Wednesday's Skull Session will offer some commentary on things happening in the world of college athletics. Ohio State plays its final home game this Saturday against the Indiana Hoosiers. This game sounds like a layup, all else equal. Ohio State will certainly be favored.
However, Indiana's offense, and Ohio State's spotty at times defense, may cause Ohio State fans to pull their hair out during the course of the game. The Illinois win wasn't as convincing as we all would have liked, nor was last year's contest against the Hoosiers in Bloomington pleasant for anyone involved.
Toward that end, we'll start with a discussion of the depth chart for this week's game.
NEW DEPTH CHART RELEASED. Ohio State released a new depth chart for senior day against Indiana. Perhaps calling it "new depth chart" is a misnomer. There are no real changes from last week's depth chart. For that matter, there were no changes in last week's depth chart from the depth chart for the Purdue game, the last game before Ohio State's second bye of the season.
One small change was observed at defensive tackle behind Michael Bennett. Michael Hill, the true freshman from Pendelton, South Carolina, was removed from the depth chart for this week. All this does is affirm what we have known for some time. Michael Hill recently had surgery for an injury suffered midway through the season and will take a medical redshirt for his first year at Ohio State.
There were no other changes on top of that. Items of interest include Josh Perry and Curtis Grant, both starting linebackers who were eleventh hour scratches before the game in Champaign. Both are still listed as starters, though Ohio State will play base nickel packages against the Hoosiers.
Kenny Guiton is still listed as the first team holder.
GIL BRANDT IS THAT GUY. We might as well discuss this.
Gil Brandt, a former Vice President of Player Personnel for the Dallas Cowboys and current writer for NFL.com, happens to be a Harris Poll voter. The Harris Poll is part of the BCS formula. In a column on NFL.com yesterday, he offered the following announcement.
I love Ohio State, love what Urban Meyer has done with that program since taking it over two years ago. Winning 22 straight games is not an easy accomplishment.
With that said, I like Baylor even more. That's why I moved the Bears ahead of Ohio State on my Harris Poll ballot this week. And I did it with confidence and conviction.
He goes on.
You give me a neutral field and put both of those teams on it, and I don't think it's even close. No offense to Ohio State, because the Buckeyes are well-coached and have excellent players, many of whom will contribute at the next level. But because of the way football is played today offensively, where players are spread out all over the field, really good Big Ten teams like Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State and Wisconsin will always be sizable underdogs against their SEC, Pac-12 -- as well as many of their ACC and Big 12 -- counterparts.
And it all comes down to two things: Speed and quickness.
I was on the sideline of Baylor's 63-34 victory over Texas Tech on Saturday. The speed at which the game was played was impressive, especially by Baylor.
Now watch a Big Ten game, and you'll notice most of the skill players are plodders. That's less criticism than it is factual. That type of athlete used to work years ago when offenses were constructed in a phone booth, with most of the formations and action taking place between the hashmarks.
Not any more. Speed and quickness are the biggest reasons for success in today's college game of spread offenses. If a team got ahead, 20-7, like Texas Tech did Saturday night, it was lights out. But now, the score can change so fast because of speed and quickness. It did for Baylor, which went on to outscore the Red Raiders 56-14 the rest of the way.
I could pass this off as one guy's opinion, man, a la the Big Lebowski. However, this type of ignorance is dangerous, and not just ignorance for ignorance's sake. That Brandt began this column by proudly proclaiming that his ignorance has repercussions for the BCS makes it important.
First things first: no argument the Big Ten is relatively lousy, certainly when compared to what it was before 2007. Much of this is a function of poor investments from athletic departments in gridiron success. Compare the median coaching salary in the Big Ten with the median coaching salary in the SEC, and you'll get a drift of what the Big Ten needs to do, league-wide.
For example, a program like Illinois is losing Chicagoland-area recruits to programs like Ole Miss, USC, and LSU. A competent coaching staff wouldn't let that happen, and it should be a program like Minnesota or Purdue kicking Illinois while it's down. Not Ole Miss.
However, Brandt suggests Ohio State loses to Baylor "and I don't think it's even close" because the conference with Illinois and Purdue is somehow measurably behind the conference with Kansas and Iowa State. How that can be inferred, prima facie, is anyone's guess. Brandt addresses Illinois' crappiness, but not the crappiness of several teams in the Big XII, or the SEC, ACC, and Pac-12 for that matter. The latter two conferences have a few really good teams, and several horrific ones.
Reference to Baylor's ability to score points doesn't lend confidence to his critical thinking skills either. Texas Tech's wanging of a 20-7 lead early says little of "speed and quickness", and more of Texas Tech's inability to hold a 20-7 lead it had acquired with 3:25 left in the first quarter. There were a full 45 minutes-plus to play. When, except in the most lopsided matchups, was a 13-point first quarter lead ever definitive, especially against a team that conceded 165 points in its last four games combined (all losses)?
His comments about Carlos Hyde are so poor that it borders on comical.
Carlos Hyde is a powerful back but will he be able to get separation in the open field at the next level?
How many NFL running backs can do this, exactly? Trent Richardson could in the SEC, but can't in the NFL. Not every back is Adrian Peterson or Chris Johnson. If they were, it would be a running league, and not a passing league. The NFL isn't particularly good overall at the latter, and it's not good at the former.
I don't pretend to know where Hyde will end up being drafted. All it takes is one team.
Well, that was informative. I don't know where Hyde will be drafted either. My best guess would be a later round, because that's where most running backs get drafted for the NFL. Why should Hyde be different, and why would that matter?
And, yes, all it takes is one team. It's how Tim Tebow can be drafted in the first round, or why the Oakland Raiders have done the crazy things they have done in recent drafts. Where is this going, exactly?
I watched Ohio State beat up on Illinois earlier in the day. Running back Carlos Hyde, a good player with great balance, scored five touchdowns in the game, two from beyond 50 yards. But what got my attention is how a slow defensive Illini team was able to catch him from behind on a 26-yard run at the end of the first quarter. It's a small thing, but very telling of his lack of speed and quickness.
Is that comment "very telling" of Hyde's "lack of speed and quickness", or is it "very telling" of the Illinois defensive back's ability to take a proper angle and use his own speed to run him down?
This article fails that badly at basic inference it would otherwise not be worth knocking down. Nonetheless, Brandt premised his argument by reference to his credentials as a Harris Poll voter, and his ability to use his ignorance as a weapon. Fun stuff.
Basically, if you want to compare Baylor against Ohio State in a hypothetical matchup, that's your business. Given bowl tie-ins, both teams won't play each other unless they find themselves in Pasadena for the BCS National Championship Game. It's not too much to ask that those in a position to make these statements, and influence the selection process, be better at it.
CARLOS HYDE AS MORE THAN A "GROWN MAN". Finally, let's do something a bit lighter than dwell on Ohio State's ability to get torpedoed in the BCS because of the lack of functional critical thinking skills. Tom Herman stopped by CBS Sports' "Fast Football" to do a phone interview about Ohio State's offense this season to date.
His comments largely dwelled on Braxton Miller and Carlos Hyde. Both were labeled the "heart and soul" of Ohio State's offense during the course of this interview (though not necessarily by Herman). Miller was the heart. Hyde was the soul.
Herman's comments on Miller were largely effusive in praise, talking about his increased ability of knowing when to throw the ball, when receivers will be open, and what is the space in which to throw the ball in coverage. He did mention that Miller may have taken a step back in his development in the last game against Illinois. How much of that is a function of Champaign's legendary wind is unknown, at least to me.
Herman's comments about Carlos Hyde may have been more glowing. When prompted by one of the personalities on "Fast Football" that Hyde would be what he would call a "grown man" in the South, Tom Herman corrected him by saying that, in the Midwest, we should add a three-letter word that begins with "a" to add between "grown" and "man".
Unintentionally echoing Gil Brandt's comments in his aforementioned NFL.com column, Herman concluded by saying that if Hyde isn't what every NFL team is looking for in a running back, he must not know the league very well.
MISCELLANY. An update on Christian Bryant, who will be honored as an outgoing senior this Saturday... No. 6 Duke survives East Carolina... First place feels good... Iowa wins a championship... Rutgers has another coaching abuse scandal... Prison battle of the bands... Former Buckeye Donte Whitner can't change his name while the season is ongoing... Portugal eliminates Sweden from the World Cup finals in Brazil next year... Also advancing: Croatia, France, Ghana, Greece, and more... Why the investigation into Jameis Winston stalled... Do judgment calls favor the home team?... Does momentum exist?... Alabama loses a decommit to USC... Baylor loses an offensive tackle to surgery for the rest of the season... UCLA suspends offensive tackle after an arrest for sexual assault...
