Skull Session: Buckeye Fans Can Thank Nicholas Petit-Frere's Mom, J.T. Barrett Shines in Spring League, and Kaleb Wesson is a Three-Point Marksman

By Kevin Harrish on November 6, 2020 at 4:59 am
The Buckeyes are praying in today's skull session.
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Today, I will be getting my first haircut in two months and it will be glorious. Appreciate life's small joys.

Word of the Day: Iniquitous.

 NOT SO PETIT-FRERE. Nicholas Petit-Frere always had the talent and potential the potential to be an elite offensive tackle, but now he's got the size, too – and you can thank his mom for that.

Loris Petit-Frere called Studrawa to ask for help over the summer. Her son had returned home during the pandemic quarantine, with instructions from his coaches to gain another 10-15 pounds.

Suddenly, mom was buying enough groceries for a family of four even though they were the only two people living there.

Petit-Frere began his day with a high-calorie protein shake. Next might come a plate of waffles — with chocolate sauce, sprinkles and whipped cream — and sausage. Wash it down with a chocolate milk, and if mom was feeling generous, maybe add a chicken sandwich on a biscuit.

...

Studrawa said he was initially “panicked” about how his players, so accustomed to a structured diet on campus, would maintain that at home. Ohio State already had a plan. The athletic department had approved sending meal supplements and snacks to players who were away from campus. That defrayed the cost of those expensive shakes Petit-Frere drank multiple times a day.

Loris Petit-Frere also discovered a meal option both budget-friendly and pleasing to her son’s appetite: pasta. By the end of the summer, Nicholas was making his own meals — a practice he took back to Columbus. Now he’s trading recipes with mom and recently taught her how to make orange chicken.

“I enjoy cooking for him, but he asked me, ‘Mom, I really want you to teach me what you do,’” Loris Petit-Frere said. “‘I want to do this on my own because I see it got results.’ ”

I heard all those stories of players working out with homemade weights during quarantine, but I never considered how impossible it would be for these guys to stick to their absurd diets without the nutrition staff there to guide them through it (and provide their meals) every day.

Shoutout to all the parents who had to do something similar to help get their son right, cause you know it wasn't just Loris.

 BEHOLD, J.T. BARRETT. The year is 2020, and I'm watching Joe Thomas Barrett IV throw absolute dimes on my television set.

Folks, I haven't seen Barrett look like this since the East Lansing Air Raid of 2014.

And then there was this one, which might have been his best ball of the night, even if it was incomplete.

Full disclosure, he did throw one bad red zone interception, but the good far outshined the bad and he was named the Player of the Game.

I get that Barrett probably just isn't built for the NFL. But at the same time, there's just no way he's worse than whatever warm body the Dallas Cowboys are going to trot out there at quarterback on Sunday.

Maybe Washington can pick him up next week before their game against Detriot. I hear he's good against blue teams from Michigan.

 SIT DOWN, STEPH CURRY. Last month, Chris Holtmann adamantly called Kaleb Wesson "the best shooting big in the NBA Draft."

“Listen, Kaleb Wesson is the best-shooting big in the NBA draft right now,” Holtmann said. “He is the best-shooting big in the NBA draft. A hundred six threes (attempted) last year, he took 14 as a freshman. He took 106 threes last year at 43%. He’s the best-shooting big in the NBA draft, so that is something."

This didn't even remotely catch my attention at the time because Holtmann would hardly be the first coach to give hyperbolic praise to a former player before his financial fate is decided by his draft position.

But as it turns out, Holtmann wasn't just right about his shooting ability. Based on Wesson's combine performance, he might have actually been underselling it.

Draft him as a lottery pick, cowards!!!

 TOUGH GRADER. If you're ever unjustifiably feeling yourself, you can always count on mom to knock you down a few pegs.

I guess it's safe to assume she gave him a solid B for last year. After all, he may have been a unanimous All-American and the most dominant defensive player in the country, but he didn't win the Heisman.

 TURNING HEADS. I don't think we should ever become numb to the fact that Haskell Garrett was back on the football field two months after getting shot in the face.

At the same time, we've gotta acknowledge that he's not just doing well for someone recovering from a facial bullet wound, he's emerging as an elite interior lineman period.

Between Garrett and Tommy Togiai, the inside of that Buckeye defensive line has just been eating folks.

 SONG OF THE DAY. "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" by Zayn Malik and Taylor Swift.

 NOT STICKING TO SPORTS. A Japanese floating spaceport concept could bring space travel to the city... The doctor at the center of a massive painkiller supply chain run by an outlaw biker gang... Someone questioned a driver’s penis size, so he flashed a gun... An infamous Charles Manson murder house is back on the market for $2.2 million... In the early 1900s, the USPS would let you mail your child... Scientists have discovered a bizarre hell planet where it rains rocks and oceans are made of lava...

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