Thursday Skull Session

By D.J. Byrnes on April 9, 2015 at 4:59 am
Dontre Wilson, Braxton Miller, J.T. Barrett, and Marshon Lattimore
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Despite the protests of a 64-year-old Anderson Township resident, the Reds honored Ohio State's football team last night.

Because it's 2015 and involves OSU football... it went well.

Urban also dropped this nugget:

And that — Warren G. Harding willing — will be the last mention of MLB in the Skull Session until the next time a championship-winning OSU team is honored. 

JAMEL DEAN'S COACH SOUNDS OFF. The big news yesterday — as first reported by Eleven Warriors dot com, of course — was early-enrollee Jamel Dean's exit from Ohio State. Now, I won't lie: I'm salty about this one, because I've had a soft spot for Dean since he became the second commit in the 2015 class in December 2013.

Dean's high school coach, however, isn't pleased for different reasons. From Doug Lesmerises of cleveland.com:

"It's ridiculous," John Wilkinson told Northeast Ohio Media Group on Wednesday. "It's totally wrong to do this to an 18-year-old kid who should be in high school, who you talked into coming up there early.

"You can't treat people this way."

I can already feel the #takes coming. They're out there right now, and  they'll be here before the lunch hour; I can promise you that. 

"Urban Meyer is bad," they'll say. "This is straight oversigning," they'll wail.

And, on the face of it, they have a point.

But as Tom Orr pointed out: If this were about a roster spot why would Ohio State jettison a 100% committed player that's connected to a big-time 2016 target and a 2017 commit? (Bruce Judson, by the way, said he's still 100 with OSU.) If this were about a simple roster spot, then why sign a long snapper in the 2015 class?

Secondly, Dean wasn't cleared by the medical staff. To say this is oversigning is to impeach the integrity of doctors employed by the Ohio State University. Sure, there's a chance Urban Meyer has brain-washed medical personnel into writing false medical reports, but it's somewhere between .001% and .0001%. 

Lastly — this might not be fair, but it's how I feel — Wilkinson's words would hold more water with me if we didn't go through this same rodeo with Cass Tech's Kevin Thomas Wilcher two months ago. That seemed like a bomb at the time, and two weeks later he was in the WHAC taking pictures with OSU's crystal football. There are two sides to every coin, and right now, we only have one.

But sure, if you want to work up a self-righteous indignation over this: Fine. If this makes me a Kool-Aid drinker: Fine. I'll be that, for now.

This is the first smoke we've seen around a medical exit from Urban Meyer's Ohio State... and I just don't see a gang of doctors committing fraud to screw an 18-year-old. If that were the case, there are much better targets than a guy from a recruiting hotbed who'd been committed for 16 months.

CINCINNATI WANTS DUMPED IN ITS OWN LIVING ROOM. Daily reminder: The toughest man in the room is never the one begging for the fight.

(You can still feel the Cincinnati social media intern's pain over that OSU rejection letter.)

I've been trying to turn over a new leaf with the Queen City — I have a standing deal with an 11Wer to travel to Cincinnati and eat at a Skyline Chili of his choosing later this summer (yes I'm writing about it) — but this kind of stuff tests my reformation.

Make no mistake: I'd much rather watch Ohio State blast Cincinnati in Nippert than watch the Buckeyes dismantle Hawaii in the Horseshoe, but the arena had little to do with the taxing the Bearcats took last September.

The Bearcats got dumped, and now they're popping off on social media because they got upstaged by their own city's baseball club. (Maybe they should've tried winning the national title?)

"But the Bucks duck us in your own house!" Bearcats cry. Yeah, no shit, idiots. It's kinda like how you'll never see Guy Fieri inside a four-star-or-below restaurant. Shenanigans like that would torpedo his brand.

COREY LINSLEY KEEPS IT REAL. Corey Linsley makes me wonder what could've been for some former Ohio State linemen had they been tutored by Ed Warinner and not a stray circus walrus.

From OhioStateBuckeyes.com:

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Ohio State Buckeyes were treated to one of their own Wednesday at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center during their Real Life Wednesday program for this week: Corey Linsley, the starting center this past season for the Green Bay Packers as a rookie after a solid career as a Buckeye from 2010-14, spoke to the team about his transition from Ohio State into the NFL.

Linsley, one of seven rookies from Ohio State to start games in the NFL this past season, spoke to the team about the agent selection process, about how teams evaluate college players, what NFL training camp, preseason and the season is like, and choosing a financial advisor, along with providing insights about his rookie season and life in the NFL.

[...]

Linsley said the money goes quickly. He said he was fortunate to live in an area like Green Bay - vs. New York City, for example - so his rent wasn't overwhelming. But he also said tickets to NFL games are expensive and the price adds up quickly.

"I spent more money on tickets than I did on rent," Linsley said. "Everyone in the family doesn't need to come to a game." 

You don't want to be rich. You think you do, but you don't. Being even NFL rookie rich would not be fun.

On a happier note: Linsley will play in the NFL for a long, long time. The Packers plucking him in the fifth round is an example of why great franchises stay great and why an Ohio team has never won a Super Bowl.

HEY, OLD-TIMERS! Do you remember this game? I love hearing personal memories about old Ohio State games I didn't attend because I wasn't alive:

That's almost as kingly an image as this one from the death throes of the Lloyd Carr regime:

lololololololol

 

OSU'S BIGGEST PROBLEM. Stop me if you've heard this before.

From Stewart Mandel of FoxSports.com:

Elliott was a touted recruit who'd played sparingly as a freshman. Barrett was the unknown redshirt freshman who'd soon be thrust into duty as injured star Braxton Miller's replacement. Jones, future postseason sensation, was known solely for a two-year-old tweet.

And as recently as last December, the Buckeyes were nobody's pick to even play for, much less win, last year's national championship. Now, they go through spring practices knowing they're the far-and-away 2015 favorite.

"Last year, we were kind of the underdogs a lot of the time, which I like being," Barrett said. "I like people counting us out. But now, people are definitely going to be coming at us even harder than last year. People don't look at us as underdogs anymore."

I think I have solution for Urban Meyer, who you might not know has a psychology degree from the University of Cincinnati. He should just say, "Hey, gang, these idiots out there don't think we can repeat. Let's go prove them wrong."

(Ohio State is repeating. Mark. It. Down. In. Blood.)

THOSE WMDs. Of course Jack Nicklaus predicted his hole-in-one... Even if Aaron Hernandez is acquitted on all charges, he won't be a free man... DVS’ Guide To Springtime... Early 20th century paintings of North African couples... Golf Digest is straight creep-shotting women now.

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Ohio State Players Happy with Playing Noon Games: “We Like to Wake Up and Go Straight to the Field and Play”

Carnell Tate during Ohio State’s noon game vs. Nebraska

Carnell Tate Preparing for Emotional Return to Chicago; Ryan Day, Chip Kelly and Buckeye Players Excited for “Cool” Opportunity to Play at Wrigley Field

Wrigley Field
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