Skull Session: Urban Meyer Adjusting to New Role, Dwayne Haskins Taking Baby Steps, and Michigan Prospects Talk Smack

By Kevin Harrish on May 27, 2019 at 4:59 am
Master Teague III is running his way into today's skull session.
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Miraculously, the Ohio State baseball team is going to the NCAA Tournament after becoming the lowest seed ever to win the Big Ten Tournament.

If you're just tuning in, here's your new favorite baseball player:

The Buckeyes are hot!

Get dumped then, everyone else in the NCAA Tournament.

ICYMI

Word of the Day: Impignorate.

 BREAKING IN HIS NEW LIFE. Urban Meyer doesn't really have a low intensity mode, and that's not easy to navigate when your job no longer requires you to work 80 hours a week screaming at the top of your lungs and investing all of your time and energy into teens playing a game.

But Meyer is adjusting to – and dare I say, enjoying? – his new job, even if he isn't totally used to it yet.

From Bill Rabinowitz of the Columbus Dispatch:

At first, Meyer said, it was awkward for him to even visit the Woody. No longer.

“I actually stare at the walls now,” he said, referring to the pictures celebrating achievements of the Meyer era. “I never did before. I kind of walked as fast as I can because something was going on (related to coaching). Now I see (strength coach) Mick (Marotti) and I see Ryan and I hug the players. It’s great. I couldn’t ask for it to be any better.”

Meyer sought counsel from former coaches, particularly ex-Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops, about how best to transition away from coaching. He also had a long talk with his sister Gigi Escoe, a vice provost at the University of Cincinnati.

“She said there’s different seasons in your life,” Meyer said. “This is a different season. To say I truly love and appreciate that now? Not yet.”

His wife, Shelley, attests to that.

“He has taken it on like anything else he has done — full throttle, pedal to the metal,” she said. “He is all in, but the intensity level doesn’t need to be what it was when he was coaching. And that has him a little bit befuddled — how to live life normal, like all of us.”

I mean, yeah.

He's moving from working one of the most scrutinized jobs on the planet in front of hundreds of thousands of live spectators and millions more TV watchers to a dude in an office. That's like Dave Grohl deciding to hang it up and work at Guitar Center's corporate office.

I don't think Meyer will actually start to appreciate his new job until he's not the guy calling a game-deciding play on 4th-and-1 in the fall. Then again, he might not start to actually miss the old one until the Bucks are hanging 69 on Michigan at the end of November.

 BABY STEPS. Dwayne Haskins' throne awaits for him in Washington, but he's still taking baby steps to claim it.

From John Keim of ESPN:

On Monday, Haskins threw one pass that was tipped and intercepted. Otherwise, he threw on time and in rhythm. His passes led targets into more yards when available. There's so much for Haskins to learn, starting with the rest of the offense. He hasn't come close to learning the entire playbook yet; they've been focused on adding details to the plays he does know. Haskins' football intelligence has always been a strength.

"I know what I'm doing with my eyes in the right place," Haskins said. "When you know where your eyes are supposed to be, it makes it a lot easier being able to read safety keys and read protections. You play fast when you know what you're doing. Like I said, it's all in the makings of watching film, studying after hours, and playing. When I'm on my P's and Q’s, I feel pretty good about it."

But Haskins not only needs to learn the Redskins' offense, he also has to learn new terminology; how to read an NFL defense; how to call plays in the huddle, something he didn't have to do at Ohio State. Keenum just needs to learn a new offense, one that he says has some similarities to what he ran in Minnesota.

...

"I feel like it's going great. I've got to take baby steps since I'm still a rookie and it won't happen overnight," Haskins said.

People forget, Dwayne's only started 14 football games since high school. If he's actually ready to be a starting NFL quarterback on day one, that should be seen as more a miraculous turn of events than a reasonable expectation.

But it's not like I'm going to bet against him.

 MAKE IT STOP. Michigan's incoming recruiting classes are more hatable than any of its actual football teams in years.

They're not any more threatening than previous classes – though it's not like that's a terribly high bar – but they more than make up for that in their whininess, arrogance and absolutely absurd overconfidence that things are magically going to be different than they've been the past two decades.

Behold, from the newest Wolverine commit:

And then this, from a fellow who is likely to commit to the Maize and Blue soon, from David Goricki of The Detroit News:

“Michigan is definitely in my top five,” Carr said. “It’s a great school – only have had one problem in the last few years and that’s Ohio State and it’s a big deal. But then again it isn’t, because I’m pretty sure if I went there nobody would be able to check me."

I can't believe we're far enough removed from the legendary Kyle Kalis that teens are actually beginning to think this is a good idea again, but hey, here's to a new crop of 0-5s.

 LEFT HIM ON “READ.” I'm not one to pretend to understand the mind of an elite college football prospect, because I've never been in those shoes. And as long as my offspring has my broke-ass genes, he ain't gonna be in those shoes either.

So I'm far from an expert here – I'm just a guy writing internet words online – but it seems Georgia running back signee Kenny McIntosh has no idea how recruiting works.

From Mike Griffith of Dawg Nation:

“They brought me in a room and showed me plays of what Ezekiel Elliott does without the ball,” Kenny McIntosh said. “They have a great history of running backs, and I was getting sold on it. I thought I could have been there. I liked the way their running backs coach communicated.

“I liked it, and my dad and my family are from Ohio, so they were gong to be among the top schools.”

The Buckeyes, however, had their sights set on other running backs, even as they were pressing McIntosh for a verbal commitment.

“They wanted two running backs to commit, and I wasn’t ready to commit,” Kenny McIntosh explained. “So once they got two running backs committed, they stopped calling.”

...

“Once (Sampson James) de-committed, they got with me that night and asked if I’d be interested,” McIntosh said. “I told them I’d sleep on it, but I knew I wasn’t big on it.

“I texted back the next day that I wasn’t interested, and that I wasn’t going to have them in my top eight.”

Alford seemed shocked in his text message reply: “Wow. I was hoping to hear something different than that. Can you tell me why?”

McIntosh didn’t feel the need respond.

This is one of the most perplexing cases of sour grapes I've ever heard about.

The audacity of Ohio State to be honest with a prospect and want his commitment sooner than later! The outright disrespect that they took another player when he wouldn't give them a commitment in their desired timeframe! How dare they call him back and express interest when a spot opened up again?!

Buddy, just enjoy Georgia. You'll be fine. Everything is okay.

 IMAGINE BEING THIS GUY. As someone who's a huge fan of the "ass-hole!" chant at sporting events, I don't think anyone has ever deserved it more than this douchewagon.

He didn't just take the ball, buddy threw his arms up in the air triumphantly as if snatching a baseball from an nine-year old off the ground of a mostly empty college baseball stadium is the most impressive thing he's ever done in his life.

These things always have happy endings though – the kid went home a winner all around. He got a better ball, signed by the eventual Big Ten champs.

The Iowa man will likely go unpunished, besides the fact that he presumably has to go home to corn purgatory.

 EAT AT ARBY'S. The cat who saved a Japanese rail line... How the for-profit prison industry keeps 460,000 innocent people in jail every day... When we blast our dead loved ones into space... The legend of the ridiculously long Montauk bathroom line... The man who made Einstein world-famous...

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Across The Field: Indiana Beat Writer Zach Osterman Says This Might Be the Hoosiers’ Most Important Regular Season Game Ever and QB Kurtis Rourke Has Played Well Under Pressure

Kurtis Rourke

Prognosticating: Indiana

Dry Goods Contest
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