Good morning and welcome to the Skull Session. If you're an Ohio State student, welcome to summer!
Tuesday, April 30 was the final day of exams for students in the spring semester, which means that some 60,000 students got to celebrate last night as the 2012-13 school year came to a close1. The Senior Crawl, traditionally on Thursdays before the switch to semesters, was also last night and gave graduating seniors the opportunity to go up and down High Street visiting establishments one final time.
Binge drinking is not something to condone or take lightly2. However, the custom does exist, and take note that plenty of celebrating students don't drink.
On another prestige-related note, the WWE was in town on Monday night for Raw, and ran a skit where the Prime Time Players (Titus O'Neill and Darren Young) deign to visit Urban Meyer's office unannounced. I had no idea how much memorabilia Meyer had in his office. In what might've been another subtle nod to a new Ohio State basketball custom, another wrestler — who ended up winning! — wore Zubaz ironically in the ring. It's a shame it was the wrong color, though.
Speaking of Zubaz (sick segue!), there is some slight news considering a player recently departed from the program. Since Deshaun Thomas declared for the NBA draft, there has been some question over where he will get drafted. He's been slated as a second- rounder for some time because of his between-position size and relative lack of athleticism. This time, however, Thomas lands in the first round at #26 in a CBSSports mock draft. With his scoring ability and presence on very productive Ohio State teams, maybe his star is rising.
Also, now that the NBA Draft entry deadline is past, pre-preseason rankings for the 2013-14 basketball season have some validity. Luke Winn of Sports Illustrated places the Buckeyes at 6th and predicts a Big Ten title caliber team should LaQuinton Ross develop into a consistent, efficient scorer and should Amir Williams flesh out his game.
RECRUITING GOOD PLAYERS IS GOOD, MMMKAY? Now that the NFL Draft is over and most free agent practice squad signings have been completed, here's a look at the Buckeyes on NFL rosters in some capacity.
Ohio State's official website is kind enough to track players in the league last season: 37, on 20 teams. With Hankins, Simon, and Fragel drafted and seven other undrafted free agents, that pushes the total to 47. If you want to include Duron Carter (I understand if you don't), it's 48. Not shabby, but that number will be hard to sustain.
Following the SEC's impressive performance in the NFL Draft (the SEC East and SEC West individually would've had the top two conference outputs), the importance of recruiting is even more key. On the whole, talent development at Ohio State has been pretty solid, even if this year's misstep is cause for concern.
Recruiting is the real difference between the SEC and other leagues, and even factoring in changing demographics, the Big Ten is taking a step back in. Urban Meyer had been outspoken on recruiting before, and had something to say to Josh Kendall of The State newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina:
"Facts are facts right now. Everyone always asks me, what's the difference? The difference is the Big Ten has great players. It's just not enough. The answer is recruiting."
This has been a theme for Meyer. Another quote, if the previous one wasn't blunt enough:
"Recruiting, recruiting, recruiting. Then you know what's most important after recruiting? Recruiting."
I mean, Meyer's right, but this is starting to sound like an Underpants Gnome Plan (NSFW).
- Step 1: Recruit!
- Step 2: ???
- Step 3: Get good recruits/Profit!
What methodology is there to get good at recruiting? The answers boil down to "have good recruiters, be good at identifying talent, have your school be good at football, make a strong pitch for your school, and invest heavily in recruiting." Truisms don't accomplish much, which makes discussing this like a problem to be solved all the more frustrating.
THE EARLY BIRD GETS THE BET. Gambling has its detriments, but say this for it: oddsmakers tend to establish quality predictions for football games with point spreads. The first offshore lines for Week 1 of the college football season have been established, and there are a couple doozies.
For the opening Thursday night, South Carolina is favored by 14.5 over North Carolina and USC is a 19-point favorite over Hawaii. Clemson is favored by 2 over visiting Georgia, and Florida State is an 8.5-point favorite over host Pittsburgh. LSU is favored by 6 in Cowboys Stadium versus TCU in what should be the best game of the week, and the biggest game of the week also happens to be the biggest mismatch: Alabama is a whopping 22-point favorite over Virginia Tech. I dunno about LSU being favored by so much, but they're the professionals. Ohio State's game against Buffalo isn't on the books yet, but when it does the spread should be somewhere in the 30s or 40s.
As the offseason progresses, more opening week games will surely become available. If you're feeling really confident in your ability to outsmart the experts, Week 1 is your time to strike, so plan ahead.
College football was a very different game in 1893. More symmetrical, for one. KICKIN' IT MCKINLEY STYLE. We're in the doldrums of the football offseason, but just because there isn't any live football doesn't mean you can't expand your knowledge of the game.
Understanding the concepts of strategy in football make game action all the more cerebral and appealing. We've got a pretty great resident strategist in Ross Fulton, and Chris Brown of Smart Football is another exceptional analyst. But those guys are concerned with modern football. What about the strategy of classic football?
College football was a very different game in the 19th century: no passing, wedge plays, three downs to advance five yards instead of four to advance ten, virtually no punting, and a strategic imbalance strongly favoring the offense. How, then, to understand strategy in a very different game?
Famed coach Amos Alonzo Stagg wrote a book on that very topic in 1893, A scientific and practical treatise on American football for schools and colleges. Co-written by Henry Llewellyn Williams, it is invaluable as a historical tool for football's development. You can see from the diagrams in the book some similarities to the modern game, such as with the offensive and defensive lines, and methods of scoring. Also refreshing is Stagg's suggestions for how football should be played: overwhelmingly, Stagg advocates brisk, clean, finesse play.
I strongly encourage anyone with an interest in football strategy and some spare time to look at Stagg's book, which can be freely downloaded or viewed online.
NORTH CAROLINA GOLD. Thousands of dollars in jewelry; special privileges given to athletes; tens of thousands of dollars in benefits. This isn't a Tatgate redux but a Duke scandal, one that would surely bring about sanctions and wait, never mind:
The NCAA has finished its inquiry into a 2009 jewelry purchase totaling nearly $100,000 by former Duke basketball player Lance Thomas and found no wrongdoing. There will be no disciplinary action against the school.
The origins of the case were a 2012 lawsuit by jeweler Rafaello and Co. against Thomas, asserting that in 2009 Thomas made a $30,000 down payment on $97,800 dollars worth of jewelry and agreed in writing to pay for the rest of it within 15 days. He did not, and the jeweler sued for the remaining balance.
This case raises some reasonable questions, like "how could a player afford to make a down payment of $30,000?" and "who gives a typical college student a credit line of $65,000?", the answers to which probably don't reflect well on Duke. Fortunately for the university, the NCAA's investigation was essentially useless, and now considers the matter closed. Why?
Both the jeweler and Thomas refused to speak with the NCAA, making a potential investigation difficult. The NCAA does not have subpoena power and cannot force former student-athletes or third parties to talk.
This is the continuation of a long series of missteps for NCAA investigations, which have been criticized as either overreaching their objectives (Miami, USC, Penn State), failing to find fire where there's smoke (Auburn, Oregon, Central Florida) or both (Ohio State). For now, there's not much to do but grin and bear the double standards and schizophrenic application of justice. An accurate form of the attitude of the times:
In a case of interesting timing, North Carolina players have now received division champion rings after finishing with the ACC Coastal Division's best record. North Carolina did not go to the ACC Championship Game because of penalties to go with its academic fraud case; however, none of the current players were involved with that and it's a reward for a quality season. That line of reasoning sounds familiar.
Front, side, and other side are visible here. Though not as good as Ohio State's rings, UNC's rings are nothing to sneeze at. For a lamer ring, try South Carolina's 11 wins ring.
A VALIANT CLOSE. With the beginning of the NHL playoffs on Tuesday night, it's worth looking back over how the Blue Jackets got to within a point of its second-ever postseason.
Few people expected the Blue Jackets to compete for anything: after finishing dead last in points in 2012 and trading away Rick Nash, the Blue Jackets had the longest odds of any franchise to win the Stanley Cup. The first few months of the season did nothing to disprove that; on February 24, the team was 5-12-2, last in the Western Conference. But a run of 12 straight games of earning points put them back in contention for the postseason, thanks especially to hot goaltending by Sergei Bobrovsky.
After trading for Marian Gaborik at the trade deadline, the Blue Jackets made a second run at the playoffs. Going into a six-game West Coast road trip against mostly playoff teams a few points shy of the eighth spot, the odds didn't look good, but the team went 5-1 with four wins by a single goal. An electric home finisher against Nashville forced win-and-in situations for Detroit and Minnesota; unfortunately, both squads won, and the Blue Jackets just missed out.
It hurts to get so close to the playoffs only to fall short, but this team did something more significant than just earning a playoff berth: it revitalized hope that the franchise can someday be viable in Columbus.
SPARE LINKS. The struggle over Junior Seau's brain is unseemly... The 1988 Cleveland Indians roster produced FIVE current managers... Jacksonville Jaguars' Justin Blackmon suspended four games under substance abuse policy... Rhythmic gymnastics is amazing performance art... New Falcons Stadium concept renderings... The Toledo Mud Hens' Chewbacca uniforms... A Wisconsin-Green Bay basketball coach is accused of abusing his player... Hartlepool, England soccer fans dressed as penguins this year and Smurfs last year... Pop-Tart vodka is some weird branding on the heels of Pop-Tart ice cream sandwiches.
