is as good a blocker that he's ever seen on the edge.
• Meyer praised Indiana offense, pointed out success against Michigan State and "our rival."
• Called Christian Bryant "an incredible leader" and "a Buckeye for life."
• "Boy, I hate this stuff." - Meyer on his media obligations. [He makes $1.8 million a year from media and PR work.]

• He hasn't given much thought to starting Kenny Guiton. Said they'll do what's right for team and Guiton.
• Jordan Hall will play Saturday, could produce at WR too.
• "Very important" for Carlos Hyde to get over 1,000 yards rushing on the year.
• Meyer preaches getting pressure on QBs. Said Noah Spence and Joey Bosa are difference-makers in that area.
• Jack Mewhort is arguably the best practice player he's been around. Said it's rubbing off on Taylor Decker.
• Meyer calls Drew Basil "a man's man." Said it's difficult to say that about a kicker, but said it's true for Basil.

THE HELL IS GOING ON IN TALLAHASSEE? Things are certainly heating up around Jameis Winston and Florida State University. On Tuesday, the lawyer of the unnamed victim's family released a devastating statement alleging police told the victim "Tallahasee was a big football town" and advised her not to pursue the issue once it became clear Jameis Winston was the primary suspect. Then, a leaked DNA test linked Jameis to the victim. Now, according to Adam Weinstein, an FSU teacher and writer for Gawker, in an article that deserves to be read in its entirety, Jameis Winston isn't the only problem at Florida State:

We love the game. We love the players, too, even when they scare us.

Like the blue-chip defensive secondary leader who wrote his personal essay for an openly gay professor on the time in high school he gleefully commanded a posse to bash a girly fag near to death, caved the queer's face, and ruined his smile.

Or the hulking offensive star who brought a friend to help him corner a short, pretty instructor alone in her closet office and scare her within an inch of her life for telling the athletic department he was clowning in class.

Or the top offensive player who sought tutoring from me on a plagiarized paper while tweaking on uppers. Or the standout lineman who never showed for my lectures or turned much in except for a term paper written in someone else's voice, then magically disappeared from the class roll when I resisted the team handlers who pressed me not to fail him.

These guys are all starters at Florida State University. They're probably going to play for the national title; they're almost certainly going to go high in the NFL draft. None of them is older than 22, and they already have longer Wikipedia entries than anyone on the FSU faculty.

And that's only the first five paragraphs. This essay also dropped about the same time as another report: Winston may be able to dodge suspension from the football team EVEN IF HE'S CHARGED WITH A FELONY. (Also, here's Dan Wetzel on the controversial 70-year-old that will decide the future of Jameis Winston and FSU.)

Let's take the pulse of Seminole nation by cherry picking a tweet:

Well, that's about right.

Weinstein's article, however, wasn't just about FSU: it was about BCS-level programs in general. Stories like these are... uh... they're probably more common than we'd like to think. *puts head back into sand*

EDDIE GEORGE AIN'T SCARED OF RAY LEWIS. The human slugs at TMZ caught up with Eddie George in an airport and asked one of the biggest bosses in existence a few questions:

EDDIE GEORGE PLAYED JULIUS CAESAR? Buddy, I needed that tape yesterday.

THE FIRST SELL-OUT IN OKIE STATE HISTORY, LOL. This is a tad bit surprising. Oklahoma State will have their first official sell-out on Saturday night? So says the The Oklahoman:

A top-10, prime-time showdown has drawn the first sellout in Boone Pickens Stadium history.

Oklahoma State announced Tuesday that the No. 10 Cowboys' showdown against fourth-ranked Baylor on Saturday night is officially sold out.

The single-game attendance record has already been broken twice this season in games against Lamar (59,061) and TCU (59,538).

That's crazy. I would have definitely guessed Okie State sold out at least Oklahoma games. Guess T. Boone Pickens' wallet only gets a program so far. Ya can't buy prestige, pal.

(Still: ~*~*~*GO POKES~*~*~*~*~)

AL BORGES IS SIMPLIFYING THE PLAYBOOK. If you're a Michigan fan, this is not the headline you want to read during week 12 of the college football season. If you have a brain and are sentient, well, Christmas is coming a little early this year:

But the offense, in general, continues to trend downward. In the last 12 regulation quarters, Michigan has one touchdown.

Moving forward, Borges says he's done as much as he can to simplify the offense to help the litany of young players featured in various packages. But, at the same time, he says he's not going to simplify things too much.

"We had 27 first downs, that's a lot of first downs when you consider only three of them were earned on third down, that's moving the ball," Borges said. "You go two things with minus rushing? You've got to go back with basic concepts, because something's going wrong. It's not all the players' fault or the coaches' fault. We had to reel it in and find something we could do, and that's what we did for this game.

Yes, you read that right: Michigan is trying to simplify their already predictable offense. Good golly, Michigan is going to be in a world of pain a week from Saturday. 

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