Thursday Skull Session

Greetings and salutations, Buckeye netizens, and welcome to your Thirsty Thursday Skull Session.

It's supposed to be another sun splashed day in the capital city so if you are reading from your office chair inside or around the outerbelt, be aware of a few open air happenings that will allow you get an early start on the weekend.

A couple decent local bands will be featured downtown this evening as the Andy Shaw Band takes the stage at the semi-new Columbus Commons (old City Center land) while the Hoo Doo Soul Band plays at the grand opening of the The Scioto Mile. Not exactly Lollapalooza at Grant Park but not bad for a Thursday after a holiday.

Both events offer tasty brews for a not terribly untasty price with Goose Island 312 available at the Commons while the Columbus Brewing Company opens a new restaurant along the Scioto River.

Before you devise a plan in which the ball and chain will let you leave the house to watch some music and discuss the virtual certainty that is Mike Vrabel's arrival on Fickell's defensive staff, here's a taste of the goings on around the sports interwebs...

Let's start off with a heaping helping of DERP.  Nittany Lion blog Penn State Clips has a pretty bold prediction on the severity of OSU sanctions:

It appears to us that the violations and subsequent cover-up at Ohio State are worse than the violations at USC. If the decision to not ban USC from television was "a very close call," (Ed: quote from NCAA's findings report on USC) it seems inevitable that Ohio State will receive a one- or two-year television ban.

PSClips goes on to say penalties are unlikely to take effect until 2012 so at least you have plenty of time to buy tickets for the 10/27/12 tilt in Happy Valley and the 10/26/13 game in the 'Shoe since there apparently won't be any television coverage.

TV ban? Don't think so.

Don't Sweat The Technique. Brian Bennett, now of ESPN's B1G blog, took a shot at ranking the top linebackers and linebacking corps in the conference. Typically stacked with proven talent at LB, Bennett notes that's not the case this year as "the first and second team All-Big Ten linebackers from both the coaches and media selections last season are all gone."

With that amazing fact accounted for, what isn't is Nebraska's Lavonte David and his school record 152 stops last season. He holds down the #1 spot while Andrew Sweat is the only Buckeye represented at #7. Sweat certainly has all the makings of an impact player this season and I continued to be impressed by how he presents himself. I hope and expect his attitude and demeanor also project in his leadership qualities this season.

Overall, the Buckeye corps ranked 3rd behind Nebraska led by David and Penn State's trio anchored by Michael Mauti.

I know many expect Sabino to be that guy to complement Sweat but I still say don't sleep on Storm Klein. How do you see the starting LB spots unfolding and how does your group project in the conference rankings?

P.S. Phil Steele has OSU LB's ranked 19th in the country behind PSU at #8 and Nebrasky at #9.

Sounds like another coaching statue needs erected. Killing time before the start of fall camp can be tough on all of us and the Cedar Rapids Gazette is no different.

Milking a topic for five days is an idea I can get behind but the Gazette is counting down the Top 5 Ferentz Teams as voted on by fans. Even though I'm sure I do, I don't mean to sound like an uppity Buckeye fan when I opine that Ferentz is vastly overrated as a producer as evidenced by his really only three truly solid teams in 12 years at Iowa. The numbers don't lie:

• .597 winning percentage overall (89-60)
• .552 winning percentage in conference (53-43)
• 0 outright conference titles
• 2 shared conference titles in 12 years
• 3 seasons ending without a bowl bid
• 2 BCS bowl bids in 12 years
• A decent 6-3 bowl record including an Orange but it's hard to be super pumped about the Outback (twice), Alamo, Capital One and Insight.

If you wish to relive the glory, the squads holding down the 5th, 4th and 3rd spots have already been revealed with the remaining two running today and Friday.

• #5: 2003 Hawkeyes. 10-3 record. Tied for 4th place in the (5-3). Outback Bowl Champs.
• #4: 2008 Hawkeyes. 9-4 record. Tied for 4th place in B1G (5-3). Outback Bowl Champs.
• #3: 2004 Hawkeyes. 10-2 record. Tied for 1st place in B1G (7-1). Capital One Bowl Champs.

We are spoiled, ladies and gentlemen.

A sneak peek at the 'Canes. Bill Connelly takes an impressive in depth look at the Miami Hurricanes offering some great insight as to what we should expect from a program in transition with new HC Al Golden and OC Jedd Fisch, an open QB battle, carries up for grabs at RB, no depth behind the #1 receiver and solid depth in the trenches. Some of that sound familiar?

Based on the roster makeup of both OSU and Miami coupled with an early season matchup date, it looks like we could be in for battle of defenses looking to shut down the opposing run-heavy attacks with a dash of dink and dunk passing and the occasional bomb to keep the safeties honest.

Drive by. 'Bama blue chip RB Demetrius Hart is out for the season after tearing his ACL...Nick Swisher made a sizeable donation to OSU which will be used to install an artificial playing surface. Dude is a boss...Another look at just how cheap B1G schools are when it comes to paying assistant football coaches...A bat skeleton is just as cool as you'd think it would be...Dust cloud rolling through Phoenix.