Welcome to the least-read Skull Session of the year, which will be even less so this year thanks to the NCAA creating the Early Signing Period less than a week before Christmas.
I'd apologize for today's brevity, but I'm not sorry about it. It will be a banner day for the university, regardless.
Our director of recruiting, Andrew Lind, provided the latest intel last night (Emory Jones out) and laid down predictions (Jackson Carman in). Go read that instead of my pitiful groping.
Be sure to follow Lind, 11W, Dan Hope, and James Grega on Twitter for all of your signing day updates, which should start rolling in at about 7:30 a.m.
ICYMI:
- Self-reported violations officially ended the recruitment of five-star DE Micah Parsons.
- Alex Williams, three-star DE from Pickerington North, will flip from West Virginia to Ohio State today.
- A.J. Alexander placed on medical hardship scholarship.
- The 10 best things about Ohio State's 2017 Big Ten title run that you missed while debating if J.T. Barrett is great or terrible.
- 2018 Pro Bowlers: Ryan Shazier, Marshon Lattimore, Michael Thomas, Joey Bosa, and Malcolm Jenkins.
- Basketbucks never trailed in 94-65 win over The Citadel.
- Help put a life-size statue of Woody Hayes in his hometown of Newcomerstown, Ohio.
Word of the Day: Importunate.
MAKES U THINK. Thankfully we live in a world where Urban Meyer, ruthless recruiter, coaches the local team. According to a nugget unearthed by Sports Illustrated reporter Andy Staples, we could be living on a much darker timeline if Michigan State ran a competent coaching search back in 2002.
Going through some stories from the turn of the century for something I have coming out next week, and it's crazy to think about what might have been had dominoes fallen differently. pic.twitter.com/oFAH6NsOuK
— Andy Staples (@Andy_Staples) December 19, 2017
Instead, Michigan poached the illustrious John L. Smith from Louisville after Meyer's team lost three of its last four games. That decision culminated with one of the most underrated rants in coaching lore (from a comedic perspective):
Somehow that got even funnier knowing it could've been Urban Meyer in that situation. Let's be thankful Michigan State didn't have the heart to make that move.
IS IT 2010? Clay Helton puts on an affable persona in public, but like every other coach paid millions of dollars to produce results, he can be fickle when it comes to recruiting talented #teens.
From The Orange County Register:
But when it comes to recruiting, Helton can be as ruthless as Nick Saban or Jim Harbaugh. With the new early signing day Wednesday, two USC commitments suddenly are headed elsewhere.
Wide receiver Andre Hunt from Paraclete High in Lancaster announced Monday he was no longer committed to USC. Hunt always expressed a desire to go to USC, but the Trojans appear to have backed off.
Linebacker Bo Calvert of Oaks Christian in Westlake Village committed to USC in the summer, but he will sign with UCLA on Wednesday, according to multiple reports. This might be portrayed as an early victory for new Bruins coach Chip Kelly. But recruiting experts have expected Calvert to go elsewhere for a couple months.
It’s become a trademark in the past two years that USC takes commitments and then backs off before Signing Day.
Ah, the old Jim Harbaugh technique... popularized by middle school boys too scared to break up with their "girlfriend" so they just ghosted them with a "?" after 824 previously unanswered emails. Not that I would know anything about that.
Nothing like tales from the underworld of recruiting to fill you with yuletide cheer for your fellow human beings.
THOSE WMDs. Britain pioneered cable-cutting in World War I... Deliverance from 27,000 feet... Railroads trap Circleville first responders... 11,341 abandoned rape kits identify 817 serial rapists in one Michigan county... Leadership vacuum: The Last Jedi and mission failure.
