How's everyone doing? Good?
By now, I am sure you have all heard about Eat Too Brutus IV. The weekend festivities include both the gameday tailgate before the Wisconsin game, as well as the Gold Pants Social the night before. The Gold Pants Social will be attended by several Ohio State luminaries, such as Mike Tomczak, Craig Krenzel, as well as former coaches Earle Bruce and John Cooper. What is better than seeing these Ohio State legends, hanging out with your fellow 11W readers, drinking and eating and having a good time before a fiery death awaits Wisconsin on Saturday evening in Ohio Stadium? Well, if everything involved was for charity. Proceeds go to the Gold Pants Club and DownSyndrome Achieves. You should buy tickets, pronto.
Today's Skull Session will cover a lot of ground. After all, fall camp starts tomorrow.
SERIOUSLY, FALL CAMP STARTS TOMORROW. When the calendar turned from July to August, we entered a football month. The next month entirely without football will be March 2014. Thank your appropriate deity.
Ohio State's fall camp starts Aug. 4. That is tomorrow. Media will get to view 30 minutes of the freshman practice tomorrow morning, but no more.
Take your pick of conversation points during fall camp. For example, is Rod Smith, the heir apparent at the tailback position with Hyde suspended in the short term, over his fumble problems? How good is Braxton Miller in his third year in the program (and second year with a real offensive coaching staff)? Who is our right tackle? What will our receiver corp resemble? What freshmen will get the most coverage in post-practice reports? Does the team "look" like a No. 2-ranked team that is trying to dethrone Alabama?
What concerns you the most entering fall camp?
Tomorrow's events will not be that action-packed. No one will be in pads until this Friday. Two-a-days are scheduled for Friday of this week, and Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of next week. Fall camp ends on Aug. 20 as the fall semester starts the next day.
Still, it is coming...
DEATH, TAXES, WHO IS "OVERRATED" IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL. These things are all certain. One very predictable consequence of the release of the Coaches Poll this week was we would already start to hear about who is "overrated" in the rankings. It is an unavoidable fact of life and there is nothing you can do about it.
The first hot take came from Travis Haney (of ESPN's Insider), which pegged Ohio State (No. 2) and Texas A&M (No. 6) as overrated. The article in question is behind a pay wall, and is likely not worth whatever sum of money ESPN wants for its hot takes, but I can guess the reasons why here.
Ohio State was the only undefeated team from last year and returns all but one offensive starter. This includes a Heisman-caliber quarterback and an offensive line that played like one of the nation's three best units as the season concluded. All but the right tackle, himself a converted tight end, return. Further, it plays in a conference that has less the pitfalls and traps of the Southeastern Conference. Still, replacing the attrition on defense is no easy task. Urban Meyer and his defensive assistants are hoping to punt this issue to its 2012 and 2013 recruiting classes to fill the gaps.
However, freshmen are still freshmen, no matter their star ranking. Ohio State's sophomores from its 2012 recruiting class are still mostly green. Ohio State's defensive ends should be as good as it gets, but defensive tackle play has the potential to be average at best. This would expose an inconsistent linebacker corp at the proverbial second level, creating rushing opportunities for opposing offenses. The surest linebacker Ohio State has, Ryan Shazier, was susceptible to exactly this problem in last year's Wisconsin game. He was routinely bullied by Wisconsin's guards through the game, leading to 191 rushing yards for Montee Ball. There is no Johnathan Hankins on this team. Is Tommy Schutt ready?
How good is Ohio State's secondary, exactly? Bradley Roby is a future first round draft pick, though we do not know yet what discipline he will receive for his recent skylarings in Bloomington, Indiana. His compatriots in the secondary have not shown much to present themselves as an elite unit. Christian Bryant is a box safety, but those are becoming a dying breed as modern safeties are being asked to be diligent against both run and pass. Bryant struggles at times in this regard. The whole team did last year, finishing 11th in the league in pass defense. Ohio State will play two teams that could potentially have fans pull their hair out on this topic: California and Northwestern. Both are road games, at night. Indiana, the team that set Ohio State's defense on fire last year, plays Ohio State in the Horseshoe in 2013. Ohio State fans forget how patchwork that defense was last year.
Ohio State could win these games, even win them handily despite Hyde and Roby's respective issues, and we may still not know a lot about the Buckeyes. Such is the nature of Ohio State's schedule. Having Vanderbilt walk from its contract with Ohio State did not help, nor did the decision to schedule Florida A&M.
I would understand these points, though I am obviously optimistic and hopeful for Ohio State's 2013 football season.
As for Texas A&M? Well, here is my hot take. Whatever Haney said about why Texas A&M is overrated, I am likely going to agree with it. I know Manziel set SEC records aplenty last year, but A&M's competition was not exactly ideal. Texas A&M played Alabama, Louisiana State, and Florida, but A&M won only one of those three games. Fortunately, for Manziel and Texas A&M's fans, they happened to win the one that mattered. This is a recurring theme in the SEC lately...
Should we argue that it is impressive that Texas A&M ran over the SEC West last year (sans Louisiana State)? That division included John L. Smith's Arkansas squad, Gene Chizik's zombie Auburn program, and the two Mississippi schools. That is a combined 22-28 record.
That much is qualitative argument about last year's team. This year's team may not benefit from an elite offensive line. Manziel was creative, even devilish with the ball at times, but had the important luxury of playing behind a stone wall. Did you watch that Alabama game? Last year's Alabama team was not great at the pass rush, despite the national title win, but they got nothing against Manziel. They could not touch him. Two of those offensive line starters graduated. The biggest loss may be Luke Joeckel, who protected Manziel's blind side.
This does not even bring up Manziel's, shall we say, "eventful" offseason (which I will not belabor here), or the defection of Kliff Kingsbury to Texas Tech. The SEC did the Aggies a favor by not giving them a return trip to Gainesville in 2013 (for some reason), but a road trip to Baton Rouge looms large. Further, I have no doubt Nick Saban has murder on the mind, and has a bye week before that game. Can lighting strike twice for Texas A&M? It seems unlikely.
What say you? Who do you think is "overrated" in the Coaches Poll, or even underrated?
Cris Carter with an early version of his Canton bust.CRIS CARTER WILL BE INDUCTED INTO CANTON TODAY. This third item is more of a public service announcement. Cris Carter, arguably Ohio State's most successful professional wide receiver from a program that is known for churning out pros in bunches, will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame today. The ceremony will be televised at 7PM ET on ESPN2 and the NFL Network.
Cris Carter's big day has led to a renewed interest in his long, and winding road from Middletown, Ohio to Canton, Ohio. I discussed this earlier this year when he was first announced as a future hall of famer.
Carter's triumph was not his perfect career, because he was not perfect. He was far from it. Carter exited Ohio State in disgrace and somewhat torpedoed Ohio State's 1987 season, which led to Earle Bruce's firing after that season. For his role in a wide-reaching NCAA amateur eligibility scandal at the time, Carter was convicted of obstruction of justice and mail fraud. His cooperation with investigators allowed him to avoid jail time in lieu of community service and a $15,000 fine. Carter's success is certainly despite his rocky start, but it is reason to celebrate his career all the more. This is true with or without that mythical Super Bowl ring.
For those watching the ceremony on TV, look into the crowd. You might see some special guests of Cris Carter. Bill Conley, Carter's high school coach at Middletown and long-time Ohio State football assistant, will be there. Earle Bruce, his college head coach, will be there. Further, Urban Meyer will be there. Meyer was a graduate assistant for Carter's last year at Ohio State, but graduate assistants in those days could also double as position coaches. Meyer coached wide receivers at Ohio State before Bruce was fired.
In honor of Cris Carter, I present here his signature moment while playing for Ohio State. This was his famous catch during the 1985 Citrus Bowl of a ball that Jim Karsatos was trying to throw out of bounds.
MISCELLANY. R.I.P. Dick Kazmaier. The Toledo, Ohio native was a champion of Title IX and was the last Ivy League football player to win the Heisman... Thank you, Iowa State football, for bringing this Earle Bruce photo to my attention... Roll Damn Spell Check... Clint Dempsey en route to Seattle from Tottenham Hotspur... Remember that exemption Penn State football players got to transfer after the NCAA sanctions were levied? That window closes on Monday... Riley Cooper excused from team activities to seek counseling... Former Ohio State Buckeye, and current Anaheim Angel, J.B. Shuck did this in a game last night... Greg Oden will sign with the Miami Heat.
