Gooooood morning and welcome to your Wednesday Skull Session. I'll be filling in for Sarah today, and I hope I can do half the job that she usually does.
I write this skully after returning from my first ever attempt at karaoke, and I think I've found my life's true calling: to form a Tears for Fears cover band. So, peace out grad school - I'm setting out to work the karaoke circuit.
My song of choice for the night was "Shout" - a song that Curt Smith says "concerns protest inasmuch as it encourages people not to do things without actually questioning them. People act without thinking because that's just the way things go in society."
What does this mean to me? Probably something about not letting friends go to Michigan. That's probably what Curt meant to say.
Anyway, grab your favorite bowl of cereal, a cup of coffee, and procrastinate from work by catching up on some news:
OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN Though no one is really sure what the "Vice President for Strategic Engagement at the University of Akron" actually does, Our Former Captain finally spoke today in an interview with Chris Fedor. What stood out to me was this:
Of course I miss the chess game and the smell of the grass and all the rest...but of course you miss the excitement of a ball game and so forth.When you’re around the game a long time of course you miss it.
I love me some Urban Meyer, but man do I miss Coach Tress too.
When asked about whether he might ever return to coaching, he said that he "wouldn’t sit here today and say it’s something that I want to do but you never know what lies out there...My mind is here, I’m loving every day and what the future holds who knows? But I know this; I will give everything I’ve got here so this place will never get short sold and I’m enjoying the heck out of it."
The classy and optimistic response we'd expect from our Senator. Akron really got a good one, no matter what his job actually is.
Oh, and the "And so forth..." count? A measley two.
YOU WANT TO WHAT?? Some of you might recognize Malcom Gladwell as the author of several popular pseudo-academic books, including Outliers, Tipping Point, and Blink. What you may not remember is that back in December, Gladwell caused a mild stir by proclaiming that we should actually ban college football. He argued that college football is a corrupt industry around a sport that causes concussions, and therefore has no place within institutions of higher learning.
Well, last night he, along with Buzz Bisinger, actually had a live, online debate about the issue. I think user _Trey_ gives a good summary:
So a Canadian guy who writes for the New Yorker is going to explain to us all why we should ban college football, and a Giants fan from from New York is going to explain why everything but the NFL is totally messed up.
It's easy to just think that Gladwell is descending into crazy hair insanity, but I think there's probably more to it than that. In all likelihood, Gladwell and Bissinger don't truly believe that college football should be banned. Rather, they're simply voicing the extreme position so that more moderate, reasonable voices are heard.
That is, college football clearly needs some reform - in the NCAA, the BCS, in helmet technology, and in student-athlete academic performance. It's likely that these two are actually just priming us with an extreme argument so that a more moderate proposal for reform is eventually welcomed.
The Dead Poets Society misses Tress tooMUSCHAMP OPINES. Paul Finebaum relayed some interesting things about Urban Meyer and the SEC in general today from his talk with current Gator head coach Will Muschamp. Finebaum tweeted that
Muschamp on Urban Meyer clutter at FLA,'You don't win two NC without having discipline. I've been happy w/our work ethic & commitment level. Muschamp,'Biggest difference in the B12 & the SEC is the defensive line play in our conference. If you don't protect, QB's will get killed.'
First, it's nice to hear him defend Urban's Floridian regime from ungrateful, jilted former lovers. I've always believed that Florida fans who complain about Urban need to remember: YOU WON TWO NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS WITH HIM.
Second, I think Muschamp hits the nail on the head when it comes to the SEC's recent success dominance - defensive line play. When Bielma infamously said that he didn't want the B1G to be like the SEC "in any way, shape, or form", he probably was just worried about Urban's defensive line recruiting classes. Building a dominant defensive line is the first step in reaching parity with SEC teams.
PAPA HEUERMAN SAYS WHAT WE ALL WANT TO HEAR. We can forgive Paul Heuerman for having attended Michigan since he defends Ohio State and Urban against criticism over the Waugh situation and Anzalone decommitment.
He injects a bit of humor by saying, "My goodness, you might as well blame Urban Meyer for the budget deficit if you're going to blame him for someone taking a picture with a guy in a restaurant." Love this response - there's not a school in the country that can control random things like pictures in restaurants.
And since we're talking about Waugh and Anzalone, I figured I'd use this occasion *grabs soapbox* to remind everyone: STOP TWEETING RECRUITS. Seriously, I see some kids still getting tweeted by members of our fanbase.
IT'S LINK TIME. Good to see Simon get a little national recognition...No surprise, but Ohio State set the 2012 spring game attendance record...Good assessment of the defense's outlook for next season...The Game...Read this AMA if you haven't!
