Friday Skull Session

So close I can almost taste the illegal Loko...

This week's NSFW ANTI-WORK #BANGERS:

This is why it's a bad idea to let off a mortar in a garage.
Best game show answers.
2010 Illinois State Fair Hog Calling Contest.

BRAXTON THE BREAKER OF PHYSICS. We knew coming into the season that Braxton Miller would still be dynamite with the ball in his hands. We didn't know how well he would handle the technical aspects of the position change.

As the results might indicate, Braxton's a special athlete. It all came at a price, however.

From CampushRush.com:

Three or four nights a week this summer Ohio State junior quarterback Cardale Jones saw Braxton Miller's name pop up on his phone. Jones dragged himself out of bed, even when the texts arrived at 10 p.m., and made the 10-minute drive to the back entrance of the university's cavernous indoor football facility. A gate outside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center would mysteriously open, granting access to a garage door where Miller waited. Then Jones and Miller would drive in and park on the indoor field. By the time they exited their rides, the lights had been flipped on, Meek Mill blasted from the speakers and racks of footballs awaited. "I don't even know who he called," says Jones with a laugh, "to get the gate open and the music bumping."

The covert conversion of Miller from Heisman-caliber quarterback to Heisman-candidate wide receiver played out in Columbus between May and July. Only a handful of players and coaches knew Miller's intentions, since he worked out much as he'd spent the previous year and a half—in the shadows. Miller did ladder drills, and then for an hour or so Jones threw while Miller ran routes and caught over-the-shoulder passes. "There was no one here," Miller says with a grin, "except maybe a couple of custodians."

[...]

After Miller rescued the No. 1 Buckeyes with two third-quarter touchdowns in their come-from-behind 42-24 opening win at Virginia Tech on Sept. 7, Meyer called Miller to the front of the locker room. While Miller's spontaneous pirouette on a 53-yard touchdown run had immediately gone viral, Meyer praised him more for his resilience than his improvisation. Miller responded by breaking down in tears as a conga line of Buckeyes hugged him. "He was overwhelmed with satisfaction and humility, and he was so thankful that it finally happened," says receivers coach Zach Smith. "He wanted it so bad."

We knew about Braxton's late night workouts, but now we know J.T. Barrett AND Cardale Jones were involved in those late-might grind sessions.

Breaking down in front of his teammates is just another testament to how much Braxton Miller means to this team. Going forward, Braxton's role will only increase. That projects to "assassin" by the end of the season.

From the Associated Press:

"The biggest things is, when you're a spread team it allows you to recruit that quote-unquote slot receiver that maybe 20 years ago would have been relegated to either being just a corner(back) or a punt returner because he was too small to play tailback full time, too small to play outside receiver and certainly there just wasn't a place for him on offense, for that body type," said Houston coach Tom Herman, Meyer's offensive coordinator at Ohio State for three years.

[...]

"When you're playing wide receiver, there's a lot of things a defense can do to prevent you from getting the ball. They can double you. They can triple you. They can roll the coverage a certain way," Herman said. "When you're in the backfield, whether it be taking direct snaps and/or standing next to the quarterback, you can at least for the most part guarantee who's going to carry the football."

[...]

"God made [Braxton Miller] 6-2, 215 pounds and he's the fastest guy on Ohio State's team, and not only is he the fastest guy on Ohio State's team, he's also the quickest in terms of lateral change of direction," Herman said. "The guys I've seen that are as fast and quick as Braxton have been 5-7, 5-8, 5-9. I've never seen a human being do the things he can do at 6-2, 215 pounds."

The next thing I'm hoping to see in Braxton's transformation is ripping the defense's top off through the seam (and Cardale Jones hitting him 60 yards down the field in stride). Urban Meyer said on the Coach's Show that Braxton was starting to get "comfortable" there — so it shouldn't be too long now.

2008 FLORIDA SOUNDS WILD. It's true: We need a 30 for 30 on Urban Meyer's Florida Gators. If not for the wild, behind-the-scenes anecdotes — "Did I expect Aaron Hernandez to murder someone? No." — but because Gators crying about Meyer will never cease to be entertaining to me.

From ESPN.com's article on the rise and fall of Urban's Gators:

"He couldn't take the heat -- that's all that was," said David Young, a Florida offensive lineman from 2008 to '11. "He wanted to hand the job off to [offensive coordinator] Steve Addazio and get out of there."

Imagine Billy Price blasting Urban Meyer like this. Just unfathomable to me. And yet here we are.

Life was good for "ballers" in Meyer's program.

Ballers produced on Saturdays and were committed to the program. Ballers got first dibs at team meals, front seats on chartered planes and were often excused from practice. Meyer took care of players he trusted.

"I think it was starting to become [playing favorites]," [offensive lineman Phil] Trautwein said. "If you asked him now, he's probably not doing that at Ohio State."

Would love to hear Trautwein's experiences in the real world... where ballers and producers definitely aren't favored by their bosses.

This, however, was my favorite passage:

Two players say Haden readily tossed $100 bills in a New Orleans strip club after the Sugar Bowl, leading them to wonder about agent influence. Haden offers a slightly different account. "I was throwing a lot of ones that equaled up to a lot of hundreds," said Haden, who added that he had already decided to enter the 2010 NFL draft.

Warren G. Harding bless Joe Haden, and any student-athlete who is smart enough to take cash without getting hassled.

All in all — we knew Urban Meyer's Florida teams were wild. Those "antics" wouldn't be tolerated in Columbus (I'd like to believe), but to me there's no question Meyer has learned from his past mistakes (which is why he emphasizes culture so much now).

But here's the game I'd rather watch this week: Urban Meyer's 2008 team vs. his 2015 one.

BAKER MAKES A PLEDGE. Jerome Baker is a freshman Urban Meyer routinely notes is "on the verge" of breaking through. The linebacker is ahead of the curve off the field as well.

Stirred by the infamous rape case of Steubenville, Ohio, and a chance meeting with a neighbor asking for help moving a mattress, Baker decided to take a stand against sexual violence against women. Then he decided to get other high school athletes involved too.

From SBNation.com:

"My dad always told me, be better than what he was," Baker says. "I didn't realize it, but I basically have been trying to do that my whole life."

His family was supportive of his pledge idea, but made it clear that he had to find a balance between the pledge, his schoolwork, family and football practice. Baker made phone calls before his daylong summer practices and sent text messages at night. He used downtime in between voluntary workouts to explain his mission to football players at other schools and spent the social time that being a 17-year-old in summer afforded him to gain the support of his friends.

To make sure he fulfilled the promise he made to his parents to maintain life balance, he enlisted the help of St. Edwards wide receiver Alex Stump -- another top recruit -- to help reach out, and the two sent letters to every high school football program in the area they could.

"In the pledge we will promise to treat women and girls with respect and speak up if we witness or hear of assaults - to stand as a protector and speak out against perpetrators," the letter read. "Let's be the voice that prevents assaults like what happened two years ago involving members of Steubenville's football team. Let's use our status as athletes to encourage change and promote behavior that respects women and girls and does not bring harm to them."

It's somewhat telling these actions are needed at all, but that's not Jerome Baker's fault. Urban Meyer said he wished Ohio State could keep its current LB crop forever; Joshua Perry (definitely) and Darron Lee (probably) are out the door after this year, but it's evident that unit is in good hands.

R.I.P. READ-OPTION, YOU WERE GOOD. One of the main reasons people said J.T. Barrett would start for Ohio State is that he's better than Cardale Jones at the read-option.

Except Urban Meyer said Thursday that the read-option is no longer a prominent part of Ohio State's offense.

From FootballStudyHall.com, which had a timely article on the death of the read-option:

Rich Rodriguez started ripping teams with this scheme and it really took off when Vince Young's Longhorns made it the foundation of their offense in 2004 and 2005 seasons that ended with back to back Rose Bowl victories, the latter of which brought Texas a national championship.

Teams across the nation installed the play as everyone realized that it didn't take a particularly athletic QB to really punish defenses by pulling the ball and taking the edge if the unblocked defensive end were to crash inside trying to make the tackle on the running back.

By leaving the backside end unblocked teams could get an extra double team on zone and, unless the backside safety was Troy Polamalu, playing their defensive end aggressively against the running back was going to help even slower QBs sleepwalk to five yard gains.

So naturally, defenses responded and now have multiple techniques for defending the play which are dulling the impact of the scheme around the college football world.

As is expected in football, the defense finally caught up with the offense by offering four counters:

The scrape exchange.
Dropping a safety.
Attacking the meshpoint.
Blitzing.

R.I.P. to the read-option, which will no doubt make a comeback 20 years from now.

GET 'EM, SUE! Nick Saban went to Kent State so the idea of him doing an O-H-I-O cheer at some point in his life isn't 100% ludicrous, but it wasn't this recent: