Just so y'all never question my heart — I'm typing this Skull Session with a severe ankle sprain. (This searing pain is why I never crossed a three point line in my basketball career.) Let's get through this before the cortisone wears off.
BYE-WEEK CAUSES BUCKEYES TO FALL IN POLL. I hate polls. Nobody is watching that much college football. Everybody is biased.
Before I get rolling, let's just get to the facts.
- Coaches Poll: Ohio State at No. 20 (down two spots after a disappointing performance against the bye).
- AP: Ohio State at No. 22. (Up one spot.)
Hopefully the next generation can live in a world in which college polls are exiled to Siberia. Meanwhile:
Umm. Ok RT @ESPNCFB The new ESPN Football Power Index rankings are out after Week 4 - FSU fell from #2 to #5 pic.twitter.com/GeOn3nSIkU
— Ben Jones (@Ben_Jones88) September 21, 2014
TUBERVILLE COMIN'. Since I'm handing out reminders, let us not forget Tuberville's glorious exit from Texas Tech:
In the midst of the conversation [betweeen Tuberville and 10-15 recruits] at the table, [Devonte Danzey] asked the coaches how long they expected to be at Tech (if they were not fired), he said.
“I asked Coach (Charlie) Weis at KU and Coach (Dana) Holgorsen at West Virginia (the same question), just so I know my relationship with them,” Danzey said. “(Tuberville) was just telling me he coached at Miami and Auburn, he coached 10 years and recruited Ray Lewis and kind of blew the question off I didn’t even realize.”
He added: “The waitress brought our food out, and we thought (Tuberville) went to the bathroom, but he never came back to dinner. Then next thing I know, the next day, he made an announcement that he’s going to Cincinnati.”
So that's the kind of snake Cincinnati has in its parlor right now. But their snake is 2-0 against Urban Meyer; something you'll probably hear a bit about this week with Cincinnati on the clock.
From Doug Lesmerises of cleveland.com:
"Urban brought a lot to the SEC," Tuberville said. "I can remember where everybody there was three yards and a cloud of dust. And he came from Utah and he brought a different element to the conference that has kind of hung on with a lot of schools over there.
"And that conference is hard to break, in terms of changing traditional type of things you do on offense and defense. But he had a lot of success, and I've enjoyed playing Urban. Urban's been a good friend. I've known Urban I guess ever since he came to Florida and I enjoyed watching his teams play. They awfully hard and are well-coached."
Granted, I'm only 27, but it's surreal there was a time when the SEC wasn't considered baby NFL football by folks. Ohio State was actually supposed to crush Florida in the title game... smdh.
So thanks, Urban, for unleashing a decade of SEC dominance. I would still resent you for this if you weren't the head coach of my favorite college football team and an insanely-likable guy.
Now, if only he could bring some of that magic to the Big Ten...
URBAN MEYER GOES REALLY, REALLY HARD. Here's a sign of how much Eleven Warriors has grown: I was Eleven Warriors' emissary at Urban Meyer's introductory press conference at Ohio State. (Hi, haterz.)
And even back then, the dude just oozed intensity. You could feel it in the room when he walked in.
I know he's a changed man and all, but I was not surprised by Brett McMurphy's ESPN article on Urban's appearance on HBO's Real Sports.
"Now I'm taking two Ambiens," Meyer told the HBO show. "I would drink a beer on top of it, just to get some sleep. Not many people know that.
"And I go from 217 pounds to 180 pounds. I lose 37 pounds."
That all occurred when the Gators were undefeated in 2009 -- until losing to Alabama in the SEC title game.[...]
"I thought I was dying," Meyer said. "Mentally, I was broke."
Reminder: You will never be as competitive as Urban Meyer.
But what kind of beer do you think he was drinking? I prefer to think of Urban Meyer as a Bud Heavy guy.
STUMP OFFERED. Meyer said during last week's call-in show the 2015 recruiting class only has "four or five" spots remaining. Will one of those go to Lakewood St. Edward's Alex Stump?
UK WR commit Alex Stump confirmed he got an OSU offer and, as far as how it affects his recruitment, said "I'm just taking it in right now."
— Steve Jones (@SteveJones_CJ) September 22, 2014
Alex is listed at 6'3", so Urban definitely wants some bigger receivers in this class. Anything but an outright "not interested" means there's room for The Closer to get to work, and that's bad news for Big Blue Nation.
OFF-CAMPUS, STILL KINDA DANGEROUS. Here's a story that won't surprise anybody that's ever lived in the immediate off-campus vicinity of Ohio State.
From Logan Hickman and Krista McComb of The Lantern:
“There have been 47 burglaries since July 24 of this year, which is a stunning increase from last year,” Deputy Chief Thomas Quinlan said. “Of those 47, almost all were unlocked door or windows and (the suspects) let themselves in.”
[...]
He said the majority of the burglaries have been happening in the middle of the week between 7-8 a.m., 7-9 p.m., and around midnight.
There are no ties between the incidents, however, and most robbers are inexperienced at breaking into properties, Quinlan said.
If you're living off campus (or anywhere, really), lock your damn doors. It doesn't matter if you're going to the corner store for a pack of White Owls or even at home. Every door should be locked, and every window should be secured. I'd also go as far to suggest putting drapes over windows so would-be thieves don't catch a glimpse of the nice 52" flat screen you and your roommates use for XBOX.
Because once that stuff is gone, it's gone, barring a minor act of God.
THOSE WMDs. The urban ruins of New York City... Ai Weiwei becomes the art man of Alcatraz... Confirmed: Homework is dumb and bad and archaic... UNC has a Supervisor of Morale... Meet the 7' tall (high school) defensive lineman... Report: 10% of Americans are showing up to work high on weed.
