Skull Session: Demario McCall's Path to the Field, C.J. Walker's Late Season Heroics, and Dear Abby is Introduced to The Game

By Kevin Harrish on March 3, 2020 at 4:59 am
CJ Walker give some high fives in today's skull session.
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Football is doing it, and I could not be happier.

Folks, happy spring.

Song of the Day: "Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, Prélude" by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by Yo-Yo Ma.

Word of the Day: Scrupulous.

 PATH TO PLAYING TIME. Due to ridiculous NCAA eligibility limitations that prohibit him from playing in Columbus forever, back-to-back Heisman Trophies are no longer in play for Demario McCall as he enters his fifth season.

It's a damn shame, but at least he can still win one, and his last shot is gonna be his best shot yet.

As much as I would have loved to see more Run DMC last season, "We chose to play the record-breaking receiver and Archie Griffin-matching running back instead" is an acceptable explanation.

But when he goes on to have the greatest single-season in Ohio State football history this year, it might be a hindsight is 20-20 situation.

 CJ WALKER TIME. Without DJ Carton, Ohio State's got one scholarship point guard on the team at this point. But that's not a big deal because he's playing massive minutes and balling the hell out.

“Playing hard can win a lot of games, and I feel like that kind of carried over to everybody else, whether it was talking or actions,” said Walker, who had 15 points, six rebounds, seven assists, one steal, and one turnover in a 77-63 win over Michigan. “So I feel like that kind of took over, and everybody followed it with [Andre Wesson], Kaleb [Wesson] and [Kyle Young], and I feel like it just carried over to everybody and it's working itself out.”

In nine games without Carton, Walker has averaged 10.3 points, 3.1 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 1.4 steals, and 1.3 turnovers — improvements across the board compared to his season-long stats. Ohio State was 3-6 in its previous nine games and 7-2 ever since.

The illustration isn’t to diminish Carton but to highlight Walker’s ascent.

“My guess is he probably realizes [we need him] if we’re going to progress as a team,” Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann said. “I've said all along, he’s going to be a really good coach one day. I love the kid. I think he realized he was going to have to lead and coach this team and there was going to be more on his shoulders and he embraced that in the absence of D.J.”

Hand up, my brain had written off C.J. Walker as mediocre-at-best early in the season, and I've once again been proven dead-ass wrong by somebody. Though it's refreshing that it's not my fiancée this time.

 DEAR ABBY... The legendary Dear Abby advice column got an introduction to the greatest rivalry in all of sport this week, fielding a question from someone on the losing end accusing a Buckeye coworker of "troubling psychosis."

DEAR ABBY: I have a co-worker with a troubling psychosis that has left me afraid to wear certain colors or say certain words around him. He has allowed a college football rivalry to impact his relationship with co-workers.

I would really like to wear my maize and blue sweater, but I’m fearful of his reaction. He’s from Ohio and is negatively obsessed with Michigan. I understand rivalries, but when you won’t acknowledge another co-worker from that state and require all your co-workers to refer to Michigan as the “M-State” or you storm off in anger, there is an issue. What should I do? Should I recommend counseling? — AFRAID IN NEW MEXICO

DEAR AFRAID: I agree that your co-worker may be off the deep end. You should not recommend counseling for this obsessive and immature individual, but someone in authority should. Depending upon how large a company your employer is, discuss what has been happening with human resources or your boss. This is a textbook example of bullying and creating a hostile work environment. Your clothing choices should not be dictated by a fellow employee.

Need to hear both sides, IMO!

Is this excessive? Probably. But it's also exactly the kind of neuroticism that's kept Ohio State on the winning end of this rivalry for most of the past two decades. I mean, it sounds to me like the coworker is just Woody Hayes.

You can't tell me you "understand rivalries" when you're the one complaining to an advice column and genuinely suggesting counseling for behavior that would describe a substantial chunk of Ohio at the end of November. If that behavior is foreign to you, it probably means your team is going to lose again.

Also, there's not a chance in hell he calls it the "M-State," and not "That State up North," so that leads me to believe some of the other facts are just a bit distorted here.

 ALL B1G. The women's hoops team started the season slow (that'll happen when over 80 percent of the roster are freshmen and sophomores), but they turned it on towards the end of the season and it was in large part due to these Big Ten honorees.

Dorka Juhasz leads the team in scoring and damn near averages a double-double with 13.3 points and 9.1 boards per game. Kierstan Bell – a former three-time Ohio Player of the Year – is second on the team in scoring an third in rebounding, averaging 11.1 points and 4.6 rebounds.

This team's gonna make some noise this March. And then they'll do it again next year, and the year after that, and the year after that.

 TATE, MATE. Australia lent us Cameron Johnston for a bit, so it's only fair we return the favor. And it seems Jae'Sean Tate is absolutely doing his part.

While I fully support Tate turning into a proper Aussie legend, my earnest desire is to see him join Carmen's Crew because I think that he would enjoy a share of $2 million, and I would like another $100, please.

 NOT STICKING TO SPORTS. A photo of a couple boning atop the pyramids prompts an international investigation... Six signs that someone is a sociopath... A mother and son are indicted in a 25-year-old cold case... Three die in a dry-ice incident at a Moscow pool party... How a hacker's mom broke into a South Dakota prison... The fighter plane that landed without its pilot... NASA accepts applications for astronauts for the first time in four years.

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