Skull Session: Dabo Swinney Says Clemson “Got Our Butts Kicked,” Joey Bosa Was in a Commercial, and a Walk-On Follows His Father's Footsteps

By Kevin Harrish on February 8, 2021 at 4:59 am
Tony Alford is making some signals in today's skull session.
68 Comments

Today, the Buckeyes officially become a top-five team. But uh... Let's not forget to stay there with a win tonight against Maryland, cool?

Word of the Day: Velocious.

 “WE GOT OUR BUTTS KICKED.” It seems Dabo Swinney is coming to terms with what happened to his football team last month.

When asked about what he learned from the 49-28 flaying, Dabo was fairly blunt.

“I learned that we got our butts kicked," Swinney said on ACC Radio on Sirius XM. “We didn't play well. They played great. We just didn't do the little things to win football games. We probably played well enough to win on offense with a normal defensive game, but they had five straight touchdowns. What I love about our team….those guys never quit. They always compete until the last play….those are tough games. I felt like a basketball coach. You get into the final four, if you don't win it all, it's a very disappointing thing. Especially if you feel like you didn't play well enough in certain areas where you could have.

“The good news is, in the last six years, Alabama has eight wins on that stage and we have six. I think the next closest is three. We've been pretty good on the biggest stage but it's still disappointing….perspective is important. I like how our guys competed. I like how they responded in the locker room and since we got back, the ownership everyone took. It was a bad night but it was a great season...We've been pretty consistent, despite how it ended, but we learn from it, move on, flush it, start over and get ready to charge up the mountain next year.”

We got our ass kicked, but we usually don't!

I know I live in the glassiest of houses with my team getting peeled and eaten by Alabama in the title game, but "perspective" sounds a hell of a lot like accepting failure.

When the Buckeyes lost to Clemson last year, everyone even tangentially related to Ohio State football spent an entire calendar year plotting Dabo Swinney's murder and he's out here telling us what "the good news" is.

That's fine. We'll be waiting to give you another moral victory in the playoffs next year.

 BIG BEAR'S BIG MOMENT. That game was so unenthralling that Joey Bosa's cameo in a Super Bowl commercial was probably the most entertaining part of my viewing experience last night.

It looks like once he's done with the whole NFL experiment, Joey could have a promising career with CampusParc. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

 LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON. Cedric Saunders created his own Buckeye legacy as a four-year starter between 1990 and 1993, and now it's his son's turn.

As my good pal and former roommate Colin Gay details, Cayden Saunders is now following in his father's footsteps and living out his dream of becoming a Buckeye himself – and he's doing it the hard way, as a walk on.

“I was in shock,” Saunders said. “I was excited because I realized everything I had worked for, it was finally being realized. I was finally going to get an opportunity at the next level to continue.” 

Having coached Saunders for the past two years, Ladach knows the Northville senior will be successful based on the teammate, the friend and the athlete he has been for the Mustangs. 

“I’m not going to tell you he’s going to be the starting tailback at Ohio State, I’m not going to tell you he’s never going to see the field,” Ladach said. “Cayden will be a meaningful contributor for that program, and he will be happy doing it. That’s why he’s been such a pleasure to coach.” 

...

Cedric Saunders can’t wait to be a part of Cayden Saunders’, his son's journey at Ohio State. 

“I’ve had my journey,” Cedric Saunders said. “Now it’s his journey.”

Walk-on players don't exactly make headlines or generate #BOOMs when they commit, but the reality is, walking on at Ohio State almost always means turning down scholarship offers to play football elsewhere. And I respect the hell out of that.

 YOUR FAVORITE CFL PLAYER. With the Super Bowl wrapped up and the NFL season officially over, the next professional football game will be played north of the border. And I've already got y'all a favorite team.

For those of you who aren't half Canadian, DeVier Posey is a proper CFL Legend. The dude owns the Grey Cup record for the longest touchdown in the 100+ year history of the game, helping him earn Grey Cup MVP honors back in 2017.

And he's not even the only Buckeye on the roster as Jalin Marshall will also be catching balls from Oregon legend Jeremiah Masoli,

 8 > 11. Hey, remember that one time Ohio State ran back a punt with only eight men on the field?

Serious question: how would Michigan have fared against Ohio State this year if the Buckeyes only trotted out eight players every play? Still a double-digit loss?

 SONG OF THE DAY. "eyelids" by Paris Jackson.

 NOT STICKING TO SPORTS. For 25 years, Jimmy Dennis was a death-row convict, but then one day he wasn’t... An attorney is disbarred for making a porn film in jail... She wrote a memoir about fleeing the Nazis and being raised by wolves, but it was all a lie... A man invited homeless people to live in his front yard... My afternoon with Bob Marley... The gangster, the general and the prime minister of Bangladesh...

68 Comments
View 68 Comments