Skull Session: Urban Meyer for President, Defensive Line Depth, and Michigan State Play-Action Weaponry

It's Friday, y'all.

My advice is to avoid the office alcoholic asking to grab "a few drinks" at Applebee's after work. Not only is Marionaire Christmas next Wednesday, but it's also a noon kick on Saturday.

This is the least important Friday night of the year. Besides, those noon bangers come at you quick.

How would I know? Eleven Warriors pays me to know things of that nature.

This week's NSFW ANTI-WORK #BANGERS:

Game of Thrones: All Prince Oyberyn scenes.
Game of Thrones: Tyrion's trial.
Game of Thrones: The Red Wedding.

ICYMI:

Sixteen months after committing to Ohio State, 2017 four-star OL Jake Moretti flipped to Colorado late Wednesday night.
Basketbucks beat Providence, 72-67.
Tom Herman, the founder of MENSA, drilled No. 3 Bobby Petrino in Houston last night. (Disclaimer: I went to bed with the Cougars up 31-0 on Papa John's henchmen in the second quarter.)

URBAN RENEWAL 2016. Folks, we did the election thing last week. Some say the good person won. Others say the bad person won. Who's to say? We won't know how it ends until the 241th season of America: The Republic.

One thing we can agree upon, however, is the candidate America needed, lost in a landslide.

From newsnetfive.com:

John Glenn and Ohio State coach Urban Meyer are among uncertified candidates written in as alternatives. [...] Another write-in was "Megan James," perhaps Mehgan James of reality TV's "Bad Girls Club."

Pretty sure Meyer could end unemployment in this country if he cut a bunch of hype videos.

I also am going to take this time to thank myself for having no clue about Meghan James or Bad Girls Club. I think "reality TV" is bad and fake.

If Meyer pledges to abolish reality TV, he has my sword for the 2020 campaign. I would have voted for him this year, but I didn't want to saddle a playoff run with president-elect duties.

D-LINE DEPTH. Joey Bosa anchored the 2015 defensive line, which was good and fine, but it didn't have the depth or versatility of the 2016 line.

The DL isn't dominating the sack charts, nor does it have anyone as talented as 2015 Joey Bosa, but it's still getting the job done.

From dispatch.com:

The Buckeyes have allowed opponents only 3.2 yards per carry. Linebacker Raekwon McMillan said the line has been consistently “creating a new line of scrimmage” because it has penetrated or pushed offensive lines on run plays.

The front four also has consistently pressured quarterbacks in the passing game. According to College Football Film Room, Tyquan Lewis, Sam Hubbard and Nick Bosa have combined for 36 quarterback pressures in just the past three games.

Add in the contributions of Jalyn Holmes and defensive tackles Michael Hill, Dre’Mont Jones, Robert Landers and Davon Hamilton, and the Buckeyes have an abundance of playmakers.

And that's all without its top defensive tackle, Tracy Sprinkle. I had questions about the interior (especially after Sprinkle's injury) but Dre'Mont Jones and Robert Landers have been revelations. Bosa gets better every week, too.

Meyer said Hill is "as consistent as he's ever been," and announcers call Hamilton's name from time to time too.

Now, if we could just figure out a way to bring Joey Bosa back into the fold...

THE OL' PLAY-ACTION FAKE. Donnie Corley is a Michigan State wide receiver Ohio State recruitniks loved to know. Meyer confessed during the Coach's Show yesterday he "loved" Corley during the recruiting process.

It's easy to see why. Corley would've played in Columbus this year and is a mix of skills not currently found in Zone-6.

However, a name Buckeye fans should also keep an eye on is R.J. Shelton.

From landgrantholyland.com:

As the previous two plays have showed, Michigan State gets a lot of their big pass plays off play-action. They lull defenses to sleep with their boring run game — hoping to make the safety bite on the run — then hit their speedster deep. 26 of his 47 receptions have gained first down yardage, while 14 of his receptions have gone 15-plus yards. Then, they’ve hit him deep (25-plus yards) five times, averaging 15.11 yards per reception.

In a play against Northwestern, Shelton once again showed off his ability to beat one-on-one coverage and beat his man deep for a score. They showed play-action (shocker) out of shotgun and Shelton did the rest. Quarterback Tyler O’Connor saw pressure and threw the ball up for grabs off of his back foot -- trusting that his wideout would come down with the ball. With no safety help, Shelton beat the defensive back, but the ball was a bit under thrown. The Northwestern defender tipped the ball not once but two times. The receiver kept his concentration on the football, caught the ball while in a back pedal and jogged into the end zone.

Looks like Jim Bollman picked up a copy of my famous book, How to Win Championships in NCAA Football.

The ol' play-action is a great ruse. Defense thinks it's a run, but it switches! It's actually a pass.

One way to prevent it is to shut down the run first. As noted above, opponents average 3.2 yards a carry against Ohio State. MSU will need more than that if it plans to use the ruse for explosive gains.

GOOD CALL, OHSFCA. The Ohio State Football Coaches Association heard about the Big Ten playing games on Friday nights next year. It is not pleased.

Just spoke to OHSFCA's Matt Dennison. Says what B1G is doing is different than other leagues. "The Big Ten has more than enough exposure."
— (((Lori Schmidt))) (@LoriSchmidt) November 17, 2016

Matt Dennison: "It's quite obvious that it's a money grab for the Big Ten conference and the athletic departments."
— (((Lori Schmidt))) (@LoriSchmidt) November 17, 2016

Is it too late for Jim Delany to stop this nonsense? A state's coaches association calling out an "amateur" athletics league for money-grabbing would be enough to strangle the move with shame in a different era.

But hey, anytime you can broadcast Ohio at Purdue to America's bars, which are full of people who care about Purdue and Ohio football on Friday nights, you have to do it.

MY NEW FAVORITE WISCONSIN PLAYER. You would (probably) feel bad if you broke the leg of an 80-year-old man. But what if I told you that kindly 80-year-old man enabled a serial child rapist?

Suddenly, you no longer feel bad, right? Broken legs are easy to fix, and hey, that asshole had it coming.

This is why DeAndre Levy is now my favorite Wisconsin Badger.

From mensjournal.com:

Born and raised in Milwaukee, where his mother is an assistant at a medical office and his father works on the line in a steel factory, Levy was a star linebacker at Wisconsin. He was most famous for a 2006 play against Penn State, a sideline tackle that accidentally drove him into coach Joe Paterno, breaking JoePa’s left leg. Ten years later, Levy now calls that incident “my proudest moment in college,” as history has since revealed Happy Valley’s sad secrets. “That dirtbag, man,” says Levy of Paterno, who was recently implicated as being aware of child sexual abuse committed by his assistant Jerry Sandusky as early as 1976. “We’ve gotta stop prioritizing sports over humanity,” says Levy. “Just because somebody can throw a football or coach football, they’re excluded from their wicked acts.”