Thursday Skull Session

ICYMI: The Top 8 Things We Learned from the First Episode of BTN's Scarlet and Gray Days. (Watch it in full here.)

GET DUMPED THEN, TCU. The last time we saw PredictionMachine and its 50,000 simulations, it prophesied J.T. Barrett as the winner of #QBgeddon. The jury is still out on that, but The Prediction Machine already back with another 50,000 simulations.

PredictionMachine "ran" CFB season 50,000 times & came away w a Final 4 of #OhioSt, #TCU, #USC & #Auburn w OSU over TCU, 34-27 in title game

— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) August 19, 2015

To which I say: Oh helll yeah. Ohio State has owed USC an ass-whipping for awhile now, and T.C.U. and Auburn are both high on my "dumpability" index. Those four teams would make for an explosive postseason too. 

WHAT BUCKS CAN LEARN FROM HUSKERS. Before Alabama pulled the repeat in 2012, Nebraska 95 was the last team to do this. Given how those Huskers talk about the process, I'm starting to wonder if Urban Meyer was an assistant coach on that team.

From ESPN.com:

“We were so focused on the process,” said Mike Minter, a junior safety for the Huskers 20 years ago, “that it was like we were machines. All of us were machines.”

The parallels to Ohio State in 2015 are striking. No doubt, the Buckeyes could benefit from studying the dynamics of 1995 Nebraska, because Osborne’s most dominant team fortified its legacy not over 12 games; rather, Nebraska won its second straight title in practice, by building a relentless attitude and shaping internal expectations so that none from the coaches or fans or media could rise higher.

[...]

“It was a rite of passage,” said Clester Johnson, a senior wingback in 1995. “I never went into any game and felt there was even a chance of losing. It had a lot to do with the amount of depth that we had and the closeness that we felt. At that time, we were all like brothers.”

Sound familiar? Because that seems to be the exact path Ohio State is on.

ELLIOTT WAS RIGHT. A big thread in E:60's special on Ezekiel Elliott was Elliott — a lifelong Tigers fan — spurning his home state tigers for The Ohio State Buckeyes.

Some Missouri fans are still salty about this (because some college football fans are the most bitter and delusional people in the American sportscape), but it doesn't change the fact Ezekiel Elliott made the right decision.

From RockMNation.com:

1. Elliott wouldn't be a Heisman favorite in 2015 at Mizzou. He'd be awesome, sure, and he'd have played a role in quite a few recent wins. But you have to be a national title contender to be a Heisman contender, especially if you're a running back. (That Melvin Gordon rushed for nearly 3,000 yards last year and finished miles behind Marcus Mariota last year is proof of that.) And with its receiver and defensive line youth, Mizzou wouldn't be a national title contender this year. Meanwhile, while Elliott would have won a ton of games over his first two years in a Mizzou uniform, he wouldn't have won a national title ring.

2. Elliott wouldn't have actually helped Mizzou win more games. Again, he would have been awesome in black and gold. But Mizzou has been just fine at running back regardless. In 2013, the trio of Henry Josey, Russell Hansbrough, and Marcus Murphy combined to rush for 2,452 yards (6.5 per carry) and 29 touchdowns. In 2014, without Josey and without nearly as effective a passing game, Hansbrough and Murphy still rushed for 2,008 yards (5.3 per carry) and 14 scores. Would Elliott have improved those numbers? Almost certainly. Would he have made a difference in Mizzou's overall 23-5 record in 2013-14? Not much.

The Lord of Whispers had some wise words about this the other night:

Sometimes, the best way to represent home is to leave it and return when youve accomplished what you set out to.

Jeremy Birmingham (@Birm) August 19, 2015

MO C KILLING IT. Maurice Clarett is out bettering the world, but his story is starting to catch on from the likes of UCONN all the way to Texas A&M.

From FoxSports.com:

In the process Clarett has become one of the most in-demand speakers in all of college football, the guy your favorite coach calls to set his team straight. This summer, Clarett has spoken at the likes of Texas A&M, LSU, TCU and Kentucky, with stops at UConn and Alabama last week. This week it's Florida State. Then, who knows?

It's all part of the new Maurice Clarett, the former football star who once brought thousands to their feet every Saturday.

Little did anyone know that he would eventually make a much bigger impact off the field than he did on it.

Here's why coaches love him:

In front of the player's peers, Clarett asked what it took to be a man and whether he wanted to spend the rest of his career at A&M as a leader or a follower. A&M's players gasped when they heard the questions; not because they were so straightforward but because they had heard the Aggies' coaching staff ask the team the same questions before.

When the speech was over, the player jokingly went up to Hinson, and asked if the coaching staff had put Clarett up to asking those questions.

That assumption couldn't have been further from the truth; Clarett had not been told anything.

The feature is a cool read for anybody who digs Maurice's new journey.

I WANNA PARTY WITH TUBBERWILLY FROM TULSA. So apparently Tommy Tuberville's brother is a songwriter in Tulsa, and this is his new song:

THOSE WMDs. New Martian trailer looks sweet... Instagram is perfect for joke theft... Presidential Candidate Deez Nuts Does Not Exist... Data security expert fears traumatic aftermath in Ashley Madison hack... Hot Tubs, Cemeteries, and Lagoons: Movie nights get interesting.