Ramzy and I met a guy at Out-R-Inn who smuggled a cooler of beer (and a side of the Devil's Lettuce) into the Out-R-Inn in the wake of the Wisky game. Honestly, knowing there are soldiers of fortune like that just roaming the world made my weekend.
The second highlight was not getting shivved at Eat Too Brutus due to some #hot #internet #takes I've dispensed in the past. So thanks for sparing me, you guys; unless you slipped ricin into my drink, in which case this last paragraph is revoked with extreme prejudice.
Anyway, it's back to business this week because MONEY NEVER SLEEPS or something like that. *slips on shades* Let's rock this.
/SALUTE TO DOM TIBERI. As someone who is blocked on Twitter by 2/3rds of NBC4i Weather Team, I'd like to think I keep my hands to the pulse of local media television entities. Enter Dom Tiberi, who I consider to be the crème de la crème of local television media. (Sorry, Jym Ganahl, me and you still have a blood vendetta!)
Tiberi recently suffered the world's greatest injustice: having to bury his child. After a hiatus, Tiberi recently returned to the airwaves.
Well, Tiberi was in the Horseshoe last Saturday, and after securing the W over the Badgers, the Buckeyes lined up to offer their condolences. (Yes, I Buckshot'd this yesterday, but I'll be damned if it's not worth leading here.)
THE BEST DAMN BAND IN THE LAND: STILL DAMN GOOD. I would rather listen to [a completely gross analogy of which I will spare you] than listen to country music, or as I call it... "whiny noise." That said, TBDBITL can get me to listen to anything. Here's their performance from Saturday:
HI, CREEPY GUY WITH BINOCULARS.BAMA BE CHEATING! The gentleman you see in the grainy cellphone image to the left is Tyler Siskey, Alabama's Associate Director of Player Personnel. There's nothing special about him, other than he was employed by Ole Miss last year.
In the picture to the left, you can see Siskey is getting his creep on during the Ole Miss-Alabama game. The theory goes, Siskey was spying on Ole Miss' playcalling boards, decoding them, and passing them along to Alabama's defensive staff.
As much as I would love this to blow up into the NCAA's version of Spygate, if Ole Miss didn't mix up their signage from last year, then they deserved to be shut out.
Saban, after the game, said there's no rule preventing Siskey from being in the coaches' box. Alas, he is wrong:
Direction violation: NCAA Article 11: Conduct and Employment of Athletics Personnel:
11.7.2.1 Exceptions to Number Limits FBS - No individual other than coaches designated to fill the coaching categories set forth in Bylaw 11.7.2 may participate in any manner in the coaching of the intercollegiate team of a member institution during any football game, practice or other organized activity.
Ole Miss fans are taking these revelations very rationally, which is the hallmark of SEC fandom:
Matthew 27:5 So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself. @tylersiskey
— Jordan Vance (@jordantvance) September 29, 2013
OHIO STATE MIGHT HAVE HELPED KILL EA's NCAA FRANCHISE. Last week, I brought you news of EA Sports putting the dagger in its NCAA series. Yesterday, Kotaku published a very good article about an NCAA developer being laid off in the aftermath of the franchise's death. Hidden in it is this nugget (emphasis mine):
It's unclear how much of this was actually being prepared for next year's game. Howell cautioned that the customization was at a big picture stage, though he and Luhr had design documents dozens of pages thick laying out these features. If College Football 15 could have shipped, with them, the depth of customization—and the ability to share uniforms, complex logos and user-built stadia—could have soothed the sting of conferences like the Pac-12 and Big Ten pulling their trademarks from the series, and a big program—believed to be Ohio State—exiting it altogether.
Knowing how Ohio State operates, this would make absolute sense. It's not as if they're in need of EA's money. On the contrary, would you buy NCAA if you couldn't play as Ohio State? I wouldn't.
SUPPORT FOR CHRISTIAN BRYANT HAS BEEN "STAGGERING." Cleveland.com had a nice article about Christian's impending recovery from a season-ending injury suffered in the waning minutes of the Wisconsin game.
“[Three months] is for the average person, I just want to throw out there,” Bryant’s father, Ronnie, told Cleveland.com in a phone interview Monday afternoon. “Christian isn’t average. He’s not an average person mentally, physically or spiritually.
... "It is just incredible the amount of love and respect people have showed for Christian, and it just shows how much he touched people."
Get well, soon, Christian. Hopefully you'll be ready to ride on Ohio's enemies for the BCS championship game in January.
NDSU's EFFORTS TO RETAIN DICK BOHL. Long time readers of my Skull Sessions (Hi, Dad!), know I'm a big proponent of FCS football (GO GRRRRRRIZZLIES!!!!), so when North Dakota State beat up on Kansas State and held the NCAA's leading rusher (Zach Zenner) to four yards on Saturday, I wasn't that surprised.
NDSU is the two-time defending FCS champion and has an iron-clad grip on the #1 spot in FCS polls. Dick Bohl is the patriarch of that program, and it's assumed it's only a matter of time before a big-time program pries him out of Fargo. The Dickinson Press ran an article about NDSU's administrators attempts to retain his services, and make his exit as difficult as possible:
There’s a one-year window banning Bohl from trying to bring potential NDSU recruits to his new team, though Bresciani sought a two-year ban. Part of Bohl’s new contract requires him to pay the school $100,000 if he takes another NCAA head coaching job.
If he heads to a big-time, bowl-eligible team, Bohl would owe the school twice his current salary — at least $413,000.
Those payouts were one of the final sticking points in negotiations before NDSU announced the coach’s extension Jan. 1.
Emails indicate Bohl and his attorney asked for lower payouts. His previous contract had no such provisions.
You know who might be able to scrounge together the money to pay those kind of prices? A little liberal arts college nestled in a Los Angeles ghetto: University of Southern California.
I'm only semi-kidding — USC, after all, already hired a dick, and that ended in a pyre — but if I were an athletics director making a hire, I would take a long, hard look at Dick Bohl. Could be a modern-day Jimmy Tress waiting in the depths.
THOSE WMDs. Alabama's scheduling of Georgia State gets flamed by... AL.COM!?... NYPD is looking for two guys who parachuted into Manhattan wearing all-black at 3 AM... Two Purdue receivers were arrested... A KISS member was at Ohio Stadium on Saturday?... If USC and Texas go for the same coach, Texas wins... For Silas Redd, signing with Lane Kiffin didn't end well... UT fans vandalized a rock to show disdain for Kiffin... Damn, even a pizza shop went in on Kiffin... DON'T FORGET: 11W IS THROWING A BANGER IN CHICAGO THIS WEEKEND... This guy has eaten nothing but raw meat for five years... 6.35 million people watched Ohio State knock Wisconsin... Browns' Willis McGahee: "I ain't Trent Richardson, but I'm here to play."... Phone app used to cyber-bully concerns Columbus middle school... Ohio State fans attend games via... private jet!?... There's a mere 1,800 unsolved homicides in Ohio...
