We're well into the summer, at least the summer by your sports standards. Your sports viewing options right now are the NBA Finals, the NHL Western Conference Playoffs, baseball, and soccer.
It is, however, a fairly eventful weekend for Ohio State athletics, as we'll see in the first item of Saturday's Skull Session.
FRESHMEN ON CAMPUS. Do you remember that big day when you moved into the dorm to start college? Were you around to tweet it, or Instagram it, or Vine it? Was anyone beyond you or your parents interested in the move? Odds are, no, to all questions. Well, that is if you're old like me.
Today, the freshmen for both men's basketball and football start checking into campus and preparing for the summer semester. On Monday, the two men's basketball enrollees, Kameron Williams and Marc Loving, start strength and conditioning training with Dave Richardson.
The freshmen on the football team are probably going to garner even more excitement from Ohio State fans. Much like 2002, when freshmen like Bobby Carpenter, Maurice Clarett, and A.J. Hawk pushed a great team to become a national title team, this year's crop of freshmen will have the (hopeful) effect of making Ohio State's 2013 team a national championship-caliber squad.
Already, we've seen enthusiastic tweets from players or program assistants about which freshmen have already made it to Columbus.
Landed safely in Columbus!
— James Clark (@GotEmCoach2) June 7, 2013
Attention Buckeye Fans: Mike Mitchell has arrived in CBus! #thefuture #GoBucks
— Ron Miles (@bigronniemiles) June 7, 2013
Unlike me enrolling at Ohio State in 2002, I have no doubt there will be plenty of Twittering from the freshmen about buying dorm room supplies at the Target at the Lennox Town Center on Olentangy River Road, or Instgramming photos of trying to assemble a dorm room bed. While you're surfing Twitter to pass your Saturday, make sure to follow along as a means to further excitement about the upcoming season of Ohio State football.
ASSISTANT COACH RECRUITING RANKINGS. I'm not sure this list provided by 247Sports is anything more than a means to measuring something that is substantively interesting. I question the validity of the measure right now, but I laud the intent.
If nothing else, it's interesting and gives us something to talk about during the offseason.
247Sports unveiled a list of assistant coaches by how well they have been recruiting for this year's recruiting class (2014). It's fluid, but, again, interesting.
The best assistant coach/recruiter in the Big Ten comes in at #7 on this list. Can you guess who it is? I'll give you a hint: it's not an Ohio State assistant coach, and, curiously, it's not a Michigan assistant coach either.
Give up? It's Ben Strickland, the cornerbacks coach for Wisconsin. He was retained by Gary Andersen after Bert left for Arkansas. While Ohio State fans are inclined to dismiss Wisconsin recruiting as mostly confined to Wisconsin, it's exactly the reputation that Strickland has among that state's high school football coaches that has made him a young success story in Madison. It's also why Gary Andersen was eager to retain him. He is currently listed as primary recruiter on five of Wisconsin's six commitments.
The next Big Ten assistant coach on the list if Ohio State's Mike Vrabel, who is listed at #9. Vrabel is listed as the primary recruiter for Dante Booker, Parris Campbell, Lonnie Johnson, Dylan Thompson.
The next Big Ten assistant coach mentioned is Reese Morgan, the defensive line coach at Iowa. He is at #21 on this list, for some reason.
Luke Fickell and Kerry Coombs are #6 and #8 respectively among just the sample of Big Ten assistants.
Michigan's Greg Mattison is listed at #24 among just the Big Ten coaches. You can see why I'm beginning to suspect there's measurement error in this list, that should, ideally, rectify itself in January.
This child actor wants to play football for Ohio State. A BUCKEYE LEGACY IN 2015? I have a special place in my heart for Ohio State legacies, as a second generation Ohio State graduate myself. Granted, I wasn't very athletic at all, but it makes me that much happier to see a second generation Buckeye football player.
Frank Epitropolous, a class of 2012 signee beginning his redshirt freshman year in 2013, was our most recent legacy player. Our last high profile legacy was Duron Carter, though, which didn't turn out like anyone wanted. In fact, one son of a former Ohio State captain had a chance to become a Buckeye himself and signed with Michigan.
I guess that's payback for Ohio State signing Anthony Gonzalez, T.J. Downing, and two of three Boren brothers. Ohio State even graduated the one Boren it didn't sign to a National Letter of Intent.
The latest name to surface as a possible second generation Buckeye is C.J. Sanders, a wide receiver prospect from Nashville, Tennessee. C.J. Sanders is the son of Chris Sanders, a former Ohio State wide receiver from Denver, Colorado. Chris Sanders was a two-sport athlete for the university, setting a few track and field records. He was also a multi-year starter whose senior season was in 1994. Chris Sanders was a third round draft pick of the Houston Oilers, turn Tennessee Titans, in the 1995 NFL Draft. He last played in the league in 2002, but not before establishing roots in Nashville.
Of course, being the son of a well-regarded Ohio State wide receiver and former recipient of the university's "athlete of the year" distinction isn't the only identifying mark for C.J. Sanders. He's actually a child actor. His most famous role was that of the young Ray Charles in the Academy Award-winning film Ray.
Other credits include First Sunday and appearances in TV shows like Cold Case and Grey's Anatomy.
C.J. Sanders is a prospect in next year's recruiting class (2015), so the process is still rather nascent for him. That said, he already has offers from Mississippi State, Stanford, and Tennessee.
Where does Ohio State fit into his picture? Well, he's a big fan. His father has talked up his time at Ohio State, including playing with luminaries like Joey Galloway and Terry Glenn (obligatory link). Though his father is not pushing him one way or the other (in fact, his mom is a Michigan graduate), Ohio State has been a part of his life. C.J. craves an Ohio State offer.
Selfishly, I hope he eventually gets an offer, though the evaluating process for 2015 has just started for Ohio State's coaches.
MISCELLANY. What was that, Tracy McGrady?... Chris Perez. That's the joke... Creative ways to pile on Dwight Howard are always encouraged... Brian Williams regulates... Texas A&M loses a 2013 signee to Major League Baseball... USC has five scholarship wide receivers left... Nick Saban can scheme most offenses to rubble, but can't scheme someone to buying his lakefront house in Georgia... Mississippi State football, which you may remember as the team that gave Northwestern its first bowl win in 64 years, is now on probation... Ohio State has more Facebook followers than any other program, and the most overall, but is getting crushed on Twitter... One-time Ohio State recruit, and Miami commit, KC McDermott, has dirt to dish on Urban Meyer.
