Wednesday Skull Session

Wednesday's Skull Session will offer some commentary on things happening around the world of college sports. 

There is always something happening in the world of Ohio State athletics. If that were not the case, we here at Eleven Warriors may not have much to discuss.

Yesterday evening, we brought you word of Ohio State adding its third verbal commitment of the 2015 recruiting class. Ben Edwards, of Jacksonville's Trinity Christian Academy, puts Ohio State's 2015 recruiting class as two-thirds Floridian. The other commitment, Jamel Dean, is from Cocoa in Brevard County. The lone Ohioan to date is Eric Glover-Williams of McKinley High School in Canton.

Also, you saw the basketball game last night. That could've gone better.

Anyway, this feature will focus entirely on football.

 ZACH SMITH PICKING UP ACCOLADES. When Urban Meyer formed his first coaching staff upon his arrival at Ohio State, it seemed like Zach Smith, the wide receiver coach, was the "project". He is the grandson of Earle Bruce. Much like Urban Meyer got his start as a graduate assistant for Earle Bruce, Bruce's grandson got his coaching start at Florida for Urban Meyer. Connections matter in this business.

It is not the case that Smith is not a quality coach. It is just the case that he only got his first assistant coaching position in 2010. He is only 29-years-old and coaches a position where, conceivably, head coach and former wide receivers coach, Urban Meyer, can offer input and oversight. 

As a result, he is also the lowest paid assistant coach on the staff. His first few recruiting efforts underscored that, famously losing Taivon Jacobs to a signing day flip to future Big Ten foe, Maryland.

Now, there is no mistaking Zach Smith's recruiting bona fides. Perhaps the weak link in recruiting on Urban Meyer's past two staffs, Smith arguably had the best haul of any of the assistants at Ohio State. Landing Johnnie Dixon (currently enrolled) and Jaylyn Holmes, Smith was named the Big Ten recruiter of the year by both Scout.com and, now, Rivals.

Head coach Urban Meyer put Smith on some of the Buckeyes' toughest out-of-state recruiting battles in this 2014 class, and the second-year wide receivers coach was responsible for several of those out-of-state four-star wins. [...] There are coaches in the Big Ten that pulled in more commits, but none won as many impressive battles as Smith.

That list included Noah Brown, Johnnie Dixon, and Jaylyn Holmes. Get it, coach.

Rivals.com listed nine other Big Ten assistant coaches (in alphabetical order) who had great performances on the recruiting trail in 2014. Ed Warinner was the only other Ohio State assistant coach mentioned. He was praised for nabbing Jamarco Jones, Demetrius Knox, Curtis Samuel, Kyle Trout, flipping Brady Taylor, and assisting with Noah Brown.

When put this way, it is any wonder Warinner was not the Big Ten recruiter of the year.

HOT SPORTS TAKES, COMING THROUGH. I am fully aware that this is a hot-button issue in the world of football, but it is also the issue in football right now. The treatment here will be brief and with broad strokes.

Michael Sam announcing to professional football that he is gay just two months before he goes through the NFL Draft selection process is a pivotal moment for the NFL and cannot be dismissed as anything other than that. It has also elicited a variety of stories about the announcement, including the New York Times finding Sam's father and allowing him to communicate his disappointment.

Last Tuesday, Michael Sam Sr. was at a Denny’s near his home outside Dallas to celebrate his birthday when his son sent him a text message.

Dad, I’m gay, he wrote.

The party stopped cold. “I couldn’t eat no more, so I went to Applebee’s to have drinks,” Sam Sr. said. “I don’t want my grandkids raised in that kind of environment.

“I’m old-school,” he added. “I’m a man and a woman type of guy.” As evidence, he pointed out that he had taken an older son to Mexico to lose his virginity.

There is definitely a lot to digest in those four paragraphs. You are free to do that on your own accord, if you think it useful.

There is no shortage of questions to ask and topics to explore regarding Michael Sam's announcement. Yesterday, a Sports Illustrated team of Greg Bishop, Thayer Evans and Joan Niesen decided to offer their own angle with this provocative title.

As Missouri supports Michael Sam, will rivals negatively recruit?

Oh boy. Proceed.

The outpouring of support is what makes the following news so disheartening. Multiple SEC assistants say that Sam's coming out will be used by rival schools to negatively recruit against Missouri. "Coaches are going to be all over this," said one assistant at another school.

If that sounds like backward thinking, that's because it is. It also provides insight into the way football coaches operate. Some are tactful in how they approach things. Others, not so much.

"It's a powder keg just waiting to explode," the assistant said.

The assistant predicts that opposing coaches will pose a number of questions. "Why did [Missouri] cover this up?" the assistant said. "What else are they hiding? What were they trying to do? Keep a secret society?"

He added: "I can see it getting really ugly."

Hmm.

A lot knee-jerk reactions follow. 

For one, even the most ruthlessly competitive head coaches like an Urban Meyer or Nick Saban are going to find other things to say about Missouri beyond "it had an openly gay player for a year and everyone respected Sam's wishes to not say anything about it until Sam himself was ready to make the announcement on his own terms."

In terms of ammunition for negatively recruiting against Missouri, that would have to be way low on the list. If it is not in the basement of things to say against Missouri, it is at least beneath the first floor flooring. You would likely hear "it gets cold and snows in Missouri, y'all. Hotty Toddy!" from Hugh Freeze (no pun intended?) before that.

Second, college football coaches are (usually) not morons. They are also aware, given NCAA regulations, if they say that comment to the wrong recruit and he tells the world about it, there is very little damage control the coach can do amid a wave of national backlash. Coaches cannot directly address comments from an unsigned recruit in public. No coach looks forward to damage control, especially when it would elicit the wrath of not just college football media, but national media.

Third, "secret society"? Really? Did Gary Pinkel go from driving while intoxicated to running a chapter of the Skull and Bones upon the transition to the SEC?

Beyond all that, do notice that was one unnamed assistant coach, somewhere in the vast world of college football, offering those comments. That was it. The rest of the article was supporting information about Sam's announcement to his team in August and Sam's announcement to the world over the weekend. All of that information could have been gathered elsewhere.

In short, I think this is another case where a prominent Sports Illustrated writer penned a tantalizing premise to his article and hoped the results would follow. George Dohrmann did that when asking "how deep it went" for Tressel.

Thayer Evans, no stranger to hitting and missing for Sports Illustrated, seemed to do it again as part of this team. It might be time to take away his platform for crimes against journalism.

Sports Illustrated needs to stop making this same mistake.

MARYLAND SEEKS B1G RESULTS. Want to know how firmly we are entrenched in the college football off-season? We are about to talk Maryland football. Yes, that Maryland.

Maryland will be one of two new additions to the Big Ten when Jim Delany decided that it could cheer up Penn State by getting it two new puppies on the Eastern Seaboard. Rather than expand to include athletic powerhouses, the Big Ten expanded to include two athletic departments so cash-strapped that it is hoping Big Ten cash can solve its money woes.

Get excited, everybody.

ESPN's Big Ten Blog profiled Maryland football as it prepares for its first season in the Big Ten. It starts conference play on September 27 against Indiana. The contention is that Maryland is looking for results in the B1G, not necessarily a transformation into a "Big Ten team", or whatever that means.

But the Maryland team that makes its Big Ten debut on Sept. 27 at Indiana won't have a dramatically different design from the squad that played in the ACC last season or the season before. The Terrapins don't want to be Big Ten wannabes. They want to be themselves in 2014 -- hopefully a healthier and better version of themselves. 

"We're going to be who we are," Edsall told ESPN.com. "We're not going to change and say everybody in the Big Ten does this or that. We're going to try to make people adapt to us. We're not going to adapt to them." 

So who are these Terrapins? 

They run a no-huddle, spread offense that boasts one of the Big Ten's best returning receiving corps. Maryland returns five players who recorded at least 450 receiving yards in 2013, including Stefon Diggs, the one-time Ohio State recruiting target, and Deon Long. Both Diggs and Long were averaging more than 15 yards per reception before both suffered broken legs in an October loss to Wake Forest. 

I mean, okay. Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska, Northwestern, and Ohio State all run hurry-up, spread offenses, some better than others. "Spread" is such an umbrella term that I doubt it means anything anymore. Offenses in the Big Ten as diverse as Purdue, Michigan, and Wisconsin dabble with "spread". 

The difference is that Illinois runs a "no-huddle, spread offense" and gets incinerated by Michigan State and Wisconsin. Maryland ran a "no-huddle, spread offense" and was incinerated by Florida State and Wake Forest.

I did find this amusing.

"I don't see that being a huge adjustment," O'Brien said. "There are some huge, loud stadiums in the Big Ten, but you have Clemson, Florida State, Virginia Tech [in the ACC]. Football is big everywhere." 

Maryland will play at Camp Randall at the end of October and will play at Beaver Stadium and Michigan Stadium in November. That kickoff at Michigan will almost assuredly be a noon game. If Beaver Stadium is a 3:30 kickoff, that will finish under Beaver Stadium lights.

If Edsall thinks Clemson is loud (by the way, it really is not), he will be in for a rude awakening in Beaver Stadium. General rule in the Big Ten is to not provoke Penn State fans regarding Beaver Stadium's atmosphere.

Ohio State plays at Maryland on Oct. 4.

MISCELLANY. Rest in peace, Shirley Temple... Tom Brokaw has cancer, though his diagnosis is optimistic... Vaught-Hemingway Stadium at Ole Miss covered in snow... Not a good typo... Illinois and Connecticut schedule a home-and-home absolutely no one wants to watch... Browns clean house yet again... Gary Andersen interviewed with the Browns, and Jim Tressel did not... The Charlie Weis experiment at Kansas just keeps getting better... Italian soccer player celebrates goal by breaking plexiglass with his head and gets a red card... J.J. Watt is great at everything... The Daily Show's take on Michael Sam, complete with napalming Tim Tebow and just about everyone else...