Wednesday's Skull Session will offer some commentary on things happening around the world of college sports. Unfortunately, the football season is over. It did not end in any way most fans may have anticipated. Popular preseason national champion picks were Alabama and Ohio State, ostensibly playing each other for the BCS national championship in Pasadena.
However, neither team made it. Neither team won its conference. Both teams ended their seasons on two-game losing streaks, including deflating losses in their respective bowl games to also-rans from what are largely considered weak conferences.
Though the attention of the Ohio State fan will now shift to Thad Matta's Buckeyes, in addition to asking serious questions about the direction of our defense under Luke Fickell, this feature will touch on some remaining topics associated with the end of the college football season. Per G.C. Cameron's famous song from the soundtrack to Cooley High, later popularized by Boyz II Men, it's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday.
Yesteryear's Ohio State pass defense, though? No. That can go away forever and never return.
MALFEASANCE OF THE DAY IN THE WORLD OF OHIO STATE FOOTBALL. In case you missed it, Ohio State football made the news circuit yesterday. Neither news item was particularly positive for the image of the program, even if the negative elements are confined to the players or recruits themselves and not Urban Meyer's football program.
The big item of the day was Noah Spence, who we knew was suspended three games, including the Orange Bowl, for testing positive for a substance banned by Big Ten rules. How the suspension was a Big Ten violation, and not the blanket "violation of team rules" for Ohio State or an NCAA violation, was rather curious.
The common assumption was that Spence may have tested positive for an over-the-counter dietary supplement that was banned by the conference for its own peculiar reasons. It would make sense. That type of plausible deniability was invoked in the early stages of pro baseball's performance-enhancing drug (PED) scandal. Plus, kids are kids. GNC doesn't necessarily have to cater to NCAA bylaws.
Alas, the Spence family revealed what the substance was: ecstasy.
Oh.
His father, Greg Spence, says Noah tested positive for a small amount of ecstasy.
It's standard procedure for every player to get tested prior to the Big 10 championship game, and Spence's family says he was shocked when his drug test came back positive.
The family says Spence unintentionally took the drug when he was given an open drink by people he didn't know at a party.
His father says the Big 10 originally suspended Spence for one year because they consider ecstasy a performance-enhancing drug. The NCAA considers ecstasy a street drug, which carries a lesser penalty.
How the Big Ten can consider X a PED is probably hashtag-B1G worthy. Alas, it's something he should not have had in his system and may it serve as a cautionary tale about accepting open drinks from strangers at a campus party, whether you're an Ohio State football player or not. The Spence family intends to sue the Big Ten over the suspension.
Further, the first verbal commitment of Ohio State's 2015 recruiting class, Eric Glover-Williams of Canton, may be in jeopardy of joining that recruiting class because of "off the field issues".
"When I first started 20 years ago, you didn't know much," Meyer said. "You know everything now. I have people where it's their full-time jobs ... that's what they do. They monitor Facebook and Twitter and tweets and all that stuff. We have to find out — I want to know because we're held responsible for all those guys.
"This is an era, a generation that ... 18, 19, 20-year-olds, we know everything that's going on every day because of what goes on these cellphones. Think about that for a minute, 18, 19,20-year-olds. So it's a big part of what we do. Huge."
Meyer knew the question was coming from a reporter in Canton. He had a slight smirk on his face when it was being asked.
We won't know the back story here for the conceivable future. Coaches cannot discuss recruits publicly and ongoing criminal matters, if that's even what it is, tend to be guarded under the presumption of innocence before guilt.
Whatever the case, Ohio State fans have some off-the-field football drama to monitor in the coming months.
MAMA MCCARRON LET OUT HER INNER BAMA. Full disclaimer: I checked in and out of the BCS National Championship Game. I haven't watched a full one since 2007, when Ohio State lost to Louisiana State. I didn't watch any second of the games between 2008 and 2012. I just assumed I knew how they would end, and I was right each time.
I casually watched pieces of the game between Auburn and Florida State, but made it in time for the exciting finish and Jameis Winston's subsequent post-game interview. While I might be part of that crowd that is skeptical of Winston and his association with what is otherwise a very ugly chapter in Leon County law enforcement and prosecution (even if that's not necessarily fair to Winston), I thought his post-game interview was somewhat stirring. It may be adrenaline-induced "player-speak", but I thought it was a bit enthralling.
I wasn't the only one either.
UN-Freaking-believable interview by Jameis!! Just shows part of the reason why he's SPECIAL!
— LeBron James (@KingJames) January 7, 2014
However, someone wasn't impressed. A.J. McCarron's mother, who hails from a region where people are "fixin' ta" say "y'all" at their earliest convenience, did not think Winston spoke proper English, or apparently English at all.
I mean, I'm sure she didn't mean for it to be taken that way. It's just, you know, that... well, you know. Roll Tide.
*deletes tweet*
The moment of infinite sorrow in Auburn. A TALE OF TWO MELTDOWNS. Count me as one of those fans watching the game that assumed Florida State was dead to rites after a Winston fumble on Florida State's fifth drive of the game set up Auburn's third touchdown of the first half. With a potential halftime lead of 21-3, couldn't Auburn just coast? Auburn had the best rushing attack on the country, an offense tailor-made to sitting on a lead and front-running a second half. If Florida State was so stymied in the first half with a freshman quarterback, I would have assumed it would be boned in the second half as well.
Thus, Florida State would go back to being "back", an eternal transition of a return to national prominence that exists in perpetual stasis. You may also know Notre Dame as existing in the same realm in its "return to glory". The freak-outs that ensued on Florida State's message boards were about what you would expect, accordingly.
- "The fix is in"
- "Jimbo contract = big mistake"
- "Are we worse than Notre Dame last year"
- "Getting Destroyed by a High School Offense"
- "we look like a 1950s team"
Points are given to "Getting Destroyed by a High School Offense" for proper capitalization of a thread title. You, sir or ma'am, get a cookie.
However, Florida State successfully roared back, cutting the halftime deficit to a touchdown after holding Auburn's vaunted offense in check through the third quarter. Then, the freak-out came from the Plainsmen.
I would point and laugh, but goodness knows what this would have looked like if anyone was watching Ohio State fans and Clemson fans during the Orange Bowl, or if anyone was watching at all.
MISCELLANY. True story: Jack Nicklaus, a loyal Ohio State fan, trolled Urban Meyer at the beginning of the season saying he bought tickets to the BCS National Championship Game in order to see his grandson win a national title. Well... The NBA is set to pay out $500 million just to be done with the Spirits of St. Louis, which has not existed since the NBA-ABA merger... Fire-ice in Ann Arbor... Get off the trash, Matt Millen. Where are your manners... An Ohio State Ph.D. student finishes last in his fantasy league and has to retake the SATs... Ouch, Denny's. That's cold-blooded... Following recruits on Twitter is the new flight tracker in college football coaching searches... Fran McCaffery will be suspended for his own bobblehead night... One solitary Florida State defender separated Auburn from eternity... But I thought Florida State won... Beefcake Bo Schembechler.
