Tuesday Skull Session

Good morning, everyone. Apologies if you saw my name and mistakenly thought it was Wednesday and therefore, an extra day closer to football.

A new season brings changes, including some shuffling around here on the editorial calendar. I'm now on Tuesday Skull Session duty, or as Urban Meyer refers to today, Bloody Tuesday¹. Best of luck to the football players making it through what sounds like the most grueling day of practice each week. 

And because it's game week, the depth chart was released yesterday, revealing a hearty blend of newcomers and veterans. Unsurprisingly, there's a lot of youth in the two-deep at positions like linebacker and offensive line. Also notable is that two OL backups, Darryl Baldwin and Chase Farris, only recently switched over from the DL.

Of the spots where they had been question marks, Reid Fragel got the starting nod at right tackle over Taylor Decker, Howard Island survived the threat of Tsunami Doran Grant, Bri'onte Dunn is the #2 RB after Carlos Hyde, and most important of all, Bryce Haynes is ready to show the world that SEC speed ain't got nothin' on his long snapping. 

As for starting tight end, Luke Fickell must have been in charge of that decision because it's still listed as Nick Vannett or Jeff Heuerman. 

In the absence of Jordan Hall, Philly Brown is the #1 return man, with Devin Smith behind him on punts and Dunn behind him on kickoffs. I hope Brown takes one to the house at some point in the season, if only to find out which "Motownphilly"² lyric Sportscenter will quote in the highlight. I'm betting on "kickin' it just for you."

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE. Whenever there's a coaching change, there's sort of a thrill of the unknown that accompanies the start of the season. However, even with their contrasting styles, Urban shares certain similarities with Jim Tressel. As the Plain Dealer's Bill Livingston pointed out:

In the team meeting room of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, behind a screen that had been pulled down for use in film study, is a board on which is written Meyer's victory formula: "1. Play great defense. 2. No turnovers. 3. Score in the red zone. 4. Win the kicking game."

"How do you play great defense? No turnovers," said Meyer, meaning control field position.

That sounds remarkably like the Tao of Tressel. But as we know, Urban prefers a more killer instinct, up-tempo kind of offense. And though he doesn't suffer turnovers gladly, Urban also isn't as cautious, which creates less predictable playcalling, often to the excitement of the players and fans.

Despite the equivocal nature of one and the spirited demeanor of the other, let's hope the two have something else in common: winning percentage, especially against Michigan.

MAN OF STEELE. On his blog, Phil Steele discussed the difficulties of a coach in his first year at a job. There are numerous examples, including Tressel, of coaches who led their new teams to unspectacular first seasons that they followed up with gold. Both the coaches and the players have to make adjustments to each other and the unfamiliar systems, so major success right away isn't the norm.

Nevertheless, Steele came up with a "right place, right time" category for coaches who will immediately produce better results. He labeled Urban as such because he pulled in a highly regarded recruiting class and inherited quite a bit of talent from a team who had trouble closing out games last year.

All in all, Steele is confident in Urban's inaugural season with the Buckeyes, writing, "He has the perfect QB in Braxton Miller to run his offense and OSU makes both my Most Improved and Surprise Team lists!"³

He expects other familiar names—such as Mike Leach (Washington State), Tim Beckman (Illinois), Rich Rod (Arizona), Charlie Weis (Kansas), and Bob Davie (New Mexico)—to improve their new programs this season, although in some cases, there was nowhere to go but up.

MARK IT DOWN. We're finally approaching the end of preseason predictions, but until that first kickoff, Divination class is still in session.

We've got our Haynes on the first team

ESPN's Mark Schlabach forecasted each of the six major conferences, and his guess for the Big Ten is a title matchup between Wisconsin and Michigan, with the Badgers coming out on top. Right now, I'm in agreement with him on that prediction as well as this one:

Michigan will end its four-game losing streak to rival Michigan State but will fall to Ohio State in new Buckeyes coach Urban Meyer's first appearance in "The Game." The Buckeyes are ineligible for a bowl game because of NCAA sanctions, but Meyer will have them motivated to beat the Wolverines.

I think that whether Michigan wins the Legends Division is predicated on how well their defensive line sorts itself out. If they struggle with consistency, then Michigan State will probably Tresselball their way to another trip to Indy. There are two reasons why I've been reluctant to pick MSU as the Legends champs: their conference schedule, including a brutal month of October, is more difficult than Michigan's, and as we know, Sparty can't help but pull a Sparty at some point in the season. 

Meanwhile, Mark Snyder of the Detroit Free Press offered his thoughts on how he sees the Leaders Division shaking out. Because he believes Braxton Miller will pretty much go HAM this season, one "bold prediction" of his is that "Ohio State will regret not self-imposing the bowl ban last year." Uh, I think we've held that opinion for a while, buddy. 

Whereas Schlabach considered Illinois a dark horse in the B1G, Snyder picked Purdue as the most likely challenger to Wisconsin for the Leaders winner. Hey, stranger things have happened...and almost all of them in West Lafayette. 

STRAIGHT FROM THE DIENHART. Now that they've watched every B1G team in practice, BTN is previewing each division in hour-long specials. The Legends one airs tonight at 8pm and the Leaders episode will air tomorrow night at the same time.

BTN's Tom Dienhart provided some random observations from their trip around the conference, and it would seem like Ohio State is the popular kid at school. Not only did he call Urban the "coolest coach" but he also named Ohio State the "best-looking team." Well, when you have a player on the roster with the nickname "El Guapo", that's pretty much a no-brainer.

Dienhart's other obvious, but correct, choices were labeling Kerry Coombs as the "most intense coach" and giving the circle drill the top grade.  

I take issue, though, with his reflections about Michigan. For one, he considered his best interview to be with Brady Hoke, and secondly, he regarded the music selection at UM to be better than anywhere else. Granted, he was at practice. Still, let's just say that I would bet a large sum of money that they'll play "Call Me Maybe", but not until two years from now. They've also been known to cue up "Sweet Caroline"...

DIAMOND CUT. And on that note, Penn State will no longer sing along to "Sweet Caroline" at Beaver Stadium, supposedly because of the "touching you touching me" part of the song, though PSU has refuted that claim. According to them, it's simply time for a new playlist. Oh, okay. Paterno's gone, so perhaps they decided everything else from the 60s needed to be as well. 

No offense to Neil Diamond—"Thank the Lord for the Night Time" rocks—but I endorse this decision whatever the reasoning behind it. We should all support original music choices in sports, ones that are exclusive to a team and not adopted by almost everyone else and then overplayed so that if you hear a certain song ONE MORE TIME, you'll rupture your own eardrum for sweet relief. 

I mean, Urban Meyer has repeatedly mentioned how special "Hang on Sloopy" is. You don't hear him saying anything about "Seven Nation Army." 

CLICK ON THE DRAW. More Michigan music: Denard should probably start taking out restraining orders already... Meet Miami (OH) QB Zac Dysert... Don't call it a comeback, but SMQ returns... Fifth-year senior Matt Roth is an oversigning victim at Indiana... This would give Cavs fans the chance to make "I Believe I Can Lie" jokes... Grantland's holding a greatest sequel tournament now... If Neil Armstrong had been a troll... Fictional towns that are characters too.

• ¹ Whenever I hear that, I start singing "Tuesday, Bloody Tuesday" in my head. ↑
• ² That song will forever remind me of Stephanie Tanner's dance recital. ↑
• ³ Some may think that's a haphazard exclamation point, but I think it's warranted. ↑