Skull Session: Cowboys Concerned About Ezekiel Elliott, Andrew Dakich Explains Betraying Michigan, and Lincoln Riley Battles Ageism

By D.J. Byrnes on July 18, 2017 at 4:59 am
Cardale Jones dressed to the nines for the July 18 2017 Skull Session.
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My goal today is not to type hospital when I mean hospitable. Let's see how it plays out.

ICYMI:

Word of the Day: Fly-tip.

 HERE WE GO AGAIN. 72 hours after Adam Schefter reported on a growing consensus the NFL will hand Ezekiel Elliott a one or two game suspension stemming from domestic abuse allegations from 2016, reports surfaced of Elliott allegedly knocking out a DJ named "DTown," who looks like this now:

Not great. And given Zeke's questionable decision making, it's no surprise the team that hired a nanny for Dez Bryant is concerned about their star running back.

From yahoo.com:

At this point, the Dallas Cowboys can call Elliott a lot of things. A great football player. A charismatic personality. A “fun-loving,” passionate guy on the practice field (as head coach Jason Garrett has previously framed him). Even a good teammate. But smart? Or self-aware? Right now, calling Elliott either would be a stretch.

The Cowboys know this, too. Some individuals inside the franchise are irritated. Whether the power brokers admit it publicly or not (and Garrett hasn’t and probably won’t), the amount of off-field energy expended on Elliott is becoming frustrating, largely from one big thing – the domestic violence investigation that owner Jerry Jones wants to go away once and for all. But now, also from two (arguably) smaller, stupid things: Elliott pulling a woman’s shirt down and exposing her breast at a St. Patrick’s Day party in March, and now allegedly breaking a man’s nose.

When Elliott pulled the shirt stunt in March, it was passed off inside the Cowboys as a dumb, immature act of a 21-year old kid. It was eyerolled and forgotten as a “be smarter than that” moment. And now this? Sunday night’s alleged incident at Clutch Bar in Dallas? It’s being framed as Zeke being stupid again … inserting himself into a female friend’s argument and then escalating into him punching a guy he knew in the face.

My unsolicited advice is Zeke should stop drinking. Easier typed than done, but if you look at every incident except turning up at a pot shop hours before a preseason game, they involved alcohol. 

And it's no secret he likes to party, but it's starting to affect his career, which will only last a couple years regardless. It's doing him more harm than good at this point. But again—easier typed than done.

 MAN SEES THE LIGHT. Ohio State men's basketball needs bodies, and the Buckeyes picked up the son of Dan Dakich as a preferred walk-on Monday.

Even weirder, Dakich played at Michigan last season.

From mlive.com:

Second, Chris Holtmann -- the man who had been recruiting Dakich to play as a graduate transfer at Butler earlier this offseason -- became the new head coach at Ohio State. 

Mix it all up and Dakich found himself staring at an opportunity he could not pass on. 

"This was just the best opportunity for me, I know I'll get crushed by some Michigan fans and I get that," said Dakich, who will enroll in Ohio State's masters of sports coaching graduate program. "But if they put themselves in my shoes, I think a lot of people would have done the same thing." 

You're damn right we would have done the same thing, Andrew. The only quibble I have is you didn't commit an arson on your way out of Ann Arbor. Ohio State fans would have paid for your bail and your scholarship next year.

 MILLENNIAL FACES QUESTIONS AT WORK. New Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley turns 34 this year, which is a fate I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy—which is also myself.

To make matters worse, he won't just add another shitty tie to his collection. He has a primetime date against Urban Meyer and the local team that Saturday.

From fanragsports.com:

Riley will turn 34 the week that Oklahoma will play at Ohio State in a season-defining game. It will also be a knee-jerk referendum – win and Riley will be hailed as the greatest/youngest coach ever; lose and it will be, “Told you so, see, he’s not ready for the bright lights, big stage.”

To any college kid in his early 20s, anyone 30 or over is a candidate for AARP. In two seasons in the program, Riley not only gained the confidence of Stoops, the coaching staff and the administration, he has convinced the players he’s ready.

“You can point to his age, you can point to anything, but I will tell you right now, I will put my life on the line for that guy at any point in time in anything,” Oklahoma cornerback Jordan Thomas told Big12Diehards.com. “Even though he’s 30-who-cares years old, either way, we know that in his mind and his schemes and the way he approaches things, he’s a veteran to us.”

It's cool to me, the 30-year-old, that "kids these days" equate me to an AARP member.

Jokes aside, I thought Ohio State would wax Oklahoma even before Bob Stoops tapped out. Lincoln Riley may be good, but let's not pretend a guy making his second head coaching appearance is going to come into Columbus and dump Urban Meyer without an act of divine intervention.

 WHY COACH? This reporter asked Kliff Kingsbury the toughest question of the last thirty years of Big 12 media days. Coach, why dos your defense always suck?

The best part is Kinsbury didn't really have an answer.

From usatoday.com:

Kingsbury: That’s a great question. I wish I had the answer (laughter). Like I said, that’s something we work on. We haven’t been good enough defensively, and we’ll continue to try and recruit the right players and develop them and get better.

Sounds like Kinsbury has no clue how to fix a defense. Should be business as usual down in Lubbock this year.

 LOL, BAKER. Lincoln Riley may be 33, but he'll be going on 60 by the end of the year:

Can't wait to see how many gray hairs Riley sprouts in the fourth quarter after Mayfield throws his third interception (fave this Tweet).

 THOSE WMDs. An overdose, a young companion, drug-fueled parties: The secret left of a USC medical dean... R. Kelly is holding women against their will in a "cult," parents tell police... A Microsoft font could take down a Pakistani PM in a corruption probe... Children's friend: A profile of Dr. Seuss... The strategy of no strategy... When did NYC's subway become so bad?

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