Skull Session: Former Hoosier Coordinator on Ohio State's Payroll, Robert Landers' Recruitment and the Bucks' No. 1 Weakness

Thursday Skull Session (diced and peppered) will be served as soon as someone starts a slush fund for our wager the next time Urban Meyer and the local team face this scenario:

W/ Saturday's 58-0 rout of Rutgers, Ohio St coach Urban Meyer improved to 39-9 against the spread with more than one week to prepare.

— David Payne Purdum (@DavidPurdum) October 3, 2016

Looking forward to making some money at the expense of Dabo Swinney.

 IF YOU CAN'T BEAT EM... Urban Meyer and Tim "Touchdown" Beck get most of the credit for Ohio State's success. That's understandable.

But there is a shadow staff Meyer couldn't name that pours man-hours into every Buckeye victory we love to know. In fact, it's these hires—quality control coaches, etc—that help widen the gap between the rich and the poor in college football.

Thankfully, the local team is rich.

From cleveland.com:

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A year ago, Brian Knorr made more than $365,000 as Indiana's defensive coordinator and spent a week trying to figure out how to slow down the Ohio State offense.

This year, Knorr is making $500 per month as a quality control coach for Ohio State and might have a few tips for the Buckeyes as they take on the Hoosiers on Saturday.

This is another bonus for the moneyed powerhouses of college football, the ability to hire veteran coaches into roles originally designed for young coaches on the way up. Coaches without jobs looking to stay in the game will take those assignments to tread water for a year or two, learn the secrets of a successful program, and wait for the next big chance.

From a DC with a six-figure salary to making $500 a month... the coaching profession is brutal for those not at the upper crusts.

Knorr will earn his salary this week, that's for sure. Compared to what Rutgers paid for Chris Ash, it would seem Meyer is as ruthless on the bargaining table is he is on the field.

 OL' BOB LANDERS. The recruiting calendar is speeding up. Most coaches want to press pause on it, but it's not as if they're about to reel back operations while their competitors aren't forced to do the same.

Enter Bob Landers, an unassuming three-star prospect from Dayton who might've slipped through Ohio State's national net if Ohio coaches didn't alert him to the destruction he visited upon their teams.

From theozone.net:

"He was not a guy that was high on the radar," Ohio State defensive coordinator Luke Fickell said on Monday. "He was one of those guys that on a Friday afternoon… he’s a great story of [waiting for a senior season]. He went through the playoffs, four weeks in a row and every head coach that he played called after the game. Specifically, a couple of them called me.

"You know he beat Dublin Coffman and [Mark] Crabtree calls me after the game and says you guys need to look at this kid. And then they beat Moeller and the Moeller coach calls and said, 'I don’t know what you guys are doing but you better look at this kid.' Then they get beat in the state finals by Lakewood St. Edward and the coach called after that and said that he took away three-fourths of our run games so you better look at this kid.

"It’s amazing how that happens. On a Friday afternoon I ended up going to Dayton Wayne High School to go meet with the kid and Friday night he was here on an official visit. Everybody’s got a little different journey. His is a unique one at that."

We all love to know the five-stars, but I'm a recruiting hipster. I love stories of unheralded guys blossoming in Columbus, so I already like ol' Bobby. Ohio State doesn't need him to beat Indiana, but he'll be needed in two weeks when the Buckeyes invade Camp Randle in Wisconsin. (No disrespect to Indiana, but I can't help but look ahead.)

 THE HELL IS A WEAKNESS? Y'all know me and my devotion to the Buckeyes.

So it is with a heavy heart that I must bring you reports of Ohio State weaknesses. Yes, I googled it too. Apparently it's hard to sue for libel, but my fleet of legal felines continue to monitor the situation.

In the meantime, it's my fiduciary duty to report the news. 

From sbnation.com:

1. If you can force them to pass, they might not be able to.

This is probably the biggest question mark. The offense ranks 40th in Passing S&P+ and 94th in passing-downs success rate. If you can leverage them into uncomfortable downs and distances, they might not respond well.

Quarterback J.T. Barrett has completed only 9 of 18 passes on third-and-4 or more, and against the only opponent with a pulse (Oklahoma), he averaged just 6.9 yards per pass attempt (6.4 on passing downs). Not terrible, but not world-beater good.

Ohio State has basically a three-man receiving corps. Curtis Samuel, Dontre Wilson, and Noah Brown have caught an incredible 45 of 53 passes for 641 yards, 12.1 per target. Each has at least a 60 percent success rate (which measures how well they get the yardage to keep the chains moving on schedule) and 71 percent catch rate.

That's fair, but Mike Weber at RB with Noah Brown, Curtis Samuel, and Dontre Wilson is still a helluva trio when the chips fall down. Until then, No. 2 by committee is fine. It gives players like Parris Campbell, Johnnie Dixon, Terry McLaurin, etc. valuable experience. All three of those guys could make a play against Alabama too.

 LET'S GO CHARLIE. Ohio State may have used up all its universal karmic points by effectively replacing Jim Tressel with Urban Meyer. Tom Herman, the founder of MENSA, replacing Meyer might be a pipe dream.

But until Herman threatens to call the cops on the fleet of Brinks trucks Ohio State offers him, I refuse to abandon hope.

That said, we need Charlie Strong to get his shit together.

From Stewart Mandel and Bruce Feldman's podcast (via Benwin):

Mandel: So if you’re a Texas fan right now, how many do you think are just now rooting for them to start losing more so that they can get him? Of course, it’s not a guarantee that you’d get [Tom Herman].

Feldman: I think it’s a guarantee you’d get him, or close to a guarantee you’d get him… I think it’s close to a guarantee if Charlie Strong is not the head coach that Texas will go get Tom Herman.

Mandel: Well, LSU fans aren’t going to want to hear that.

Feldman: Sorry LSU, your job isn’t quite as good as Texas.

Ohio State is a better job than LSU. But they don't call him "Texas" Tom for nothing, folks. Herman's Horns vs. Meyer's Bucks would be a helluva playoff banger, though. 

 FEEDERS. If these trends continue, Ohio State will one-day be overrun by Dublin and Upper Arlington kids (and their dads' Beamers).

The top Ohio high school feeder schools, from bizjournals.com:

Needs more Marion Harding if it's ever going to dump the Ivy League in academics.

 THOSE WMDs. The building of Bill Belichick... Korean bat flip: An art of letting go... Canada has Thanksgiving too... Man fires AR-15 to scare clown that's actually woman walking dog... How your Blue Apron box is prepared... The power of a note... Generation Nintendo.